Stein, CHARLOTTE VON, the intimate friend of Goethe (q.v.), was born at Weimar on Christmas Day 1742, and married in 1764 to the Duke's Master of the Horse. Her friendship with Goethe was broken suddenly after the poet's return from Italy (1788). They were, however, in some measure reconciled before Frau von Stein died, at Weimar, on 6th January 1827. Goethe's Letters to her were first published in 1848-51, and again, with additions, in 1883-85; and another final collection was issued by the German Goethe Society in 1886. The lady's letters to Goethe were destroyed by her shortly before her death.
See Höfer, Goethe und C. von Stein (1878), and Düntzer's defence of her, C. von Stein (1874).