Franziska von Reitzenstein


Franziska Freifrau 'von Reitzenstein' was a German novelist.

Biography

Von Reitzenstein was born the daughter of a judicial counselor in Castle Härdenstein in Swabia. She was well educated and moved in aristocratic and noble circles. In 1849 she married the royal Bavarian Rittmeister Freiherr von Reitzenstein. After her husband died in 1853, she travelled to several places of Italy and was inspired to write by Karl Gutzkow. She randomized her male pen name "Franz" in a topographical, statistical lexicon, whereas Nemmersdorf was the former name of a settlement in East Prussia, today Mayakovskoye.
Under her pen name she wrote novels in particular, also some with historical themes. Later she followed in Paolo Mantegazza's footsteps and dedicated her work Kampf der Geschlechter to him, which dealt with the relations between women and men and of the question of women's rights. She wrote also for journals and newspapers, amongst them the "Allgemeine Zeitung" in Augsburg, the "Münchener Zeitung" as well as the appending "Unterhaltungsblatt", also Keil's „Die Gartenlaube“ and several papers in Vienna. Von Reitzenstein owned a house in Munich, where she lived with her cats, which was why she was called "cat baroness" by her neighbors She is buried in the Old Southern Cemetery in Munich. Her grave tomb was designed by Friedrich von Thiersch.

Works

Von der Newa an die Weichsel, in Unterhaltungen am häuslichen Herd published by Karl GutzkowUnter den Ruinen, Leipzig, 1861,Moderne Gesellschaft, Leipzig, 1863La Stella, Munich, 1863, prior published in Neue Münchener ZeitungDoge und Papst, Breslau, 1865
  • Gozzi’s Rache, published in the evening paper of the Bayerische Zeitung, 1865Allein in der Welt, Berlin, 1868Ein moderner Werther Späte Sühne in Julius Grosse's and Franz Grandauer's revue "Propyläen", 1869Unter den Waffen, Berlin, 1869, reprinted in 1872Ritter unserer Zeit, Nuremberg, 1873Die Verworfene und Reine Ein dämonisches Weib, 1873Ein Gentleman, Jena, 1874Ein Ehestandsdrama, Jena 1876Die Masken des Glückes, Berlin, 1876Gebt Raum!, Dresden, 1880Das Rätsel des Lebens, Leipzig, 1894Der Kampf der Geschlechter - Eine Studie aus dem Leben und für das Leben, Stuttgart, 1895