Auguste Schmidt, full name, ''Friederike Wilhelmine Auguste Schmidt, ''(3 August 1833, Breslau, then

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

now

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

– 10 June 1902,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

) was a pioneering German

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

, educator, journalist and women's rights activist.

Life

She was the daughter of

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n army artillery lieutenant

Friedrich Schmidt Carl Friedrich Schmidt may refer to: * Carl Friedrich Schmidt (artist) (1811–1890), German botanical artist and lithographer * Carl Friedrich Schmidt (geologist) (1832–1908), Baltic German geologist and botanist See also

* Carl Friedrich S ...

and his wife Emilie (born Schöps). In 1842 the family moved from Breslau to

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

where from 1848 -1850 she studied in Luisenschule to be a teacher.Deutsches Historiches Museum timeline Between 1850-1855 she worked as a private teacher for a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

family, and later at a private school in Upper

Rybnik Rybnik (Polish pronunciation: ; szl, Rybńik) is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, around 38 km (24 mi) southwest of Katowice, the region's capital, and around 19 km (11 miles) from the Czech border. It is on ...

. Then from 1855 -1860 she was teacher at the Maria Magdalena municipal School in Wroclaw. In 1861 she moved to Leipzig to become the Director of the Leipzig "''Latzelschen höheren Privattöchterschule''", a girls private school. From 1862 she was teacher of literature and aesthetics at one of

Ottilie von Steyber Ottilie is a given name for women. The name is a French derivative of the medieval German masculine name Otto, and has the meaning "prosperous in battle", "riches", "prosperous" or "wealth". Popularity The name has increased in popularity in Englan ...

's (1804-1870) ''Mädchenbildungsinstitut'' (Girls Educational Institutes). One of her students was

Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the ...

. In 1864 she started a friendship with

Louise Otto-Peters Louise Otto-Peters (26 March 1819, Meissen – 13 March 1895, Leipzig) was a German suffragist and women's rights movement activist who wrote novels, poetry, essays, and libretti. She wrote for ''Der Wandelstern'' he Wandering Starand ''Sächsisc ...

. In 1866, she joined with Louise Otto-Peters in founding the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein (ADF) (General Union of German Women) in Leipzig to work for better women's access to higher education and the professions as well as better protective legislation for working women. Schmidt and Otto-Peters served jointly as president and edited the house organ, Neue Bahnen (''New Paths''). In 1869 she founded the association of German teachers and educators and in 1890, together with

Helene Lange Helene Lange (9 April 1848 in Oldenburg – 13 May 1930 in Berlin) was a pedagogue and feminist. She is a symbolic figure of the international and German civil rights feminist movement. In the years from 1919 to 1921 she was a member of the ...

, she founded the "''Allgemeinen Deutschen Lehrerinnen-Vereins''" (ADLV) (General German Teachers Association).Leipzig University In 1894, she became the first president of the ''Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine'' (BDF), (

League of German Women's Associations The Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (Federation of German Women's Associations) (BDF) was founded on 28/29 March 1894 as umbrella organization of the women's civil rights feminist movement and existed until the Nazi seizure of power in 1933. Its cre ...

), which brought together thirty-four women's civil rights movement groups under a controlling body. This expanded to 65 in the first year. She published two novels in 1868, ''Tausendschön'' (''Daisies'') and ''Veilchen (Violets)'', a short story, '' Aus schwerer Zeit'' (''From Hard Times''), came out in 1895. She retired in 1900 and died in 1902. In 2003 a 14m long plaque was attached to the house in which she lived between 1863 and 1864 at Lortzingstraße 5, Leipzig, to commemorate her life.

Notes

References

*(German) * (In German)
Translation
Accessed January 2008 {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Auguste 1833 births 1902 deaths Heads of schools in Germany German feminists Writers from Leipzig German trade unionists