Fanny Lewald

Fanny Lewald (24 March 1811 – 5 August 1889) was a German novelist and essayist and a women's rights activist.

Life and career Fanny Lewald was born at Königsberg in East Prussia in 1811 to a bourgeois, Jewish family. Her father, David Markus (later Lewald) was a wine merchant. Lewald's father was unusual in the attention he gave his children, he stood in contrast to his peers in Georgian and Victorian society—who delegated childcare to nannies and their education to "public" schools, tutors, and governesses. Lewald was permitted to convert to Christianity after Leopold's death, however due to her pragmatic nature and her father's rationalistic philosophy she was unable to accept any religion wholeheartedly—especially one that relied on more faith than reason. Her religious beliefs were likely a form of deism.

Published works Fanny Lewald's published works as cited by The Political Woman in Print Clementine (1843) Jenny (1843) Prinz Louis Ferdinand (1849; 2nd ed., 1859) Das Mädchen von Hela (1860) Von Geschlecht zu Geschlecht (8 vols, 1863–1865) Nella (1870) Die Erlöserin (1873) Benvenuto (1875) Stella (1883; English trans. by B. Marshall, 1884)

Of her writings in defense of the emancipation of women, Osterbriefe für die Frauen (1863) and Für und wider die Frauen (1870) are conspicuous. She also wrote sketches of travel. Her autobiography, Meine Lebensgeschichte (6 vols, 1861–1862), affords glimpses of the literary life of her time.