Lotte in Weimar (1975)

Court Councillor Charlotte Kestner travels to Weimar with her daughter in September 1816 to visit relatives. At the Zum Elephanten inn, she is greeted effusively and fussed over by Mager, a waiter who is passionate about literature, because for years the Court Councillor has been regarded as the original model for Lotte in Goethe’s successful novel The Sorrows of Young Werther. Mager spreads the news of “Lotte’s” arrival around town, and soon dozens of curious onlookers gather outside the inn, preventing Lotte from visiting her relatives. Various people also ask to be allowed to meet her personally. But for now, she rests. As time goes by, she repeatedly recalls episodes involving Goethe and her fiancé, Kestner. In many cases, reality merges with the scenes Goethe described in Werther, which she takes note of with annoyance. Visitors ask to be received. First, a woman artist turns up and paints Lotte rather amateurishly. Lotte is just about to leave when Dr. Riemer, the longtime tutor to Goethe’s son August, announces his arrival. Riemer stays a long time and complains about the ingratitude of the genius Goethe, who, after all these years, has not thought to get him a teaching post at the university. Next comes a visit from Adele Schopenhauer, who seeks Lotte’s advice. She tells her about Ottilie von Pogwisch’s complicated relationship with Goethe’s hard-drinking son August, and her secret love for a soldier whom she and others had rescued, injured, from Napoleon’s troops. August himself visits next, and eventually tells his father the following day that Lotte is in town. Goethe is displeased and feels obliged to invite Lotte to a dinner. Lotte does indeed visit Goethe, who has invited numerous guests to the meal. She feels out of place among them, is unable to understand the humor in Goethe’s remarks, and cannot contribute wittily to the table conversation as everyone else does. Goethe’s farewell to all those present is short and curt. Lotte remains in Weimar for several weeks. During that time, she hears from Goethe just once more: he offers her his seat at the theater and his carriage as well. She accepts. On the way back from the theater, in Goethe’s carriage, she imagines Goethe sitting beside her, making fun, among other things, of her age and her inappropriate outfit, styled after the young Lotte, at the evening dinner. She bursts into tears. When they arrive at the inn, waiter Mager opens the carriage door for her and is overcome with delight at being able to help Goethe’s Wertherian Lotte out of Goethe’s carriage.