20 Facts About Therese Forster

Marie Therese Forster was a German educator, writer, correspondent and editor.

Therese Forster's father was active in the revolutionary Republic of Mainz, and she and her mother fled the city in late 1792.

From 1801 to 1805, Forster lived with Dutch-Swiss writer Isabelle de Charriere and collaborated with her on an epistolary novel.

Therese Forster spent her later years with her niece and died in Albisheim aged 75.

Therese Forster, who was called or as a child, was born in Vilnius as the first child of Georg Forster, who held the Chair of Natural History at Vilnius University, and his wife Therese, the daughter of Gottingen classicist Heyne.

Georg Therese Forster planned to educate his favourite daughter himself, and for that reason decided she should not learn Polish or French until she was seven, so no domestic servants or strangers could have a negative influence on her education.

However, the expedition was shelved while the family was staying in Gottingen, and in 1788 Georg Therese Forster became head librarian in Mainz instead.

Therese Forster was hoping to divorce Georg and marry her lover Ludwig Ferdinand Huber, and it was planned that Therese as her father's favourite would live with him after the divorce.

In July 1801, at the age of 15, Therese Forster was sent to live with the family friend, writer Isabelle de Charriere at her Le Pontet mansion in Colombier, in order to obtain the necessary skills for a future employment as a governess.

The arrangement was mutually beneficial, with Therese Forster receiving education and de Charriere enjoying the presence of a young person.

Therese Forster was later probably involved in the handling of de Charriere's literary estate, and the manuscript of de Charriere's was found among Therese Huber's papers.

Therese Forster lived with her mother for a while in 1806 until she found a position with Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg at his Hofwil school where she worked from November 1807 to July 1809, succeeding Cecile Wildermeth as educator of the von Fellenberg children and of her half-brother Victor Aime Huber.

Therese Forster read with the children and taught them history, geography, and mathematics.

Therese Forster lived apart from her mother from 1801 to 1826, and they continually stayed in contact by writing letters, most of them in French.

In 1826, Therese Forster returned to her mother in Augsburg and lived with her until her mother's 1829 death, helping to educate the children of her sister Claire, who had married Swiss forestry administrator Gottlieb von Greyerz.

Therese Forster was hoping for a well-designed and well-typeset edition selling a large number of affordable copies.

Gervinus helped to mediate the negotiations, and Therese Forster signed the publishing contract in July 1841: essentially, any net profit after the production costs should be split evenly between her and the publisher.

When her niece Adele von Herder married medical doctor Wilhelm Kuby, Therese Forster followed the family to Albisheim and lived with them in Freinsheim for the last few years of her life.

Therese Forster died from pneumonia on 3 June 1862 in the parish house of Albisheim, which incidentally had belonged to the Republic of Mainz in 1793.

Therese Forster was buried in Albisheim on 5 June 1862.