{{Short description|Model of Goethe's "Lotte"}} {{Use British English|date=July 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}} {{Expand German|topic=bio}} {{Infobox person | name = Charlotte Buff | image = CharlotteKestnerGebBuff1753-1828VonJohHchSchroeder.jpg | caption = Charlotte Buff-Kestner by<br /> {{ill|Johann Heinrich Schröder (artist)|de|Johann Heinrich Schröder (Maler)|lt=Johann Heinrich Schröder}} | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1753|1|11}} | birth_place = Wetzlar | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1828|1|16|1753|1|11}} | death_place = Hanover }} '''Charlotte Sophie Henriette Kestner''' ({{née}} Buff, 11 January 1753, Wetzlar – 16 January 1828, Hanover) was a youthful acquaintance of the poet Goethe, who fell in love with her.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charlotte Buff |url=https://www.wetzlar.de/microsite/Staedtische_Museen/museen/unsere-museen/lottehaus/charlotte-buff.php |access-date=2025-06-17 |website=www.wetzlar.de |language=de}}</ref> She rejected him and instead married Johann Christian Kestner (1741–1800), vice-archivist and privy councillor to the Hanoverian court. The character of Charlotte, in Goethe's novel ''The Sorrows of Young Werther'', is partly based on her.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fembio.org/english/biography.php/woman/biography/charlotte-buff-kestner/|title=Charlotte Buff-Kestner|work=FemBio|accessdate=1 February 2010}}</ref><ref name="Mandelkow">Mandelkow, Karl Robert (1962). ''Goethes Briefe''. Vol. 1: ''Briefe der Jahre 1764-1786''. Christian Wegner Verlag. pp. 590–592</ref> Their relationship was characterized by heartiness and lack of constraint.{{clarify|date=December 2017}} Goethe bought the wedding rings for her and Kestner, in Frankfurt am Main.<ref name="Mandelkow" /> Charlotte and Kestner had four daughters and eight sons, among them August Kestner. Thomas Mann wrote a novel, published in 1939, "Lotte in Weimar", about a trip she made to Weimar in 1816 when she was 62 and a widow to see her family and also to meet Goethe. ==Film portrayal== In the 2010 German film ''Young Goethe in Love'', the character of Charlotte Buff is portrayed by Miriam Stein.
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== {{Commonscat inline|Charlotte Buff}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Buff, Charlotte}} Category:1753 births Category:1828 deaths Category:People from Wetzlar Category:Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Category:The Sorrows of Young Werther Category:18th-century German people