Margarethe Elisabeth Milow

A bust for Margarethe Elisabeth Milow

Margarethe Elisabeth Milow (born October 2, 1748 in Hamburg as Elisabeth Hudtwalcker ; † October 20, 1794 ibid) was a German housewife and housemother at a boys' boarding school.

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Plaque

Margarethe Elisabeth Hudtwalcker was the daughter of the oil and herring dealer Jacob Hinrich Hudtwalcker (1710–1781) and his wife Sara Elisabeth, née Ehlers (1728–1799). She spent her childhood and youth at Katharinenstrasse 83. She had nine siblings, including Senator Johann Michael Hudtwalcker .

Margarethe Elisabeth Hudtwalcker wrote an autobiography first published in 1987. She was one of the few non-aristocratic women of the 18th century whose life has been so documented. Hudtwalcker did not write for a broad readership, but for her husband and their children. In her work she describes a résumé with unhappy love, hope and happiness, worries in marriage, faith and fears. The portrayal of her affection for Octav, who worked in her father's office, is considered particularly successful. Since his father was a bankrupt, Octav was considered inappropriate. Jacob Hinrich Hudtwalcker was therefore looking for pastor Johann Nikolaus Milow (1738–1795) as a husband for his daughter. Although he had no assets, he had the desired status. After the wedding on October 17, 1769, Johann Nikolaus Milow preached for several years in Lüneburg . He then worked as a pastor for Heinrich Carl von Schimmelmann . Thus the couple came into contact with Matthias Claudius' environment .

Margarethe Elisabeth Milow was the mother of eleven children, whom she bore between the ages of 22 and 37. Three of these children died shortly after birth or did not get past childhood. She also had a miscarriage. In addition to the pastor's office, her husband ran an educational institution for boys between the ages of eight and 15. Since they also lived in the Milow's household, Margarethe Elisabeth had to look after them as a housemother in addition to her actual housewife work.

At the age of 46, Milow developed breast cancer. She recorded the course of the illness in her notes. She was operated on without anesthesia, recovered and later developed metastases. She died a year after the operation. The misfortune of her résumé is that Octav, whom she admires, developed into a respected and wealthy businessman a few years after their wedding.

The Köster Foundation , of which relatives are Margarethe Elisabeth Milows, dedicated a bust to her in a nursing home on Amalie-Dietrich-Stieg 2 in 1995.

literature

• Rita Bake : Milow, Margarethe Elisabeth . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 263 .
• Rita Bake, Birgit Kiupel (Ed.): Margarethe E. Milow. But I don't want to grumble. Hamburg 1987 a. 1993.