Her parents were the playwright, Privy Councilor (``Geheimrat'') and archivist Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter and Louise Gotter (n*e Stiege). Her mother was a close friend of Caroline Schlegel (n*e Michaelis), while her father had been close friends with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe since his youth. Pauline Gotter had two sisters and knew Goethe and Caroline Schlegel from childhood on. In _her_ youth she was friends with Sylvie von Ziegesar and the painter Louise Seidler. <sep>, Pronoun: her <sep>, A: Pauline Gotter <sep>, B: Caroline Schlegel