The union  (he would have hated that word, of course) between Adalbert and Maria was short-lived because Maria herself was short-lived: she intentionally overdosed on opiates imported from Bucharest, leaving open a copy of Die Leiden des jungen Werthers next to her bed. This has led scholars to wonder whether there was another woman in Meingast’s life […]

He courted her in the cruelly hot summer of 1867 when he was stationed outside Linz. From a youthful diary entry: “She wanted to be expressive, yes, but her cheeks, surging with ever more pliant flesh as she lumberingly metamorphosed into what every lady of the Bildungsbürgertum must eventually become (immovable), made even wrath (she hated it when I forgot […]