Cornélie Lydie Huygens (13 June 1848 – 31 October 1902) was a Dutch writer, social democrat and feminist.

Biography

Huygens was born on 13 June 1848 in Haarlemmerliede. She was the daughter of Gerard William Otto Huygens and Cornelia Adelaide Henriette Elias (1824–1848) and married the German businessman Ignatius Bernardus Maria Bahlmann (1852–1934) in 1902. Her mother died after her birth and she was raised by her paternal aunt Jeanne Marie Huygens, a friend of the feminist Mina Kruseman. Huygens became known early for her feminist articles and made her debut as a novelist in 1877. In 1896, she joined the newly founded Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) as its first female member and the first woman in the Netherlands to be a member of a political party, and she became known as the "Red Lady". Cornélie Huygens was a known and active socialist ideologist and participator in the political debate, and by her work for

women 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 ...

, she made the work for women's rights, which had in the Netherlands had previously been an issue for upper class women, a part of the socialist movement for worker's rights. Despite her principled opposition against the institution of marriage, she married on 2 October 1902, at the age of 54, to the Amsterdam-born German businessman Ignazius Bahlmann, who had translated her novel ''Barthold Meryan'' into German. Apparently very unhappy in her marriage, she drowned herself within a month after this wedding in a pond in the

Vondelpark The Vondelpark () is a public urban park of 47 hectares (120 acres) in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is part of the borough of Amsterdam-Zuid and situated west from the Leidseplein and the Museumplein. The park was opened in 1865 and originally na ...

. She died on 31 October 1902 in Amsterdam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huygens, Cornelie 1848 births 1902 suicides 19th-century Dutch writers 19th-century Dutch novelists 19th-century Dutch women writers Dutch women novelists Dutch suffragists Dutch socialists Dutch social democrats Suicides by drowning People from Haarlemmerliede en Spaarnwoude 19th-century Dutch women politicians 19th-century Dutch politicians Dutch socialist feminists Suicides in the Netherlands