Frieda von Richthofen (August 11, 1879 - August 11, 1956), a distant relative of the "Red Baron" Manfred von Richthofen, became famous as the wife of the British novelist D. H. Lawrence.

Life

Emma Maria Frieda Johanna Freiin (Baroness) von Richthofen (also known as Frieda Weekley or Frieda Lawrence) was born in Metz. Her father was Baron Friedrich Ernst Emil Ludwig von Richthofen (1844-1915), an engineer in the German army, and Anna Elise Lydia Marquier (1852-1930).

In 1899, she married the British professor of modern languages Ernest Weekley with whom she had three children, Charles Montague (born 1900), Elsa Agnès (born 1902) and Barbara Joy (born 1904). During her marriage with Weekley, she started to translate pieces of German literature, namely fairy tales, into English.

In 1912, she met D. H. Lawrence, then a student of her husband. She soon fell in love and eloped with him to France, leaving her children behind. After she divorced Weekley, Frieda married Lawrence in 1914. Life with Lawrence was not easy, they were constantly struggling with limited resources and his frail health. They moved from one place to another, eventually settling down in Taos, New Mexico. After Lawrence died in Vence (France) in 1930, she returned to Taos.

Mainly through her elder sister Else von Richthofen, Frieda became acquainted to intellectuals and authors, including the sociologists and economists Max Weber and Alfred Weber, the psychanalyst Otto Gross, the writer Fanny von Reventlow and others.

Frieda Lawrence died on her 77th birthday in Taos.

Further reading

• Frieda Lawrence: "Not I, but the Wind...", Rydal/Viking, 1934.
• Janet Byrne: A Genius for Living - A Biography of Frieda Lawrence, Bloomsbury, 1995.

External link

• Biographical sketch (in French) (http://home.nordnet.fr/~jgrosse/int/personnes/richthofen.htm)