She married Johann Caspar Goethe, who was 21 years older than her,[1][2] on 20 August 1748, after which she moved into his house on Großer Hirschgraben.

[11]In 1774, Johann Wolfgang published The Sorrows of Young Werther, which brought him great fame, and thus many guests came to visit the Goethe household.

[13] Many of these guests became correspondents of Catharina Elisabeth,[13] such as Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel and Bettina von Arnim.

She is the heroine of Bettina von Arnim's Dies Buch gehört dem König (1843), and is one of the central figures of Karl Gutzkow 's play Der Königsleutnant.

[citation needed] To celebrate the 100th anniversary of her death, a marble statue was erected of Catharina Elisabeth in the Palmengarten, showing her playing with the young Johann Wolfgang.