Barbara Margaretha "Meta" von Salis (3 January 1855 – 15 March 1929) was a Swiss feminist and historian, as well as a regular correspondent of
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
.
Early life and education
Meta von Salis was born in 1855 on her family's estate,
Marschlins Castle
Marschlins Castle is a castle in the village of Igis of the municipality of Landquart of the Canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is a Swiss heritage site of national significance.
Marschlins Castle was the childhood home of feminist Meta ...
, in
Igis
Igis ''( Romansh: Eigias)'' is a former municipality in the district of Landquart in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. Far better known than its proper name Igis is its hamlet Landquart, because of its Rail Station and motorway exit. The muni ...
,
Graubünden. Her parents were Ursula Margaretha and Ulysses Adalbert von Salis, a
naturalist. She attended a girls' school in
Friedrichshafen
Friedrichshafen ( or ; Low Alemannic: ''Hafe'' or ''Fridrichshafe'') is a city on the northern shoreline of Lake Constance (the ''Bodensee'') in Southern Germany, near the borders of both Switzerland and Austria. It is the district capital (''K ...
, Germany from 1863 to 1868, and then attended another girls' school in
Rorschach, Switzerland
Rorschach () is a municipality, in the District of Rorschach in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland. It is on the south side of Lake Constance (''Bodensee'').
History
Rorschach is first mentioned in 850 as ''Rorscachun''. In 947, Otto I gra ...
until 1871.
After leaving school, she worked as a
governess for numerous wealthy families in Germany, England and Ireland before enrolling at the
University of Zurich
The University of Zürich (UZH, german: Universität Zürich) is a public research university located in the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It is the largest university in Switzerland, with its 28,000 enrolled students. It was founded in 1833 f ...
in 1883 to study history and philosophy.
She received a
PhD in 1887 for a thesis about
Agnes of Poitou, making her the first Swiss woman to receive a doctorate degree.
She said she was not interested in completing the degree for its own sake but rather "in the interests of the women's question".
Career
After university, von Salis worked as a
freelance journalist
''Freelance'' (sometimes spelled ''free-lance'' or ''free lance''), ''freelancer'', or ''freelance worker'', are terms commonly used for a person who is self-employed and not necessarily committed to a particular employer long-term. Freelance w ...
and speaker for the
women's suffrage
Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...
movement in Switzerland. In 1887 she wrote an article published in the ''
Zurich Post'' that was one of the first to argue for universal suffrage for Swiss citizens.
She met the philosopher and writer
Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (; or ; 15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher, prose poet, cultural critic, philologist, and composer whose work has exerted a profound influence on contemporary philosophy. He began his ...
in Zurich in 1884.
Despite Nietzsche's disregard for feminists and the women's movement, their encounter "cast a 'golden shimmer' over the rest of her life", and they formed a long-lasting friendship.
After their first encounter, von Salis spent several weeks in 1886 and 1887 at his
summer house in
Sils Maria
Sils im Engadin/Segl (german: Sils im Engadin; Romansh ), often also as ''Sils i.E./Segl'', is a municipality and village in the Maloja Region, Upper Engadine in the Swiss canton of the Grisons.
It consists of two villages, Segl Maria (Romans ...
.
Although they were close friends, von Salis was horrified when someone suggested that she and Nietzsche should marry.
In 1894, she helped Nietzsche's sister
Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche
Therese Elisabeth Alexandra Förster-Nietzsche (10 July 1846 – 8 November 1935) was the sister of philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the creator of the Nietzsche Archive in 1894.
Förster-Nietzsche was two years younger than her brothe ...
to found the
Nietzsche-Archiv, but von Salis ceased her involvement in the cause after a quarrel with Förster-Nietzsche.
Despite this, it was von Salis who purchased the Villa Silberblick in
Weimar
Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...
, where Nietzsche and his sister lived for the final years of his life before it became the permanent home of the Nietzsche-Archiv collection.
Von Salis was briefly imprisoned in 1904 for
contempt of court after she tried to defend two wrongly charged women in an
embezzlement case.
Disillusioned with the Swiss democratic process, she then moved to the Italian island of
Capri with her longtime friend
Hedwig Kym. Following Kym's marriage to
Ernst Feigenwinter, von Salis continued to live with the couple in their
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS ...
home from 1910 until her death in 1929.
In her later life, she mostly retreated from the feminist movement and instead most of her writings focused on
German nationalism
German nationalism () is an ideological notion that promotes the unity of Germans and German-speakers into one unified nation state. German nationalism also emphasizes and takes pride in the patriotism and national identity of Germans as one n ...
and conservative race theory.
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salis, Meta von
19th-century Swiss historians
1855 births
1929 deaths
People from Landquart District
Swiss suffragists
Swiss feminists
Swiss nobility
Friedrich Nietzsche
University of Zurich alumni
Women historians
19th-century Swiss women writers
19th-century Swiss writers
19th-century Swiss journalists
20th-century Swiss journalists
Swiss writers in German
Meta
19th-century women journalists