Auguste Schmidt
c 1880
Auguste Schmidt,full name,Friederike Wilhelmine Auguste Schmidt,(3 August 1833,Breslau,thenGermanynowPoland– 10 June 1902,Leipzig,Germany) was a pioneering Germanfeminist,educator, journalist and women's rights activist.
Life
[edit]She was the daughter ofPrussianarmy artillery lieutenantFriedrich Schmidtand his wife Emilie (born Schöps). In 1842 the family moved fromBreslautoPoznańwhere from 1848 -1850 she studied inLuisenschuleto be a teacher.[1]
Between 1850 and 1855, she worked as a private teacher for aPolishfamily, and later at a private school in UpperRybnik.[1]From 1855 to 1860, she was teacher at the Maria Magdalena municipal school inWroclaw.[1]In 1861 she moved to Leipzig to become the Director of the Leipzig "Latzelschen höheren Privattöchterschule",a girls' private school.[1]
From 1862 she was teacher of literature and aesthetics at one ofOttilie von Steyber's (1804–1870)Mädchenbildungsinstitut(Girls Educational Institutes). One of her students wasClara Zetkin.[1]In 1864 she started a friendship withLouise Otto-Peters.[1]
In 1866, she joined with Louise Otto-Peters in founding theAllgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein(ADF) (General Union of German Women) in Leipzig to work for better women's access to higher education and the professions as well as better protective legislation for working women. Schmidt and Otto-Peters served jointly as president and edited the house organ,Neue Bahnen( "New Paths" ).
In 1869 she founded the association of German teachers and educators and in 1890, together withHelene Lange,she founded the "Allgemeinen Deutschen Lehrerinnen-Vereins"(ADLV) (General German Teachers Association).[2]
In 1894, she became the first president of theBund Deutscher Frauenvereine(BDF), (League of German Women's Associations), which brought together thirty-four women's civil rights movement groups under a controlling body. This expanded to 65 in the first year.[3]
She published two novels in 1868,Tausendschön(Daisies) andVeilchen (Violets),a short story,Aus schwerer Zeit(From Hard Times), came out in 1895.
She retired in 1900 and died in 1902.
In 2003 a 14m long plaque was attached to the house in which she lived between 1863 and 1864 at Lortzingstraße 5, Leipzig, to commemorate her life.[2]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- "Auguste Schmidt".Brief biography.University of Leipzig.Retrieved2008-01-15.(German)
- "Auguste Schmidt".LeMo- Timeline of her life at the Live Online Virtual Museum.Deutsches Historiches Museum.Archivedfrom the original on 14 January 2008.Retrieved2008-01-15.(In German) (Translation) Accessed January 2008
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
