The Philosopher and the Seamstress
How Schopenhauer assaulted a woman and ended up in court
In A History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russell states that Arthur Schopenhauer was once so annoyed by an elderly seamstress who was talking to a friend outside the door of his apartment, that “he threw her downstairs, causing her permanent injury.” (p. 786)
Bryan Magee repeats this story in his book on Schopenhauer’s philosophy:
One day he asked a group of three chattering women to remove themselves. Two did, but the third refused. He became threatening. She obstinately refused to budge. He started pushing her, and a tussle ensued which ended with his throwing her down the stairs. (The Philosophy of Schopenhauer, pp. 12-13)
Nothing surprising here, you might think, Schopenhauer was exactly the sort of disreputable fellow who would throw a defenceless woman down the stairs. Well maybe, but in fact he didn’t. In claiming otherwise, Russell and Magee played their part in disseminating and reinforcing a widely believed myth about Schopenhauer. Here’s what really happened between the philosopher and the seamstress.
On Sunday, August 12th, 1821, Schopenhauer returned to his apartment on Niederlagstrasse in Berlin to find its entrée inexplicably occupied by three chattering women. As per usual, he wasn’t in the best frame of mind, with professional and personal troubles weighing heavily. Moreover, just two weeks earlier he had complained to his landlady, widow Becker, about a previous intrusion, and she had promised it wouldn’t happen again. He was also expecting an imminent visit from Caroline Médon, a 19-year-old singer and actress with whom he had begun a relationship–the prospect of this being disrupted served only to increase his irritation.
Unable to contact his landlady, he confronted the three women himself, telling them they weren’t allowed to be in his space. Two of the three left, but the third woman, Caroline Louise Marquet, a 46-year-old seamstress who lived in a small chamber adjacent to Schopenhauer’s rooms, refused, telling Schopenhauer that she was “an honest person”. This did not go down well. Schopenhauer called her an “old wretch” and attempted to remove her physically.
Exactly what happened next is not definitively settled, with Schopenhauer and Marquet offering radically differing accounts.
Schopenhauer’s version–surprise, surprise–suggests restraint in the face of unreasonable intransigence. He tried to persuade her to leave, and it was only after she refused that he grabbed her around her torso and dragged her out of his entrée. He threw her belongings out after her, but she re-entered his apartment under the guise of looking for a missing trinket. Pushing and shoving ensued, and she fell, but he suggested she deliberately threw herself to the ground because she wasn’t getting her own way, and wanted to play the victim.
Marquet’s version paints a much more disturbing picture. She claims that Schopenhauer grabbed her by the neck and dragged her for about 9 feet to the entrée door, before slamming her against a hallway wall and holding her there for a moment. The second time he ejected her, he injured her abdomen and right-side by bending her backwards over a commode with such force she almost lost consciousness. She also alleges that he punched her, kicked her, bloodied her bonnet, and hurled derogatory epithets in her direction.
The day after the incident, Marquet filed a complaint against Schopenhauer, alleging assault. This was the start of a complex and lengthy legal process that ultimately went against Schopenhauer. The details of this process need not concern us here, suffice it to say that Marquet prevailed in both criminal and civil aspects (speaking loosely). On the criminal side of things, Schopenhauer was fined 20 thalers for causing minor injuries to his neighbour. The civil case for damages dragged on for nearly six years, before being settled in Marquet's favour in May 1827, with Schopenhauer compelled to pay most of the court costs, plus maintenance of 60 thalers a year until Marquet died or was able to resume her profession.
Schopenhauer’s biographers do not on the whole fill themselves with glory when discussing this incident. There’s often the suggestion lurking just below the surface that Marquet was on the make, exaggerating her injuries for financial gain. Most do not mention that Marquet’s account of the assault was at least partly corroborated by a witness–one of the other women present that evening. It is also worth noting that her injuries, as specified in her civil case against Schopenhauer, were significant, including right-side paralysis and urinary incontinence.
Frau Marquet died in1842, fifteen years after the final settlement. Schopenhauer’s reaction to her death was predictably graceless. Across her death certificate he scrawled, obit anus abit onus–the old woman has died, the burden has been lifted.
Further Reading
Schopenhauer: a biography, David E. Cartwright, CUP, 2010.
Die Schopenhauer-Marquet-Prozesse und das preußische Recht, Karlheinz Muscheler, Mohr Siebeck, 1996.
If only Freddie Ayer had been there to calm the fearsome Shopenhauer, all would have ended peacefully.
I fully understand Schopenhauer, although I do not justify the violence he used. The only time I genuinely hate someone, to the point of wanting to kill them, is when they make loud noises which disturb my silence. I especially detest electric drills used by neighbors in this apartment building. The impulse to take a kitchen knife and stab them to death enters my mind at times.