Caroline Medon, real name Caroline Wilhelmine Richter, (3 January 1802
â€" 6. June 1882) was a German opera singer and stage actress who
became known as a lover of Arthur Schopenhauer.Caroline Richter came
to Berlin around 1819 as a chorister at the Staatsoper Unter den
Linden. It was there that she met Arthur Schopenhauer, probably in
1820 or spring 1821, when he lectured in Berlin. The abrupt and fading
relationship between the two lasted about ten years. The "eternal
bachelor" Schopenhauer, however, mistrusted her possible motives,
which together with worries about her health and jealousy of other
lovers of the singer was the reason why an engagement or marriage
never came about.Around 1820, Caroline Richter took the name of the
secret secretary Louis Medon who was the presumed father of her first
child, Johann Wilhelm Adolf Medon, but he died early. She later stated
to be Medon's widow. Her second son, the later royal dancer Gustav
Medon [de] (1823â€"1905) was strongly rejected by Schopenhauer, since
he had been born on 27 March 1823, ten months after Schopenhauer's
departure for Italy, from which he returned to Berlin only in 1825. A
third pregnancy in 1826, for which she even ended her engagement at
the Berlin Opera, led to a miscarriage. When Schopenhauer fled from
cholera in 1831, Medon refused to leave behind his almost
nine-year-old son Carl; This led to the final break in the
relationship, despite her letters in the following years to him, in
which she said she was healthy. She finally entered the stage, now as
a singer at the Königsstädtisches Theater.In 1858, she again made a
written contact with Schopenhauer, who therefore considered her in his
will in February 1859. He left her the sum of 5000 Prussian thalers, a
considerable portion of his fortune, on the condition that his legacy
should not fall explicitly to Carl or other heirs of Medon.
â€" 6. June 1882) was a German opera singer and stage actress who
became known as a lover of Arthur Schopenhauer.Caroline Richter came
to Berlin around 1819 as a chorister at the Staatsoper Unter den
Linden. It was there that she met Arthur Schopenhauer, probably in
1820 or spring 1821, when he lectured in Berlin. The abrupt and fading
relationship between the two lasted about ten years. The "eternal
bachelor" Schopenhauer, however, mistrusted her possible motives,
which together with worries about her health and jealousy of other
lovers of the singer was the reason why an engagement or marriage
never came about.Around 1820, Caroline Richter took the name of the
secret secretary Louis Medon who was the presumed father of her first
child, Johann Wilhelm Adolf Medon, but he died early. She later stated
to be Medon's widow. Her second son, the later royal dancer Gustav
Medon [de] (1823â€"1905) was strongly rejected by Schopenhauer, since
he had been born on 27 March 1823, ten months after Schopenhauer's
departure for Italy, from which he returned to Berlin only in 1825. A
third pregnancy in 1826, for which she even ended her engagement at
the Berlin Opera, led to a miscarriage. When Schopenhauer fled from
cholera in 1831, Medon refused to leave behind his almost
nine-year-old son Carl; This led to the final break in the
relationship, despite her letters in the following years to him, in
which she said she was healthy. She finally entered the stage, now as
a singer at the Königsstädtisches Theater.In 1858, she again made a
written contact with Schopenhauer, who therefore considered her in his
will in February 1859. He left her the sum of 5000 Prussian thalers, a
considerable portion of his fortune, on the condition that his legacy
should not fall explicitly to Carl or other heirs of Medon.
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