"Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan"

4 German Women

by Paul A. Schons

(originally published by the Germanic-American Institute in March, 1998)

March, as women's history month, provides an opportunity to examine the lives of some of the many women who have made contributions to the development of German culture. In this very limited space, I can, of course, touch upon only a very few of the countless women, over centuries, who have made significant contributions. Readers who may be interested in initiating a further study of the creative role of women in German history may wish to use a short list I have prepared in recognition of women's history month and posted on the Web at: http://www.stthomas.edu/www/language_http/gerwomen.html;1

It seems appropriate to begin with Hildegard von Bingen because, as a 12th century figure, she offers a starting point far back in history, because she has been rediscovered and won new recognition in our own times and because 1998 is the 900th anniversary of her birth. Hildegard, the "Sybil of the Rhine", was a multitalented individual, a religious mystic, an artist, a musician, a writer and a talented clerical manager. She began to experience religious visions already as a child, but did not report these until age 43. At that time her experiences were investigated by a commission of the Archbiship of Mainz and found to be authentic. She wrote of these visions in her book, "Scivias". That book became a "best seller" of the times and led to other books relating her mystic experiences. Her productivity, however, went far beyond reporting on her visions. She wrote of the lives of the saints, extensive works on medicine and natural history, composed music and painted. Hildegard died in 1179 in the convent she had founded and in which she was the abbess, near Bingen on the Rhine.

It seems good to know that in a very early age of German culture a highly talented woman could be accepted, could make use of her talents and could be productive at such levels that she continues to be respected 900 years later. Much less happy was the life of another religious woman in our own century. Edith Stein also had a brilliant mind with many dimensions. Stein earned a doctorate in philosphy after studies with Edmund Husserl at the University of Göttingen and the University of Freiburg. She then quickly established a reputation as an outstanding philosophy teacher. In her first major work, "Endliches und ewiges Sein", she sought to synthesize the philosophies of Husserl and Thomas Aquinas. Her career, unfortunately, came to maturity at the same time that the Nazi party came to power. Due to the Jewish origins of her family she was forced to resign her position at the Institute for Pedagogy at Münster. She fled to Holland in 1938 and there wrote her Studie über Joannes a Cruce: Kreuzeswissenschaft. She was found by the Nazis, however, arrested and transported to the camp at Auschwitz where she died in the gas chamber in 1942.

Anna Freud was another brillian woman who had to leave her homeland due to her Jewishness. The youngest daughter of Viennese professor, Sigmund Freud, Anna was close to her father and drew from his insights into the human mind to build her own system. Anna Freud extended the ideas of psychoanalysis to children. She published her first major paper on child psychoanalysis in 1927 and her book, "Das Ich und die Abwehrmechanismen" in 1936. It was at that time that she presented her perception of the role of repression in the child's mind. In 1938 she fled with her father to London where she spent the remainder of her life. In England she continued her work with disturbed children and continued to create the science of child psychiatry in her publications.

The husband of Amelia zur Helle Thyssen, Fritz Thyssen, had been one of the first major industrialists to give financial support to the Nazis. He had viewed that party as a couterweight to threat of communism. By 1939 however he recognized the Nazis as the greater threat and broke with them. He and Amelia were confined to concentration camps. After the war the properties were restored, but Fritz Thyssen was tried by the allies and found to be a "minor Nazi". He was forced to give 15 percent of his property to a fund for the victims of Nazi persecution. Fritz Thyssen died in 1951. At that time Amelia zur Helle Thyssen gave form to her own considerable managerial talents. Through mergers and expansions she was able to build Thyssen into the largest steel company in Europe. She also gained great respect through the formation of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation for the advancement of science.

As the brilliance of Amelia zur Helle Thyssen was overshadowed by her husband's career during his lifetime, the ability and career of Clara Schumann also took a second place to her life as a wife and mother during her husbands lifetime. Born Clara Wieck, she married the composer, Robert Schumann, in 1840. As Clara Wieck she had developed a reputation throughout Europe as a child prodigy and possibly the greatest pianist of the century. During her marriage with Robert, she bore 8 children, became the leading interpreter of her husbands music as well as that of Johannes Brahms, promoted her husband's work, taught at the Leipzig Conservatory of Music and still found the time to compose works for orchestra, chamber music, songs and pieces for solo paino. After Robert's death she toured widely giving piano performances and continued her composition.