I recommend my wife with the testimony that since she took her first step into my house, I have only had joys to thank her for. With these words, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe introduced his wife Christiane to Baroness Elisa von der Recke in 1811. By then, he had already lived with Christiane Vulpius (1765-1816) for 23 years, the mother of his son August, whom he had only married in 1806. Their love and life bond was generally perceived as a scandal, not only because it lacked legitimacy for 18 years; rather, it seemed objectionable that his companion was considered "thoroughly uneducated." This portrait of life and time depicts a woman who was Goethe's lover and companion for 28 years, complementing the poet in an almost ideal way and whom Goethe loved beyond her death.