Augustine De Rothmaler

Augustine De Rothmaler (November 12, 1859 – November 28, 1942) was a Belgian pedagogue and feminist. After attending the , she taught at Cours d'éducation B for thirty years before becoming the institution's director, assuring that school classes paid attention to social aspects, feminism, and pacifism. Her interests in literature included translating works by German and Danish writers into French.

Early life and education Augustine De Rothmaler was born in Brussels, Belgium on November 12, 1859. She was the daughter of Gustave De Rothmaler, head of the Population Department of Brussels. She attended the Cours d'éducation, the girls' school founded and run by Isabelle Gatti de Gamond. These Cours d'éducation were a breeding ground for future feminists, nicknamed the "Gatticiennes", who formed the network of the feminist movement after earning their diploma. She graduated from higher education in 1876.

She taught for three months and then went to Romanshorn, Switzerland, where she completed courses at the Zollinkofer Institute in a year and obtained an additional diploma. Her stay in Romanshorn also enabled De Rothmaler to improve her knowledge of German and to develop an interest in Germanic languages in general. Later, she also studied Danish.

Career Education At the beginning of 1878, she returned to Brussels and taught literature, French, and English at the Cours d'éducation B in rue du Marais (which became the Henriette Dachsbeck High School). She was a very popular teacher with her students. In 1897, De Rothmaler was appointed "regent first class" there. Ten years later, in 1907, she declined a proposal to join the new middle school in Brussels. On September 1, 1911, De Rothmaler succeeded Aline Héris as Director of Cours d'éducation B, where she had been teaching for thirty years. De Rothmaler became an honorary member of the (Education League) and remained active at the . and wrote several publications on the iconography of the writer and feminist George Sand, who was De Rothmaler's model. In 1894, Théo Van Rysselberghe made a portrait of Augustine De Rothmaler, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

After retiring, De Rothmaler joined the van Rysselberghe couple in Le Lavandou, France where they had been living since 1910. She died there on November 28, 1942, at the age of 83, and is buried in the van Rysselberghe family vault.

Selected works "Les prétendus portraits de George Sand", in Mercure de France (1924), p. 688-697 "Les portraits de George Sand, in Gazette des Beaux-Arts (1926), p. 70-78