The portrait of an extraordinary woman: Eva Lessing. When the silk manufacturer Engelbert König set off on a journey in 1769, he asked his friend Gotthold Ephraim Lessing to take care of his wife and four children should anything happen to him. Shortly thereafter, he died in Venice. Lessing kept his promise, and from his friendship with Eva König, love quickly blossomed. However, it would be years before they married: Eva moved to Vienna to manage the König factories. It wasn't until October 1776 that the two wed. Their happiness was short-lived: in January 1778, Eva died of childbirth fever. This was a tragedy from which Lessing never recovered. Through letters, documents, and thorough research, Petra Oelker recounts one of the greatest love stories in German literary history.