In her latest book Carola Stern is portraying one of the most important women of the 18th century – Johanna Schopenhauer.
An ambitious and inquiring woman, she originally wanted to pursue a career as painter but it was socially not accepted at that time. At age eighteen she married the significantly older Heinrich F. Schopenhauer, a successful businessman, art expert, and Republican. Due to his influence Johanna Schopenhauer became a devotee of the French Revolution and traveled through Europe many times. After her husband’s suicide she started a new and better life. In Weimar she met Goethe and opened the soon famous salon. By the age of forty she published her first book. Within a short time she was known as one of the first professional female writers who published novels, travel books, and art-historical works. Unlike Adele, her daughter who was always the first to read the newest books, her brother Arthur, the famous philosopher, soon became estranged from his mother.
