Olga Marie Pauline Plümacher (née Hünerwadel; 27 May 1839 – ), who wrote under the name O. Plümacher, was a Russian-born Swiss-American philosopher and scholar. She engaged with the philosophies of the German philosophers

Arthur Schopenhauer Arthur Schopenhauer ( ; ; 22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher. He is known for his 1818 work ''The World as Will and Representation'' (expanded in 1844), which characterizes the Phenomenon, phenomenal world as ...

and

Eduard von Hartmann Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann (23 February 1842 – 5 June 1906) was a German philosopher, independent scholar and writer. He was the author of the influential '' Philosophy of the Unconscious'' (1869). Von Hartmann's notable ideas include the ...

, and published three books which contributed to the

pessimism controversy Philosophical pessimism is a philosophical school that is critical of existence, emphasizing the inherent suffering and futility of life. This perspective can be traced back to various religious traditions and philosophical writings throughout his ...

in Germany. Her book on the history of

philosophical pessimism Philosophical pessimism is a philosophical tradition that argues that life is not worth living and that non-existence is preferable to existence. Thinkers in this tradition emphasize that suffering outweighs pleasure, happiness is fleeting or u ...

, ''Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart'' ("Pessimism in the Past and Present") was influential on

Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (15 October 1844 – 25 August 1900) was a German philosopher. He began his career as a classical philology, classical philologist, turning to philosophy early in his academic career. In 1869, aged 24, Nietzsche bec ...

and

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

Biography

Early life

Olga Marie Pauline Hünerwadel was born on 27 May 1839, in

Tsaritsyn Volgograd,. formerly Tsaritsyn. (1589–1925) and Stalingrad. (1925–1961), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Volgograd Oblast, Russia. The city lies on the western bank of the Volga, covering an area of , with a population ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. She was the daughter of Gottlieb Samuel Hünerwadel, a former officer in France under

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, and Adelheid Hünerwadel (his cousin). She had two older brothers, who died before she was born. The family moved to Switzerland where her father managed a steel plant and later retired to

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

, Switzerland, where Plümacher grew up. She received no formal university education.

Personal life

Plümacher married a German, Eugene Hermann Plümacher, who later worked as U.S. Consul to Venezuela; they had two children together. She emigrated with her family to the United States and lived in

Beersheba Springs, Tennessee Beersheba Springs is a town in Grundy County, Tennessee, United States, in the south central part of the state. The population was 477 at the 2010 census. A prominent resort town in the 19th century, Beersheba Springs was developed in 1854 by ret ...

. In 1877, Plümacher returned to Switzerland for 10 years with her children to ensure they received a good education. While there, she reconnected with Emilie Kammerer, a childhood friend, who was the mother of the German playwright

Frank Wedekind Benjamin Franklin Wedekind (July 24, 1864 – March 9, 1918) was a German playwright. His work, which often criticizes bourgeois attitudes (particularly towards sex), is considered to anticipate expressionism and was influential in the developme ...

. Plümacher introduced him to the philosophies of

and

, of whom Plümacher was a devotee. She has been described as Wedekind's "philosophical aunt".

Career

Plümacher published three books in Germany that engaged with the philosophies of Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann: ''Der Kampf um's Unbewusste'' ("The Battle for the Unconscious"), ''Zwei Individualisten der Schopenhauer'schen Schule'' ("Two Individualists of the Schopenhauer School"), and ''Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart'' ("Pessimism in the Past and Present"). These works made Plümacher a significant figure within the

in Germany. Since she published under the name O. Plümacher, she was not recognized as a woman philosopher and was thus engaged with as though she were a man. ''Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart'' was influential on

, whose personal copy he annotated throughout. Plümacher also published several articles on psychology, philosophy and metaphysics in a number of German journals. Additionally, she published an article on Von Hartmann in English, in the Oxford journal ''

Mind The mind is that which thinks, feels, perceives, imagines, remembers, and wills. It covers the totality of mental phenomena, including both conscious processes, through which an individual is aware of external and internal circumstances ...

''.

Death

Plümacher died around 15 June 1895 in Beersheba Springs and was buried in the Armfield Cemetery in Beersheba Springs; she was 56 years old.

Legacy

first read ''Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart'' around 1938. His intense interest in the book led him to heavily annotate it throughout and add in blank pages for additional notes. Rolf Kieser, a professor of German at the

State University of New York The State University of New York (SUNY ) is a system of Public education, public colleges and universities in the New York (state), State of New York. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, larges ...

, published a biography of Plümacher in 1990, ''Olga Plümacher-Hünerwadel, eine gelehrte Frau des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts''. Plümacher has been compared to Agnes Taubert, another largely forgotten German female philosopher who also played large part in the pessimism controversy, as well as the German-American philosopher Amelie J. Hathaway. Plümacher was included in the 2022 issue of the '' British Journal for the History of Philosophy'', titled "Lost Voices: Women in Philosophy 1870-1970", as well as the 2024 ''Oxford Handbook of Nineteenth-Century Women Philosophers in the German Tradition''.

Selected publications

Articles

Books

* '' Der Kampf um's Unbewusste'' (''The Struggle for the Subconscious''; 1881) * '' Zwei Individualisten der Schopenhauer'schen Schule'' (''Two Individualists from the Schopenhauer School''; 1881) * '' Der Pessimismus in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart'' (''Pessimism in the Past and Present''; 1883)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Plumacher, Olga 1839 births 1895 deaths 19th-century American philosophers 19th-century American writers 19th-century American women writers 19th-century philosophers from the Russian Empire 19th-century pseudonymous writers 19th-century Swiss philosophers 19th-century Swiss writers 19th-century Swiss women writers 19th-century women writers from the Russian Empire 19th-century writers from the Russian Empire American women philosophers Emigrants from the Russian Empire to Switzerland Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States People from Grundy County, Tennessee People from Volgograd Philosophers of pessimism Pseudonymous women writers Swiss emigrants to the United States Swiss women philosophers Writers from Tennessee Writers from Zurich