‘The Young Germany interests me very muchʼ : Rosa Maria Assing and the generational upheaval around 1830 as reflected in her letters and diaries from the Varnhagen collection

Rosa Maria Assing, born in 1783, belonged to a generation of female authors whose prominence and influence began to wane around 1830. As hostess of an important literary salon in Hamburg, she had had contact with numerous authors of the younger generation since the 1820s, including Heinrich Heine, Karl Gutzkow, Theodor Mundt and Ludwig Wihl. At the same time, she remained faithful to her old literary friends, including the representatives of the so‐called Swabian School of Poets, primarily Ludwig Uhland and Justinus Kerner. This article traces Assing's contact with authors associated with the ‘Vormärz’ and ‘Young Germany’, focusing on her friendship with Heinrich Heine. This leads to conclusions concerning not only the relationship between older and younger contributors to the literary scene of the time but also the generational shift towards the ‘Vormärz’ in general.