Hedwig Bender

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Hedwig Bender (born February 22, 1854 in Luxembourg ; † April 13, 1928 in Erfurt ; also Helene Bender ) was a German philosopher and suffragette .

Life

Hedwig Bender was born in Luxembourg in 1854 as the daughter of a Prussian officer and was related to the writer Louise von François through her mother Adelheid von François . After her father's transfer, she spent her childhood in Glatz, Silesia, and attended the girls' school in Oeynhausen. In 1872 she passed her exams as a teacher at the higher girls' school in Hanover and was subsequently a. a. worked in Minden and Dresden before she came to Eisenach in 1878 . She died in Erfurt in 1928.

Bender was never married and had no children in her life.

Services

Bender's scientific interest was in the teachings of the philosophers Baruch de Spinoza and Giordano Bruno . She tried to re-establish the unified worldview developed by Spinoza with the help of atomistics and the teachings of Immanuel Kant . Her first work, the philosophical treatise “The substance as thing in itself”, she published in 1884 at the age of 30 in the magazine for philosophy and philosophical criticism published in Halle , at that time under the pseudonym Hermann Bender . In the period that followed, her writings were published in contemporary magazines such as “Westermanns Monatshefte”, “Nord und Süd” or “Die Frau”, in some cases under the names of H. Bender and Helene Bender .

In addition to her academic work, Bender belonged to the conservative camp of the bourgeois women's movement. She was particularly interested in equal rights for women in the late 19th century, without, however, questioning the role of women as wife and mother or even recognizing it as a profession . So she wrote in an essay in 1895:

"Irresponsible is therefore the endeavor of so many men, for selfish motives, to keep women as much as possible in a state of ignorance and intellectual immaturity."

You initiated signature collections, u. a. for the free access of women to the study of medicine , and was co-founder of the Eisenach local group of the general teachers' association . She was on friendly terms with Louise von François, an exchange of letters between the two women during Bender's time in Eisenach has come down to us.

Works (selection)

  • Substance as a thing in itself (1884 as Helene Bender in the magazine for philosophy and philosophical criticism )
  • To solve the metaphysical problem (1886 as Hermann Bender )
  • Giordano Bruno, a martyr of freedom of thought. 1890, Weimar publishing house. ( Digitized version )
  • The women's movement in Germany. Its current status and its importance (1891, Weimar Publishing House)
  • George Eliot  : a picture of life . Verl.-Anst. and Dr. A.-G., Hamburg 1893. ( digitized version )
  • Luise von François - biography (1894, Weimar Publishing House)
  • The essence of morality (1894)
  • Our right to a career in life (1895 in Die Frau )
  • Philosophy, Metaphysics and Individual Research (1897, Haacke)

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Stefan Knischek: wisdom of famous philosophers . Humboldt-Verlag, 2006, ISBN 978-3-89994-072-5 , pp. 216 .
  2. ^ Louise von François and Eisenach: Three letters from the poet to Hedwig Bender and to Frau Oberstleutnant Bender, Adelheid, geb. from François in Eisenach . In: Hermann Hoßfeld (Ed.): Der Bergfried . No. 2 , 1924.
  3. ↑ Jürgen Stenzel: Philosophy as Antimetaphysics . Königshausen & Neumann, 2002, ISBN 978-3-8260-2071-1 , p. 372 .
personal data
SURNAME Bender, Hedwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bender, Helene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH February 22, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Luxembourg
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1928
Place of death Erfurt