ABSTRACT
This excerpt from a letter written by the newly-married Göttingen professor’s wife Wilhelmine Heyne-Heeren in 1796 is indicative of the separation of female and male living space, which would prove typical of changes in domestic arrangements in the eighteenth century.2 Wilhelmine Heyne-Heeren may have been influenced by Leonhard Christoph Sturm, whose 1721 Vollständige Anweisung alle Arten von Bürgerlichen Wohn-Häusern wohl anzugeben (Complete Instruction for the Suitable Arrangement of all Manner of Middle-class Dwelling-Houses) had already recommended:
that in middle-class houses, especially the more distinguished ones, the rooms be arranged in such a way that the man can reach the woman’s room from his own, without having to walk through the hallway, where anyone can walk freely to and fro … . It is not, however, strictly necessary that the shared bedchamber lie between the two rooms, still less so that it be in the centre of the building, especially as this is often left by preference to the reception rooms. The best arrangement is when both the husband’s and the wife’s apartments have their own bedchamber, with a drawing room between the two.3
