Essay (back
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"Things Are Not Always What They Seem"
Women Writers: Breaking Social Norms in 19th Century Germany
The mid-eighteenth-century was a time marked by revolutionary philosophies occurring throughout Europe. During this period, which many historians consider the era of "Enlightenment", people began to rebel and question many long held customs and beliefs. While many in various levels of society criticized the world as they knew it, a world dominated by the church and monarchy, intellectuals tended to use logic and reason to examine traditional ideals and institutions established in the old order. Due to this inquiry, a period of revolution ensued throughout Europe that affected all categories of citizens. In Germany, this revolutionary presence emerged in the nineteenth century at a time when the German states were seeking unification. Joining with the rest of Europe, Germans seized the opportunity to institute social change, and began to fight for authority and break down divides. At the same time, technological advances made during the industrial revolution brought about even more transformation in nineteenth century Germany. As new machinery took the place of skilled workers, a new expendable wage earning labor force was needed to tend the machines. This created instability in the workplace and much poverty for those who did not join this labor force. Therefore, many women who formerly could contribute to a cottage industry were forced out of the home and into the traditionally masculine sphere of public work.
This breakdown of gender roles was troublesome during a time filled with such political, social and economic turmoil. Men did not want to give up the one thing that was left for them to control: women. Consequently, a struggle ensued to refurbish patriarchal relationships. The resulting struggle did not end in a compromise, but in the favor of the former order. Not only were German women expected to be submissive and modest, they were to remain in the confines of their own homes to take care of their households. Men on the other hand, were supposed to have authority over their family, and their job was to provide food, and be the family face to the outside world. To validate this model, some experts of the time published findings that established a definitive separation between the sexes, both physically and mentally, based on biology. Further, as women were denied the right to obtain an education past the age of fourteen, they were unable to disprove such studies. As a result, publications by authors such as P.J. Möbius, who’s book The Physiological Mental Weakness of Women "scientifically corroborated" the inferiority of women, remained popular throughout the century (Joeres, 4).
Since most women were uneducated and limited to the confines of their private station, it is believed that nineteenth century Germany was lacking anything that could be considered a public feminist culture until the rise of the women’s movement in the mid nineteenth century. Assuming that German women were incapable of producing progressive ideas, let alone putting them into writing, many of today’s historians indicate that the literary profession was a male-dominated field. However, Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres projects in her book, Respectability and Deviance: nineteenth century German Women Writers and the Ambiguity of Repression, that although this is true, there were numerous gifted women brave enough to enter into the public realm of publishing. Although many of these women were not well known, in their time or today, they inaugurated a new era of women’s growth in Germany. However, in order to save themselves from persecution and public ridicule, all of these authors shared one attribute: their writings were ambiguous. They carefully embedded public and social matters in the context of novels, journals, biographies, poems, letters and essays. In spite of this, male contemporaries still criticized them and wanted them out of their public sphere. Thus, nineteenth century German women writers manipulated the system by using tactics both in their private and public lives, such as upholding and promoting strict gender ideologies, pretending to be insane, and imitating male writers in hopes that they would not be ostracized.
I chose to examine Louise Otto, Bettine von Arnim, and Fanny Lewald since they each utilized a different method to operate in a male realm. This study begins with the more rational Louise Otto, and ends with the extremist Fanny Lewald.
Louise Otto (1819-1895) 
Louise Otto (1819-1895) was an exceptionally well-known and radical German author. Otto not only stepped into the public sphere when she began to publish her many works, she often integrated her own ideologies regarding woman’s rights into her texts. For example, in her 1851 novel Buchenheim, she includes a scene in which a male character, Eugene, declares that men are the source of all of the troubles women face in the world. In the end of this story, Eugene decides to clear his conscience, and establishes a school designed for the higher education of women. Although Otto’s progressive views are unmistakable - men are oppressors and women deserve and need higher education - conflicting ideas are also present. As Boetcher Joeres states, "Louise Otto seemed always intent upon reassuring her audiences that she was above all, an appropriate woman" (Joeres, 137). Consequently, a large portion of this novel endorses the stereotypical belief that women are the "preservers of order" a female virtue associated with the running of the home, a private sphere (Joeres, 269). Although Buchenheim is a work of fiction, Louise Otto contradicted her feminist beliefs by accepting the necessity of the female realm.
Louise Otto also used similar forms of conciliation in other areas besides her writing. Otto is said to have "almost single-handedly… set into motion a women’s rights movement that would change the face of German society" (Joeres, 121). However, I would argue that her tendency to counteract what her male contemporaries viewed as radical ideas negates this argument. She may have been the first to recognize that a national organization for German women was needed, but she did not initially facilitate its establishment. Rather, she passed the torch to a man named Ludwig Eckardt. It was only after he declined to head the group, stating that a woman must fulfill this important role, that she assumed the chief position. Based on her previous record, I believe that Otto realized that becoming a public figure would not allow her the same amount of anonymity that writing from the privacy of one’s home permits. Her reluctance to enter the male sphere of politics, a sphere completely outside the limits of her own, indicates that she wanted to remain somewhat marginal in the public eye.
Bettine von Arnim (1785-1859) 
Unlike Louise Otto, another woman of considerable influence, Bettine von Arnim (1785-1859), did not try to counteract her radicalism within her literature. Instead, she shielded herself from ostracism by devising a child-like alter ego. She presented herself as a child throughout her life, and acted accordingly. She often played pranks, jumped atop tables, blurted out odd comments, and most of all, questioned everything. However, there are various other interpretations of her odd behavior. Some authors follow the same thinking as my own, that her outrageous behavior was a gimmick that allowed her to say and do what she pleased. An alternative view is that she was acting out what she perceived to be the female role in Germany in the nineteenth century, a childlike life of limited rights and knowledge. Lastly, some scholars believe that she was merely insane.
Nonetheless, Arnim defied her social position and did not refrain from commenting on what she considered the masculine institution. Not only did she publish literary, philosophical and scientific writings, she also critiqued numerous social topics such as the institution of the monarchy, the persona of the king, revolutionaries, etc. Although I believe that gender historian Angeline Goreau was correct in assuming that she was "crazy like a fox" and that there was method to her madness, I also believe that Bettine von Arnim’s outlandish behavior caused her revolutionary work to be overlooked (Joeres, 101). No one takes a child seriously. Although she may not have been labeled deviant, the classification she ultimately chose lessened the effect of her ideas.
Fanny Lewald (1811-1889)
For another, the mere act of writing was enough to establish Fanny Lewald’s radicalism. This is due to her decision to publish a three-volume autobiography, Meine Lebensgeschichte (My Life History) in 1861. Although Lewald published books prior to Meine Lebensgeschichte, this text broke boundaries. In nineteenth century Germany, an autobiography was considered an act of public self-admiration. As women of the time were regarded as naturally modest, only men were supposed to enjoy such individuality. Lewald decided that if she was going to face public ridicule and be taken seriously, she must demonstrate her writing capabilities. In other words, she believed that she needed to write like a man. Therefore, she decided to emulate the style of Germany’s most famous writer, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Using Goethe’s Dichtung und Wahrheit (Poetry and Truth) as a guide, Lewald hoped to finally prove that women did in fact have talent. However, she apparently adhered to his text too closely. Her finished product was considered choppy, hard to follow, and filled with ambiguities.
Conclusion (back to top)
It is likely that these women would still be unknown today if it were not for the persistence of Ruth-Ellen Boetcher Joeres and her colleagues who took charge during the women’s movement of the 1970’s and rescued the unknown. Boetcher has spent thirty years at this work, and still admits that more women exist like these few I have described waiting to be rediscovered. Although we can only guess what we will learn from those yet to be discovered, we do know from these few women writers who have been found that a woman’s life in Germany during the nineteenth century, perhaps reflected throughout the rest of Europe, may not have been what it seemed. Through their letters, documents, books, poems and newspapers, we see that although they were limited in their pursuit of higher education, political and social knowledge, as well as excluded from the public arena of thought, they were able to defy social norms and get their ideas out to the world. Although their writings are often problematic and inconsistent, pushing into the "male" public realm certainly opened new avenues for German, and eventually, all women. It could be said that their efforts could be entitled "Things Are Not Always What They Seem" – both literally and figuratively. |
