Die geliebten Schwestern (2014)

Charlotte von Lengefeld is to be introduced to high society in Weimar by her godmother, Charlotte von Stein. There she meets Friedrich Schiller, who comes to visit his family’s home in Rudolstadt in the summer of 1788. After her husband’s death, her mother, Louise von Lengefeld, fell into financial difficulties, which led her daughter Caroline to enter into a marriage of convenience with Friedrich Freiherr von Beulwitz. The two sisters spend a carefree time with Schiller. They had once sworn at the Rhine Falls near Schaffhausen to share everything with each other, and Schiller is to be no exception. Charlotte returns to Weimar alone, while her sister is supposed to persuade their mother to agree to a marriage with Schiller despite his lack of means; after some delay, she succeeds. With Charlotte’s help in carrying out an intrigue, Schiller breaks off his relationship with the married Charlotte von Kalb. After marrying Charlotte in 1790, he has a son with her. His sister-in-law Caroline is also in Jena, where Schiller now holds a professorship. But the planned “marriage of three” cannot take place because Caroline’s husband initially refuses to consent to a divorce. Despite the Duke of Württemberg’s ban, Schiller travels to Tübingen in 1793 to attend the production of his journal Die Horen at the publisher Cotta’s. There he meets Caroline again, and she is making a living by accepting payment for her services from an older man. The three of them now live with Schiller’s mother in Ludwigsburg. Caroline confesses that she is pregnant. To avoid jeopardizing her divorce, she travels with Wilhelm von Wolzogen to Schaffhausen, where Schiller has arranged for the child to have a foster father. After giving birth, Caroline does not reply to Schiller’s letters and eventually informs him that she will stay with Wolzogen. Years later, Louise, supposedly close to death, travels to Weimar to reconcile her now-estranged daughters. Even so, a clash breaks out between the sisters at the family gathering, during which Schiller suffers a severe attack of illness. Wolzogen reflects that apparently it is the fate of the three von Lengefeld women to outlive their husbands.