Eva König

Eva Catharina Lessing (22 March 1736 – 10 January 1778) was a German Women letter writer. She was born Eva Catharina Hahn on March 22, 1736, in the southern German city of Heidelberg. In 1756 she married the Hamburg businessman Engelbert König. In 1767 she became friends with the playwright Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, godfather to her son Fritz. After her husband König died in 1768, Lessing looked after her. In 1771 they became engaged, though circumstances did not favor a timely marriage. In fact, due to matters related to König's estate, Eva was obliged to make several visits to Vienna over a lengthy period. She also had to accompany the young Prince Leopold of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, a future Prussian general, to Italy in 1775. As a result, the couple's mode of contact during their engagement was through written correspondence, most of which has survived. In 1776 they were finally married in Jork near Hamburg. Eva Lessing then moved to Wolfenbüttel with her husband. She died there, aged 41, in 1778, of neonatal sepsis soon after the birth of their son Traugott.

Eva König