Background
Elisa von der Recke was born in Schönberg, Skaistkalne parish, Courland, the daughter of Graf (later Reichsgraf) Johann Friedrich von Medem and his wife, Louise Dorothea von Korff.
Elisa von der Recke was born in Schönberg, Skaistkalne parish, Courland, the daughter of Graf (later Reichsgraf) Johann Friedrich von Medem and his wife, Louise Dorothea von Korff.
Her younger half-sister was Dorothea von Medem, for whom she carried out diplomatic work. Their daughter, Frederika von der Recke, died in 1777. In 1787 her first book, Nachricht von des berüchtigten Cagliostro Aufenthalt in Mitau im Jahre 1779 und dessen magischen Operationen, made a great impact right across Europe, with Catherine the Great even granting Elisa lands in Russia in recognition of the work (making Elisa financially independent).
She got to know Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder and other European literary figures, and intensified their relationships through prolific correspondence.
Their meetings were religio-sentimentalist in tone, with the singing of chorales by Johann Gottlieb Naumann. Elisa von der Recke looked after thirteen foster daughters.
She died in Dresden and is buried at the Inneren Neustädter Friedhof in Dresden.