Apostel des Friedens

Auch wenn die von 1741-1758 andauernde Korrespondenz mit 46 überlieferten Briefen nicht besonders umfangreich erscheint, so bietet sie dennoch generelle Erkenntnisse über die prinzipielle Abhängigkeit eines solchen Briefaustausches von gemeinsamen Interessen der Briefpartner. Das vorherrschende gemeinsame Interesse zumindest während der letzten Periode ihrer Korrespondenz von 1756-1758 war das Erreichen eines Friedens zwischen Preußen und Frankreich im Siebenjährigen Krieg.

'Apostles of Peace. The Correspondence between Wilhelmine of Bayreuth and Voltaire': Even if the 46 letters written by Wilhelmine of Bayreuth and Voltaire between 1741 and 1758 may not seem an abundant correspondence it offers nonetheless valuable insights into the exchange of letters as a common interest of the partners. Indeed the dominant common interest during the last period of this correspondence (1756 to 1758) was to reach peace between Prussia and France in the Seven Years' War.

Günter Berger is professor emeritus and author. After his PhD in Classical Philology (1971) at his Alma Mater the University of Cologne and his habilitation in Romance literary studies at the University of Bielefeld (1979), he held a full professorship of French and Italian literary studies at the University of Bayreuth from 1986 until 2012. His main areas of research, amongst others, include the French Enlightenment and the French-German cultural transfer. His most relevant publications in this field regard the French Encyclopedia (2013), the correspondence of Countess Caroline of Hessen-Darmstadt with Frederick II, King of Prussia, and Amalia of Prussia (2015), biographies of Duchess Louise Dorothea of Saxony-Gotha (2017, together with Bärbel Raschke) and Margravine Wilhelmine of Bayreuth (2018).