[3] Memories lingered: towards the end of his life, conversing with his young friend Johann Peter Eckermann, Goethe recalled that he had loved Lili profoundly and had never been so close to happiness as he was with her.

Anna Elisabeth "Lili" Schönemann was born in Offenbach, at that time a prosperous town separated by the river from Frankfurt am Main.

However, he died in 1763 leaving his wife, born Susanna Elisabet d’Orville, to bring up the children, which she accomplished while also preserving the Schönemann bank.

It was at this time that Goethe was introduced by a musical friend - possibly Johann André - to Mrs. Schönemann's Salon where he attended a concert and immediately, it is recorded, fell for the daughter of the house.

Subsequently, it appears that the visits he made to Lili were generally to the Schönemann family home, across the river in Offenbach, and it is here, on the front of the house, that a plaque commemorates their amorous affair during the summer of 1775.

[3] The two became engaged over or shortly after Easter in 1775[6][3] following Goethe's return from a two-week break in Switzerland, which he had undertaken in order to "test his feelings".

[5] Goethe was a writer whose life experiences provided him with material, and his own thoughts and regrets over the affair are repeatedly addressed in his published output.

He had only recently inherited the family steel plant, and when he went to investigate it he discovered that its value - and accordingly his own value as a potential husband - had been very greatly over-stated.

Political instability had been on the rise as the outbreak of revolution in Paris had radiated out across various parts of France, and a few months later he was deposed from the office.

The family appear to have retreated to the countryside, living quietly on the little farm they owned at Postroff, a mountain village a day's ride to the north-west of Strasbourg.

However, as the savage tide of violence spread to the countryside, fearing arrest, on 6 July 1794 Bernhard managed to escape via Saarbrücken.

They had lost their position of wealth and privilege, but despite the sudden poverty Lili was apparently able to embark on the life of a penniless housewife while remaining cheerful to be alive.

Bernhard had grown up in a tradition of public service and as an admirer of Necker: at one stage he was given a job as Finance Minister in Baden, though the appointment proved to be of short duration.

According to one source it was in 1800 that their eldest daughter, also (confusingly) called Lili, married: von Türckheim was able to acquire the Krautergersheim estate on the north side of Strasbourg which is where he and his wife, from now on, appear to have lived.

Goethe was by this time in a position of some political power and influence at the Court of Weimar, and Lili's principal purpose in contacting her former lover appears to have been to request (without success) his protection for a young acquaintance.

October 1806 it is also apparent that she mentioned to him her younger son William, who at the time was participating as a Hussar Lieutenant in Napoleon's campaigns in Germany, Spain and Russia.