Franziska von Kapff-Essenther

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Franziska von Kapff-Essenther

Franziska von Kapff-Essenther , b. Essenther, (born April 2, 1849 at Wallenstein Castle near Leitomischl , Bohemia , † October 28, 1899 in Berlin ) was an Austrian author and intellectual . She is considered an early feminist .

Life

Franziska Essenther's father was a tax inspector. She spent her childhood in smaller towns in Bohemia. Most of the time she was handcuffed to the house because of sickness. So she got her education autodidactically and made it through self-study to become a teacher. At a young age she ran a private girls' school in Vienna-Hernals, where she tried to implement her ideas about reforming the education for girls. However, she only remained a teacher for a short time.

In Vienna she was one of the first to deal with the issue of women's rights . She published various pamphlets that attracted her attention. In 1873 she summarized her ideas in popular form in a three-volume novel entitled Women's Honor . This established their reputation. The work dealt with the problems of a “noble, useful and natural equality of women”. Kapff-Essenther took part in the young women’s movement as an “adviser to the Central Women’s Committee of the General Association for Public Education and Improvement of Womenlessness in Vienna and Stuttgart” . It supported efforts to improve training and career opportunities for women.

In 1880 she married the music and art writer Otto von Kapff (1855-1918), who was six years younger than her. The marriage was described as unhappy and dissolved in 1887.

After the divorce she moved to Berlin. Her novel Ziel und Ende was published in Zurich in 1888 . In the same year she married the writer Paul Blumenreich. Numerous novels followed, with which they earned a living together. Marriage is almost always the theme of these works. Her husband founded the Berlin arts section in 1889 . After a short time in Stuttgart 1892-1893, the couple returned to Berlin; Blumenreich renewed its paper in 1894 as a new feature section . Franziska was the main contributor to his magazines, but they did not bring any financial success. Unfortunate theater speculations followed, in particular Blumenreich was the managing director of the Alt-Berlin theater , convicted of embezzlement in 1898 and then fled to the USA with four of his children . Franziska von Kapff-Essenther herself had an insurmountable fear of a journey across the ocean and could not make up her mind to follow her husband and children to America. After separating from her second husband, Kapff-Essenther was forced to do literary mass production for financial reasons. In the years of her second marriage, she never published under her real name Blumenreich; only her earliest works appeared under her maiden name Essenther.

Kapff-Essenther was nervously very unstable and suffered from depression all his life . She had visited mental hospitals repeatedly. In 1899 she committed suicide by falling out of a hotel window. The circumstances of their decision are not exactly clarified.

Works

  • Women's literature. In: Frauenblätter 1 (1872), 18
  • Women's honor. Novel from modern social life. (Vienna: Leo, 1873. 3 volumes)
  • The social revolution in the animal kingdom. Comical epic from the present (Leipzig, 1876)
  • My Vienna. Viennese moral pictures (Leipzig: Winckler, 1884/1889. 2 volumes)
  • Modern heroes. Character images. (1885, 2 volumes): Only a person Hans who did not want to die , Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Goal and end (novel, 3 volumes, 1888)
  • Flower Stories (1888)
  • On the precipice of marriage (novellas, 1888)
  • All sorts of love (six novellas, 1889)
  • At a lonely height (Roman, 1889)
  • Load of happiness (novella, 1890)
  • Travel Stories (1890)
  • New short stories (2 volumes, 1890)
  • From baths and summer retreats (1890)
  • Angels on Earth (1891)
  • Storms in the harbor (novel, 2 volumes, 1892)
  • Siegfried (Roman, 1894)
  • Heaven and Hell (novel, 1894)
  • Supply (Roman, 1895)
  • Eva's upbringing (Roman, Berlin 1895)
  • The poor thing. (Novella, Vienna 1895)
  • Debt (Roman, Steinitz 1895)
  • In the smallest hut (Roman, Berlin 1896)
  • The real ring (1896)
  • The gray wall. (Novella, Berlin 1897)
  • Don Juan Fantasy (1897)
  • The value of life. The ring of polycrates. (Two novellas, Berlin 1897)
  • Übermenschen In: entertainment supplement to the weekly newspaper Fürs Haus (1898)
  • The wallet (novel, 1898)
  • Dowry hunter (novel, 1898)
  • Beyond good and evil (novel, 1899)
  • Collegiate Marriage (novel, 1900)
  • Into the bottomless. Dowry. Liana. Lily. (Four stories, 1900)
  • Servant Stories (Six Tales, 1901)
  • Little husbands stories (six stories, 1902): How little people live , Edi's fathers , A good guy , Johanna 's suitor , Bertha's happiness , All soul comfort
  • Past . (Last novel, 2 volumes, 1902)
  • Haunted by luck (story 1903)
  • The other world (Roman. Berlin: Schlesische Verlagsanstalt, 1914)
  • The sacrament of marriage. Berlin novel (Berlin 1930)
  • Fifi's trip. - Vienna, undated
  • A man for Hedchen. - Vienna, undated

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kapff-Essenther, Franziska von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Essenther, Franziska (maiden name); Franziska Blumenreich (second married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian author and intellectual
DATE OF BIRTH April 2, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Wallenstein Castle near Leitomischl , Bohemia
DATE OF DEATH October 28, 1899
Place of death Berlin