Heloise – Nuits, Dijon and Vienna

Jassy, 1st January 1841

Jasi, l. Jan. 1841

Family Notes
By his mother for our beloved son Alexander

Familien Notizen
Von seiner Mutter für unseren lieben Sohn Alexander

I want to give you, my dear child, a summary of my whole life. It is, thank God, not eventful; the simpler the life of a woman is, the more she should be grateful for her lot.

Ich will Dir mein teueres Kind in kurzem eine Übersicht meines ganzen Lebens geben, es ist Gott sei gedankt arm an Ereignissen; je einfacher das Leben eines Weibes ist je mehr soll sie ihr Los preisen.

Heloise started this account when her son Alexander was around six months old, in a happy time when she had high hopes for the baby.

I was born in Nuit, a small town in France. The early years of my childhood flowed past, as is the case with nearly all children who are lucky enough to see the light of day in the lap of a safe and comfortable situation.

Ich wurde in Nuit, einem kleinen Städchen in Frankreich geboren. Die ersten Jahre meiner Kindheit flössen dahin, wie es so ziemlich bei allen Kindern ist, die das Glück haben in dem Schoß einer sicheren behaglichen Lage das Licht zu erblicken.

Heloise was born as Anne-Sibille [Johanna] Heloise Höchner in Nuits Saints Georges, in the Côte d'Or region of Burgundy on 9 March 1810.

But soon my horizon would be clouded: scarcely had I reached my fifth year than I had the misfortune to lose my poor, dear mother. Her illness went on for three years, but before she died she brought my sister Leonore into the world. Even though I was still so young, the loss of my mother was very painful to me and some of my childish tears flowed for a loss that I could not yet measure.

Doch bald sollte auch mein Horizont sich trüben, denn kaum hatte ich mein fünftes Jahr erreicht, als ich das Unglück hatte meine arme, liebe Mutter zu verlieren. Ihre Kränklichkeit währte drei Jahre, ehe sie starb gab sie noch meiner Schwester Leonore das Leben. So klein ich auch damals noch war, so war mir doch der Verlust meiner Mutter sehr empfindlich und manche meiner kindischen Tränen flössen einem Verlust den ich damals noch nicht ermessen konnte.

Heloise's mother, Marie Ursula Höchner (née Trachsler, born 7? February 1782), died on 17 February 1815 in Nuit Saint Georges. She was around 33 years old.
Heloise's younger sister was Jeanne Eleonore. She was born on 4 October 1814, around four months before the death of her mother. Eleonore would outlive all the Höchners: she died on 22 June 1876, 61 years old.

Around the same time, my dear father lost almost all his money; however, despite his parlous state, his courage never left him. He had to look after five underage children. Shortly after the death of my mother our father sent us to a boarding school in Dijon. Three years later, when my sister Leonore was able to cope with the rigors of a rather long journey, our good father had us brought to Vienna, where he had obtained employment as soon as he had been able to arrange for our care in Dijon.

Um dieselbe Zeit büßte auch mein teuerer Vater so ziemlich sein ganzes Vermögen ein; dennoch verlor er nicht den Mut so mißlich auch seine Lage war, er mußte sich für fünf unmündig Kinder erhalten. Bald nach dem Tode der Mutter gab uns der Vater nach Dijon in Pension und drei Jahre später als meine Schwester Leonore schon imstande war die Beschwerden einer ziemlich weiten Reise zu ertragen ließ uns unser guter Vater zu sich nach Wien kommen, wo er bald darauf als er uns in Dijon gut versorgt wußte eine Anstellung angenommen hatte.

I have found no record of what led to Conrad Höchners financial collapse. He was a commis négociant, an 'assistant [wine] merchant' or wine merchant's agent, which implies he was working for a larger [Burgundy] wine dealer, perhaps as an employee but probably on commission. In the same period his wife died after some years of ill health, so it was a bad time for him. The years between 1814 and 1815 were a time of great turbulence and uncertainty as the Napoleonic empire collapsed.
The year 1816 is also notorious as the 'Year Without a Summer', when crop failures and widespread food shortages occurred across Europe. Conrad arrived in Vienna in November of that year, so his particular disaster may have occurred some time before.

My brothers, who had been up until then boarded out in Switzerland, were sent to board in Pressburg, a town close to Vienna, whilst we remained in Vienna. Our good Father was not happy on his own, he wanted to see us at least. In order to avoid neglecting our education he placed us in a good boarding house, where we stayed until we had developed a little.

Meine Brüder, bis dahin auch in der Schweiz in Pension, ließ er, um sie näher bei sich zu haben auch kommen, gab sie dann aber in Preßburg(?) einem Städchen nahe bei Wien abermals in Pension, wir blieben in Wien. Der gute Vater konnte nicht recht alleine bleiben, er wollte uns doch manchmal wenigstens sehen. Um unsere Erziehung jedoch nicht zu vernachlässigen gab er uns in eine gute Pension, wo wir blieben bis wir etwas entwickelt waren.

The brothers were Johannes Konrad, born in Rheineck on 27 September 1804 and Ferdinand, born in Rheineck on 13 March 1806.
Preßburg is the present-day Bratislava in Slovakia. It was at that time in the Kingdom of Hungary, part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Their parents married on 25 November 1806, meaning that both brothers were born out of wedlock. The parents moved from Switzerland to Nuits at sometime between 1808 (when Maria Susanna was born) and 1810 (when Heloise was born). Let us say 1809, for the sake of a simple calculation. At this moment Johannes Konrad would have been five and Ferdinand would have been three. The brothers stayed in Switzerland, probably with relatives, then went to a boarding school there. Susanna was still too young to be left in Switzerland, so went with her parents to Nuits. We do not know why the two boys did not go to Nuits with the rest of the family. Nor did they rejoin the family after the move to Vienna around 1816. Heloise tells us that their father relocated them to a boarding school in Pressburg, so they were nearer to Vienna.
The different treatment of the brothers and the sisters can be related to the different roles of middle class men and women at that time: the brothers would be expected to make a career for themselves, so their education had priority; the sisters would be domestic skivvies until they married. After the death of their mother, the Höchner sisters were sent to a boarding school in Dijon, which possibly had no pretensions to academic study for its female pupils.

After five years our father could no longer stand his life alone and brought us to live with him, although we remained under the supervision of a woman; both my brothers joined the army. The elder son, Conrad, died early there, he was 28 years old.

Nach fünf Jahren konnte unser Vater das allein leben nicht mehr vertragen und nahm uns alle fünf zu sich wo wir jedoch noch lange Jahre unter der Aufsicht einer Frau blieben; meine beiden Brüder gingen zum Militär, der eine ältere Conrad (?) fand dort einen zu frühen Tod, er starb mit 28 Jahren.

Johannes Konrad Höchner died on 12 January 1835. At his death he was 30, not 28.

We three sisters lived quietly and comfortably with our good father, our happiness was disturbed only by the sickliness of my older sister Susanna, although the character of this admirable sister was a happy one, for even in suffering she was patient, submissive and even cheerful. For that reason the misfortune was less apparent than it would have been in a less amenable soul.

Wir drei Schwestern lebten ruhig und vergnügt bei unserem zu guten Vater, unser Glück wurde durch nichts als die Kränklichkeit meiner älteren Schwester Lusette (?) gestört, indessen da der Charakter dieser vortrefflichen Schwester zu den Glücklichen gehört, da sie selbst im Leiden immer geduldig, ergeben und sogar heiter ist, so störte dies Unglück weniger als es bei einer weniger fügsamen Seele der Fall gewesen wäre.

'Schwester Lusette' is Heloise's sister Maria Susanna, who was born in Rheineck, Switzerland two years before her, on 21 March 1808.

I was loved endlessly by my father and he was the source of all my happiness. I could not see him unhappy without feeling the deepest pain. However, I did not allow my feelings to show, but rather strove with all my powers to seem cheerful and usually, with a thousand jests, I succeeded in cheering up the loved one. I could and would not hear of separation, I felt so well and happy with my father!

Ich wurde von meinem Vater unendlich geliebt und er machte mein ganzes Glück aus, ich konnte ihn nie traurig sehen ohne den tiefsten Schmerz zu empfinden, dennoch aber ließ ich dies Gefühl nicht aufkommen, sondern trachtete vielmehr nach allen Kräften heiter zu scheinen und meistens gelang es mir durch tausend Scherze den Geliebten zu erheitern, ich konnte und wollte nie von Trennung hören, ich fühlte mich so wohl so glücklich bei meinem Vater!

unendlich geliebt: unendlich 'endless(ly)' was often in use at that time as a hyperbolic form of 'greatly'.