Herz, HENRIETTE

Herz, HENRIETTE, a lady of great beauty, high intelligence, and wide culture, and a Jewess, who, in the beginning of the 19th century, made her home at Berlin a gathering-place for the intellectual life of the city. Amongst those who either met in her salon or were in correspondence with her were the Humboldts, Fr. Schlegel, Gentz, Varnhagen von Ense, Rahel, Schleiermacher, and Börne. She was born at Berlin, on 5th September 1764, the daughter of a Jewish doctor of Portuguese origin, Benjamin de Lemos, and was married in 1779 to another doctor, Markus Herz. In 1817 she went over to Protestantism. She died on 22d October 1847. See her Life by Fürst (2d ed. 1858), and her correspondence with Börne (1861).