Lina Morgenstern (25 November 1830 – 16 December 1909) was a German writer, educator, feminist and pacifist.

Biography

She was born 25 November 1830 in

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

(German Breslau) to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family committed to social causes. In 1854 she married Theodor Morgenstern (1827–1910), and they moved to Berlin.Zabel, Hans-Henning (1997).
Morgenstern, Lina
" ''Neue deutsche Biographie''. Berlin: Duncker und Humblot. vol. 18, p. 109-111. The couple had five children – three daughters (Clara, Olga, and Martha) and two sons (Michael and Alfred). Morgenstern first started writing articles about education and children's care in order to contribute to the family's income, when her husband had financial problems. In 1859, the same year that her third child, Olga, was born, she and Adolf Lette founded the ''Berliner Frauen-Verein zur Beförderung der Fröbel’schen Kindergärten'' (Berlin women's association for the advancement of Fröbelian kindergartens), which advocated for the establishment in Berlin of kindergartens, a form of preschool education conceived of by the pedagogue

Friedrich Fröbel Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel or Froebel (; 21 April 1782 – 21 June 1852) was a German pedagogue, a student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, who laid the foundation for modern education based on the recognition that children have unique need ...

. Morgenstern served as chair from 1862 to 1866, by which time the society had established eight kindergartens in the city, as well as a school for the education of kindergarten teachers. In 1866, during the

Austro-Prussian War The Austro-Prussian War, also by many variant names such as Seven Weeks' War, German Civil War, Brothers War or Fraternal War, known in Germany as ("German War"), (; "German war of brothers") and by a variety of other names, was fought in 186 ...

, she founded Berlin's first ''Volksküche'' ('public kitchen,' or

soup kitchen A soup kitchen, food kitchen, or meal center, is a place where food is offered to the Hunger, hungry usually for free or sometimes at a below-market price (such as via coin donations upon visiting). Frequently located in lower-income neighborhoo ...

), an organization that offered nutritional meals at very low prices (reflecting at most the cost of preparation), based on a philosophy of helping needy people without putting them in the position of accepting outright charity. In 1896, she organised the ''Internationaler Kongress für Frauenwerke und Frauenbestrebungen'' in Berlin and she entered in the directive committee of the

German Peace Society The German Peace Society (german: Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft (DFG)) was founded in 1892 in Berlin. In 1900 it moved its headquarters to Stuttgart. It still exists and is known as the ''Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte Kriegsdienstgegne ...

(DFG) in 1897. She died 16 December 1909, in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Works

*''Das Bienenkätchen'' (Breslau, 1859) *''Das Paradies der Kindheit durch Spiel, Gesang und Beschäftigung'' (Leipzig, 1861) *''Ernährungslehre'' (1880) *''Die Frauen des 19. Jahrhunderts'' (1888–91) *''Der häusliche Beruf'' (1890) *''Illustriertes Universal-Kochbuch für Gesunde und Kranke'' (Berlin, 1905)

References

External links

* *
www.kindergartenpaedagogik.de
*
jwa.org/encyclopedia

Lina Morgenstern papers
(digitized), in RG 31 Germany (Vilna Archives) Collection, at the

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research YIVO (Yiddish: , ) is an organization that preserves, studies, and teaches the cultural history of Jewish life throughout Eastern Europe, Germany, and Russia as well as orthography, lexicography, and other studies related to Yiddish. (The word '' ...

''Illustriertes Kochbuch''
Digitized cookbook by Lina Morgenstern at the

Leo Baeck Institute, New York The Leo Baeck Institute New York (LBI) is a research institute in New York City dedicated to the study of German-Jewish history and culture, founded in 1955. It is one of three independent research centers founded by a group of German-speaking J ...

1830 births 1909 deaths Writers from Wrocław People from the Province of Silesia 19th-century German Jews German Peace Society members German educational theorists German feminists Jewish women writers 19th-century German women writers {{Germany-activist-stub