Henriette de Lemos Herz

Henriette de Lemos Herz was a Berlin salonnière famed for her beauty and literary engagement. She was highly educated, especially in ancient and modern languages. Following her marriage in 1779 to physician and philosopher Marcus Herz, the couple started a salon that attracted Prussian nobles, romantic writers, and Jewish reformers. Along with Dorothea Schlegel, Wilhelm and Alexander von Humboldt, and others, she founded a Tugendbund (Society of Virtue) to foster friendship and learning. She translated two English travel books into German. After her husband’s death in 1803, the salon declined. Herz then lived in reduced circumstances, working as a governess and teacher, and converted to Protestantism. Although she began her memoir in the 1820s, it was not published until 1850.