Charlotte Grimm
Charlotte Amalie "Lotte" Hassenpflug, née Grimm, was the sister of the Brothers Grimm and their younger brother Ludwig.
Biography
Charlotte Amalie Grimm, nicknamed Lotte, was the eighth of nine children born to Philipp and Dorothea Grimm; she was born 10 March 1793 in Steinau an der Straße. She was their only daughter and shared a close bond with her brothers Jacob and Wilhelm from a young age.She was fifteen years old when her mother died in 1808, making her the only remaining female family member. She had to run the household for the family until her marriage. The sudden responsibilities this entailed initially overwhelmed her, and during the immediate period after her mother's death, the siblings only managed to maintain family unity to a very limited extent. She would later receive written advice and financial support for running the household from her aunt, Henriette Philippine Zimmer, from Gotha.
She then became a skilled hostess, such as when Friedrich Carl von Savigny visited Kassel in 1815 and when Annette von Droste-Hülshoff visited Kassel in 1818.
Charlotte, Jacob, Wilhelm and Ludwig Emil Grimm formed a harmonious household from then on, which only ended when Charlotte left the shared household on the occasion of her marriage to Ludwig Hassenpflug in the summer of 1822. Only the departure of their sister apparently prompted Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm to consider their own marriage.
Death
After her sixth child Dorothea was born on 23 May 1833, Charlotte Hassenpflug quickly became unwell due to complications arising from childbirth and had to be cared for by her brother Wilhelm. She never recovered and died on 15 June 1833 aged 40.Personal life
On 2 July 1822, she married Ludwig Hassenpflug. They had six children together:- Karl, sculptor, died childless
- Agnes
- Bertha
- Friedrich. Higher Regional Court Councillor in Breslau, married to Anna Volmar, daughter of a ministerial colleague of his father
- Ludwig Werner, officer in the Austrian Navy, married, childless
- Dorothea