Countess Fanny "Franziska" zu Reventlow (''Fanny Liane Wilhelmine Sophie Auguste Adrienne'') 18 May 1871 – 26 July 1918) was a German writer, artist and translator, who became famous as the "Bohemian Countess" of

Schwabing Schwabing is a borough in the northern part of Munich, the capital of the German state of Bavaria. It is part of the city borough 4 (Schwabing-West) and the city borough 12 (Schwabing-Freimann). The population of Schwabing is estimated about 100 ...

(an entertainment district in Munich) in the years leading up to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

Life

Fanny (or Franziska, as she was also called later) Reventlow was born in the family seat at

Husum Husum (, frr, Hüsem) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home o ...

into the

German nobility The German nobility (german: deutscher Adel) and royalty were status groups of the medieval society in Central Europe, which enjoyed certain privileges relative to other people under the laws and customs in the German-speaking area, until the b ...

, the fifth of six children of Ludwig, Count zu

Reventlow Reventlow is the name of a Holstein and Mecklenburg Dano-German noble family, which belongs to the Equites Originarii Schleswig-Holstein. Alternate spellings include Revetlo, Reventlo, Reventlau, Reventlou, Reventlow, Refendtlof and Reffentlof ...

(1825–1894) and his wife Emilie (1834–1905). The family were on friendly terms with the North German writer

Theodor Storm Hans Theodor Woldsen Storm (; 14 September 18174 July 1888), commonly known as Theodor Storm, was a German writer. He is considered to be one of the most important figures of German realism. Life Storm was born in the small town of Husum, on the ...

. Her eldest brother Theodor died as a fifteen-year-old, her other brother

Ernst Ernst is both a surname and a given name, the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian form of Ernest. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Adolf Ernst (1832–1899) German botanist known by the author abbreviation "Ernst" * Anton Ernst (1975-) ...

, was an ultra-nationalist writer and eventually became a

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

While young she was in constant conflict with her mother. She was thrown out of boarding school for misbehavior and lack of respect for the authorities. After being sent to stay with a family friend in 1893, she fled to Hamburg. Here she met Walter Lübke, who financed her art studies in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

, and whom she married in 1894. Her artistic studies also included singing, with instruction by Charlotte Lachs. The marriage broke up when she set off again in 1895 to Munich, to continue her studies. They were divorced in 1897. In September of that year her son Rolf was born; she never divulged the name of the father (although it is very likely to have been the Polish-born painter & engraver

Adolf Eduard Herstein Adolf Eduard Herstein (1869–1932) was a painter and engraver. Born in Warsaw, he worked and taught in France, Germany (where he was active in the Berlin Secession movement) and his native Poland. His oil painting relied on the use of heavy im ...

). In Munich she supported herself by translation work for the

Albert Langen Albert Langen (8 July 1869 – 30 April 1909) was a German publisher and founder of the satirical publication ''Simplicissimus''. Early years Langen was, after Martha and Martin, the third of four children born to Antwerp industrialist Friedrich ...

Publishing House and by writing short articles for magazines and newspapers such as ''

Simplicissimus :''Simplicissimus is also a name for the 1668 novel Simplicius Simplicissimus and its protagonist.'' ''Simplicissimus'' () was a satirical German weekly magazine, headquartered in Munich, and founded by Albert Langen in April 1896. It continued ...

'' and the ''

Frankfurter Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Zeitung'' () was a German-language newspaper that appeared from 1856 to 1943. It emerged from a market letter that was published in Frankfurt. In Nazi Germany, it was considered the only mass publication not completely controll ...

''. After taking some acting lessons in 1898, she had a short engagement at the Theater am Gärtnerplatz. Otherwise she took casual jobs as a secretary, assistant cook, insurance agent and so on to keep going. As usual in Bohemian circles, she also received financial help from male friends and casual acquaintances. Kosmiker

She was a friend of

Ludwig Klages Friedrich Konrad Eduard Wilhelm Ludwig Klages (10 December 1872 – 29 July 1956) was a German philosopher, psychologist, graphologist, poet, writer, and lecturer, who was a two-time nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature. In the Germanosp ...

and thus became part of the

Munich Cosmic Circle The Munich Cosmic Circle was a group of writers and intellectuals in Munich, Germany at the turn of the 20th century, founded by esotericist Alfred Schuler (1865–1923), philosopher Ludwig Klages (1872–1956), and poet Karl Wolfskehl (1869–194 ...

based around the mystic

Alfred Schuler Alfred Schuler (22 November 1865 – 8 April 1923) was a German classicist, esotericist, ceremonial magician, mystagogue, writer, poet, and independent scholar. He was a co-founder and central esoteric figure of the Munich Cosmic Circle, a prom ...

, which also included

Karl Wolfskehl Karl Wolfskehl (17 September 1869 – 30 June 1948) was a German Jewish author and translator. He wrote poetry, prose and drama in German, and translated from French, English, Italian, Hebrew, Latin and Old/Middle High German into German. Bi ...

. It broke up in acrimonious circumstances in 1904. She wrote about her experiences with the Circle in her

Roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship be ...

''Herrn Dames Aufzeichnungen'' (1913). She also got to know

Theodor Lessing Karl Theodor Richard Lessing (8 February 1872, Hanover – 31 August 1933, Marienbad) was a German Jewish philosopher. He is known for opposing the rise of Hindenburg as president of the Weimar Republic and for his classic on Jewish self-hatr ...

Erich Mühsam Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 – 10 July 1934) was a German-Jewish antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which h ...

Oskar Panizza Leopold Hermann Oskar Panizza (12 November 1853 – 28 September 1921) was a German psychiatrist and avant-garde author, playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, publisher and literary journal editor. He is best known for his provocative tragicomedy ...

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), shortened to Rainer Maria Rilke (), was an Austrian poet and novelist. He has been acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, and is widely recogn ...

Marianne von Werefkin Marianne von Werefkin, born Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina ( rus, Мариа́нна Влади́мировна Верёвкина, Marianna Vladimirovna Veryovkina, mərʲɪˈanːə vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvnə vʲɪˈrʲɵfkʲɪnə; – 6 Febr ...

Alexej von Jawlensky Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky (russian: Алексе́й Гео́ргиевич Явле́нский, translit=Alekséy Geórgiyevich Yavlénskiy) (13 March 1864 – 15 March 1941), surname also spelt as Yavlensky, was a Russian expression ...

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 deve ...

and many others of the "Munich Moderns". With her son she travelled to

Samos Samos (, also ; el, Σάμος ) is a Greek island in the eastern Aegean Sea, south of Chios, north of Patmos and the Dodecanese, and off the coast of western Turkey, from which it is separated by the -wide Mycale Strait. It is also a sepa ...

(1900), Italy (1904, 1907) and

Corfu Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of Greece. The isl ...

(1906/1907).Stein, pp. 95–111 She left Munich for

Ascona 300px, Ascona Ascona ( lmo, label= Ticinese, Scona ) is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore. The town is a popular tourist destination and holds the yea ...

in Switzerland in 1910 ( Monte Verità), where she wrote her "Schwabing" novels. In 1911 married Baron Alexander von Rechenberg-Linten, a marriage of convenience, which enabled him to inherit 20,000 Marks. However, he lost this in a bank collapse in 1914. In 1916 she moved to

Muralto Muralto is a municipality in the district of Locarno, in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. Geography Muralto has an area, , of . Of this area, or 71.7% is used for agricultural purposes, while or 3.3% is forested. Of the rest of the lan ...

Lago Maggiore Lake Maggiore (, ; it, Lago Maggiore ; lmo, label=Western Lombard, Lagh Maggior; pms, Lagh Magior; literally 'Greater Lake') or Verbano (; la, Lacus Verbanus) is a large lake located on the south side of the Alps. It is the second largest la ...

. She died in 1918 in a clinic in

Locarno , neighboring_municipalities= Ascona, Avegno, Cadenazzo, Cugnasco, Gerra (Verzasca), Gambarogno, Gordola, Lavertezzo, Losone, Minusio, Muralto, Orselina, Tegna, Tenero-Contra , twintowns =* Gagra, Georgia * Karlovy Vary, Czech ...

following a bicycle accident and was buried in the cemetery of the Santa Maria in Selva church in Locarno. Emil Ludwig spoke at her funeral.

Feminism

Reventlow is best known as one of the most unorthodox voices of the early women's movement in Europe. While many of her peers were pressing for improved social, political, and economic rights for women, Reventlow argued that ardent feminists, whom she labelled "

virago A virago is a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues. The word comes from the Latin word ''virāgō'' ( genitive virāginis) meaning vigorous' from ''vir'' meaning "man" or "man-like" (cf. virile and virtue) to which the suffix ''-ā ...

s," were actually harming women by attempting to erase or deny the natural differences between men and women. Reventlow maintained that sexual freedom, and the abolition of the institution of marriage, were the best means by which women could hope to achieve a more equal social standing with men.

Works

* (with Otto Eugen Thossan) ''Klosterjungen. Humoresken'' (two stories), Wigand, Leipzig 1897 * ''Das Männerphantom der Frau'' (Essay), in: ''Zürcher Diskußionen'' 1898 * ''Was Frauen ziemt'' (Essay); under the title ''Viragines oder Hetären?'' in: ''Zürcher Diskußionen'' 1899 * ''Erziehung und Sittlichkeit'' (Essay), in: Otto Falckenberg, ''Das Buch von der Lex Heinze. Leipzig 1900 * ''Ellen Olestjerne'', J. Marchlewski, Munich 1903 * ''Von Paul zu Pedro'', Langen, Munich 1912 * ''Herrn Dames Aufzeichnungen oder Begenheiten aus einem merkwürdigen Stadtteil", Langen, Munich 1913 * ''Der Geldkomplex'', Langen, Munich 1916 * ''Das Logierhaus zur Schwankenden Weltkugel und andere Novellen'', Langen, Munich 1917 * ''Tagebücher'' (ed. Irene Weiser, Jürgen Gutsch), Stutz, Passau 2006

References

Sources

* * *

External links

Biography

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Reventlow, Franziska 1871 births 1918 deaths People from Husum German artists 19th-century German translators 19th-century German women writers 19th-century German writers Fanny