The market in Peine

From the autumn of 1798 to the end of 1800, Bilderdijk's beloved Katharina Wilhelmina Schweickhardt stayed with their newborn son Julius in the northern German city of Hildesheim. Bilderdijk himself lived in Braunschweig, about forty kilometers from Hildesheim. Katharina Wilhelmina spent the year 1801 in the small town of Peine. This town was a lot closer to Braunschweig, about twenty kilometers away. This drawing, made by Bilderdijk, depicts the market in Peine, probably seen from Katharina Wilhelmina's home. This makes it the oldest known image of the town.

It was hard for the two lovers to live separately from each other. Bilderdijk often had too little money to rent a horse or carriage to visit his girlfriend. It was still possible to walk to Peine, but it could be a rough journey, especially in winter. Bilderdijk stumbled back and forth through the mud and snow at night and at low tide. But it was worth a lot to him: ‘I love Peine, for I spent the happiest days of my life there,’ he wrote to his lover in December 1801. A few months later, he and Catharina Rebecca Woesthoven were divorced and Bilderdijk and Katharina Wilhelmina moved in together.