Arnim, Bettina von

Bettina von Arnim was born in Frankfurt on 4 April 1785. Clemens Brentano's sister met Goethe's mother in 1806 and Goethe in Weimar in 1807. She married Achim von Arnim in 1811. The marriage produced seven children. A friend and correspondence partner of Karoline von Günderrode since 1804, Bettina's real activity as a writer began after her husband's death in 1831, when she became the editor of his collected works. At the same time, she became involved in social issues in poor neighbourhoods, caring for the needy and fighting for the abolition of the death penalty and political equality for women. In 1854, she suffered a stroke from which she never recovered. On 20 January 1859, she finally died of the late effects and was buried alongside her husband in the Wiepersdorf church cemetery.