In the case set into the wall on your left, you can see four open books in octavo format. Three of these are the printed collections by Günderrode. Only two of these were published during her lifetime: Gedichte und Phantasien [Poems and Fantasies] in 1804 and Poetische Fragmente [Poetic Fragments] in 1805, both of which are facing the permanent exhibition in the museum. Poems and Fantasies contains a mixture of prose and poetry, whilst Poetic Fragments mainly consists of dramas, which were not intended to be performed, but rather were dramas meant to be read. The publication of Günderrode’s final collection, Melete, was halted after her death and the print run was destroyed. But one copy did survive, and you can see it here on the right-hand side of the case, facing the present exhibition space. Its owner, Friedrich Schlosser, wrote a note in the front of the volume detailing how much of Melete was extant: four printed octavo sheets, and he produced a hand-written copy of the fifth sheet based on the printer’s proofs. Melete is open at the point where the fourth print sheet ends and Schlosser’s handwritten copy of the fifth sheet begins.

Schlosser also owned the fourth book in this case, one that contains prints of Günderrode’s works as well as some unknown Günderrode poems. You can find mor information about these poems in the third case of the exhibition. This book was discovered a few weeks ago in Mainz.