Kinkel’s private life

Kinkel’s education was rather unplanned and was the result of her own eagerness to learn. Born into a Catholic middle-class family in 1810, Johanna Kinkel, traditionally, would have received a basic artistic education in needlework and music, and would have been trained primarily in household tasks including the care of a hard-working husband and numerous children. In contrast to other middle-class girls of her time, however, Kinkel was able to satisfy her hunger for knowledge in her teacher father’s library, which comprised books on music, history, literature, theology, and philosophy. Growing up, Kinkel faced the peculiarities of convention when, in order to satisfy her mother’s expectations, she took up an apprenticeship as a chef while still playing the piano as a hobby and even teaching others at the Mockels’ (Kinkel’s) house. In 1832, Kinkel married Johann Paul Mathieux, an educated Catholic bookseller and music dealer. The marriage emerged as a psychological nightmare for Kinkel, as Mathieux expected his wife to give up her musical interests in favour of a frugal Catholic lifestyle. Kinkel became unwell, which prompted her parents to take her back to their house. Shortly after, Kinkel decided to fight for a divorce, which at the time was subject to both the man’s and woman’s agreement, and she resumed her musical activities with the Bonn musical circle. When Mathieux still had not agreed to a divorce by 1836, Johanna travelled to Frankfurt am Main where she met Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847) and Georg Brentano (1775–1851). Equipped with references from both, she set out for Berlin. Kinkel’s visit to Berlin offered various opportunities. As Berlin was primarily a Protestant centre, Kinkel’s social environment was more open-minded than in Catholic Bonn; she also improved her artistic education, as she was introduced to a great number of musical and literary luminaries of Berlin’s rich cultural life.

In Berlin, Kinkel first lived with Bettina von Arnim (1785–1859), who introduced her to Friedrich Carl von Savigny (1779–1861). There she played the piano at regular gatherings, and a rearranged version of Kinkel’s Vogelkantate, her op. 1 first conceived for the Bonn musical circle in 1829, was performed on the occasion of Savigny’s birthday in 1837.