Salon of Rahel Varnhagen (Berlin)

Rahel Varnhagen, born Levin, was a German-Jüdish writer and salonnière. She was committed to Jüdian emancipation and to the emancipation of women. In Berlin in the years 1790-1806 she ran a salon under the name „Salon of Rahel Levin“. Later, after her marriage she called it „Salon of Rahel Varnhagen“. The salon evenings took place in her apartment in Berlin's Maurerstra;e, where she invited poets, naturalists, politicians, socialites, and aristocrats from the elite of society to join her. Among Rahel Varnhagen's famous guests were the poet Ludwig Tieck, the scientist Alexander von Humboldt, and the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. The salons, however, were not typically engaged primarily in politics, but in the artistic or literary field.