19th-century German women writers

Henriette_Davidis

Johanna Friederika Henriette Katharina Davidis (1 March 1801 in Wengern – 3 April 1876 in Dortmund) arguably is Germany's most famous cookbook author. Although many similar cookbooks had been published by then, amongst others Sophie Wilhelmine Scheibler's Allgemeines deutsches Kochbuch für bürgerliche Haushaltungen in several editions, Davidis' Praktisches Kochbuch (Practical Cookbook) became the reference cookbook of the late 19th and early 20th century, a standard in German households. The large number of second-hand copies still available, frequently heavily annotated, are proof that the books were in much use. In many families Praktisches Kochbuch was handed down through the generations.
However the cookbook was only one facet of the extensive educational program Davidis devised for young women. Starting with the Puppenköchin (Dolls' Cook) for very young girls on to young unmarried women, and finally housewives responsible for their own household and servants, Davidis' books offered advice and information. This was rooted in the conviction that being a housewife was a demanding activity in its own right for which young women of the middle class emerging at the time were frequently ill-prepared.
While authoring her books Davidis first worked as a home economist, teacher, and governess, but later on concentrated exclusively on writing. Although her books, in particular Praktisches Kochbuch which had reached its 21st edition when she died, were hugely successful even during her lifetime, she had to live very modestly and only at the age of 74 years was able to afford her own flat. Occasionally sources claim "Henriette Davidis" to be the pseudonym used by a certain Helena Clemen. However Helena Clemen was one of Davidis' readers who had sent in suggestions which the author used in her writings.Today the Henriette-Davidis-Museum in Wetter-Wengern keeps her memory alive with cookbook exhibitions and a monograph series. Parts of a stone-built stove from the Wengern vicary together with a memorial plaque were bricked in the local railway bridge abutments, completed in 1934 and for which the vicary had to be demolished.
Due to her huge influence on German food culture and household management she is generally considered to be the German equivalent to Mrs Beeton. The first edition of her classic cookbook Praktisches Kochbuch für die gewöhnliche und feinere Küche was published in 1844 and there were at least seventy-six editions published by 1963.

Elisabeth_von_Heyking

Elisabeth von Heyking (10 December 1861 – 4 January 1925) was a German novelist, travel writer and diarist. She is known for her best-selling 1903 novel Briefe, die ihn nicht erreichten (Letters Which Never Reached Him) and her travel diaries, published posthumously in 1926.

Louise_Otto-Peters

Louise Otto-Peters (26 March 1819, Meissen – 13 March 1895, Leipzig) was a German suffragist and women's rights movement activist who wrote novels, poetry, essays, and libretti. She wrote for Der Wandelstern [The Wandering Star] and Sächsische Vaterlandsblätter [Saxon Fatherland Pages], and founded Frauen-Zeitung and Neue Bahnen specifically for women.: 181  She is best known as the founder in 1865 of the General German Women's Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein).: 1 

Helmina_von_Chézy

Helmina von Chézy (26 January 1783 – 28 January 1856), née Wilhelmine Christiane von Klencke, was a German journalist, poet and playwright. She is known for writing the libretto for Carl Maria von Weber's opera Euryanthe (1823) and the play Rosamunde, for which Franz Schubert composed incidental music.

Luise_Büchner

Elisabeth Emma Louise "Luise" Büchner (12 June 1821, Darmstadt – 28 November 1877) was a German women's rights activist and writer of essays, novels, travelogues and poetry.
She published Die Frauen und ihr Beruf (Woman and Their Vocation) anonymously in 1855, in which she campaigned for equality of education for girls, with the opportunity for productive vocations as adult women, but also to better prepare young women for motherhood. Büchner rejected the unproductive pastimes increasingly seen as acceptable for middle-class women whose leisure time was increasing due to advances in machinery. During this period, economic factors led to fewer marriages and so an increase in single women. Die Frauen was reviewed extensively in German newspapers and journals, and was sold even in England, France and Russia. Three more editions were published through 1872.
Büchner became the director of the Alice Association for Women's Education and Employment, which had been founded by Grand Duchess Alice of Hesse, and sponsored training in nursing and trades. Through this organisation Büchner was important in the development of nursing as a paid vocation without denominational attachments, rather than a voluntary activity associated with religious orders.
Among her siblings, five of whom survived infancy, were Georg, Ludwig, Wilhelm, and Alexander. During World War II, in September 1944, the house in which the Büchner family had long lived was bombed. With it, family records were lost, and among the deaths was her nephew Georg, the living family member who had been closest to Luise. These losses have limited scholarship on Büchner.

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