Marianne Ehrmann

Marianne Ehrmann (née: Marianne Brentano-Corti, also Marianne Ehrmann-Brentano and Madame Sternheim; 25 November 1755 – 14 August 1795) was one of the first women novelists, publicists and journalists in the German-speaking countries.

Life and career

Early life

Born in Rapperswil in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Marianne was the daughter of Sebastiana Antonia Corti (Curti) and the merchant Franz Xaver Brentano. She had nine siblings; her mother died on 22 April 1770. Around 1772/73 Franz Xaver Brentano moved with his children to Wurzach in southern Germany. In 1775 her father died, as did her only surviving sister a little later. Marianne Brentano moved to her uncle Dominic von Brentano, who was a priest and chaplain at the Imperial Abbey of Kempten. He supported the young woman in the following years, when Marianne Brentano worked as a governess in aristocratic houses. were published anonymously; the latter caused quite a stir. During a stay of the troupe in Strasbourg, the author met the junior postdoctoral lawyer Theophil Friedrich Ehrmann. In 1785, facing the resistance of his parents, they married in secret; her seven years younger husband continued to live with his parents and they met only in the evening until 1786, when reconciliation with Theophil Ehrmann's parents occurred. Also in 1786, under the pseudonym Maria Anna Antonia Sternheim, Marianne Ehrmann published the play Leichtsinn und gutes Herz oder die Folgen der Erziehung, (Frivolity and a Good Heart, or The Consequences of Education). Duke Charles of Württemberg and his wife Franziska promised Theophil Friedrich Ehrmann a position as professor in the Charles School, but in 1788, when the duke broke his word, the Ehrmanns moved to Stuttgart. Marianne Ehrmann became the co-editor of the journal Der Beobachter (Observer) that was published by her husband. After the literary success, in 1784, of the essay Philosophie eines Weibs, in 1788 she wrote the autobiographical epistolary novel Amalie: Eine wahre Geschichte in Briefen (literally: Amalie: a true story in letters). Beginning in 1787, she wrote for the Frauen-Zeitung newspaper which was published by her husband, and composed the epistolary novel Amalie and Minna. She also worked on the weekly Der Beobachter, published by her husband since August 1788. From 1790 to 1792 she issued a ground-breaking monthly magazine for women, Amaliens Erholungsstunden (literally: Amalie's holiday hours).

Amaliens Erholungsstunden Amaliens Erholungsstunden was initially self-published monthly by Marianne Ehrmann under her own name. She sent advance notices to acquaintances, friends and potential patrons to distribute, and the first six editions resulted in an increase of subscribers. The debts contracted by the self-publishing were indeed paid off, but in all a financial disaster ensued, which is why in January 1791 Marianne and her husband started a cooperation with the publisher Johann Friedrich Cotta at his publishing house J. G. Cottaische Verlagsbuchhandlung in Tübingen. Marianne Ehrmann hoped to concentrate on the journalistic work. Indeed, the magazine was very successful; the circulation of around 1,000 copies was relatively high for a journal focussed on women's issues. It addressed readers from the upper middle class to support the social situation of women and to urge readers to express their own opinions. During the second year, probably caused by censorship and by the publisher, much of the content became trivial, and Marianne and Theophil Ehrmann's contributions were partially replaced by third party contributions. In the third year, contradicting Marianne Ehrmann's wishes, the magazine became much more commercial and trivial and more adapted by the publisher to prevailing social values. With that, the Ehrmanns quit, whereupon Cotta, using the Ehrmanns' subscriber base, published the magazine under the new name Flora. Marianne Ehrmann initiated a new magazine, Einsiedlerinn aus den Alpen (literally: The woman hermit in the Alps), with contributions again mostly written by herself. (play, written as Madame Sternheim)* 1787: Amalie and Minna (novel) 1788: Amalie: Eine wahre Geschichte in Briefen (novel) 1790–1792: Amaliens Erholungsstunden (monthly women's magazine) 1793–1794: Die Einsiedlerinn aus den Alpen (women's magazine) 1796: Amaliens Feierstunden (posthumous work) Ein Weib ein Wort. Kleine Fragmente für Denkerinnen. Published by Maya Widmer and Doris Stump. Kore, Freiburg (i. Brsg.) 1994. Amalie. Eine wahre Geschichte in Briefen. Published by Maya Widmer and Doris Stump, in: Schweizer Texte, Volume 6. Chronos Verlag, Zürich 1995. Die Einsiedlerinn aus den Alpen. Published by Annette Zunzer, in: Schweizer Texte, Volume 15. Chronos Verlag, Zürich 2001. Nina's Briefe an ihren Geliebten. Zenodot, 2007.

Literature Sophie Forst: “Marianne Ehrmann (1755–1795)”. In: Feministische Aufklärung in Europa. The Feminist Enlightenment across Europe. Interdisziplinäres Jahrbuch zur Erforschung des 18. Jahrhunderts und seiner Wirkungsgeschichte. Edited by Isabel Karremann and Gideon Stiening. Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag 2020, pp. 312–323. (https://meiner-elibrary.de/aufklarung-band-32-feministische-aufklarung-in-europa-the-feminist-enlightenment-across-europe.html). Mary Helen Dupree: The Mask and the Quill. Actress-Writers in Germany from Enlightenment to Romanticism. Bucknell University Press, Bucknell PA 2011. Ruth P. Dawson: “'And This Shield is called—Self-Reliance,' Emerging Feminist Consciousness in the Late Eighteenth Century.“ In: German Women in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: A Social and Literary History, ed. Ruth-Ellen B. Joeres and Mary Jo Maynes. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1986. 157–74. Ruth P. Dawson: "Confronting the Lords of Creation: Marianne Ehrmann (1755–95). The Contested Quill: Literature by Women in Germany 1770–1880. Newark, Del.: University of Delaware, 2002. 221–285. . Annette Zunzer: Marianne Ehrmann: Die Einsiedlerinn aus den Alpen. Paul Haupt Verlag, Bern 2002. Anne Fleig: Handlungs-Spiel-Räume: Dramen von Autorinnen im Theater des ausgehenden 18. Jahrhunderts. Königshausen und Neumann, Würzburg 1999. Helga Stipa Madland: Marianne Ehrmann: Reason and Emotion in her Life and Works. Women in German Literature. (Women in German Literature; vol. 1) Peter Lang, New York 1998. Alois Stadler: "Die Familie Brentano und die Stadt Rapperswil." In: Seepresse Bezirk See und Gaster, Rapperswil 1996. Gottfried August Bürger, Theophil Friedrich Ehrmann: Briefe an Marianne Ehrmann: Ein merkwürdiger Beitrag zur Geschichte der letzten Lebensjahre des Dichters. Industrie-Comptoir, 1802.