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Mathilde Franziska Anneke
(1817 - 1884) Germany - Switzerland - U.S.A.

Mathilde Anneke

Author, journalist and women's right activist

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Anneke was born Mathilde Giesler in Blankenstein, Germany. Her family was not financially secure, and it was a relief when in 1836 the 19-year-old Mathilde married a wealthy man. Three years later she sued for divorce, but lost her case. At a second hearing she was granted the divorce with custody of her daughter, but without alimony.

To earn a living for herself and her daughter, she began to work as a writer. She married again in 1847 with the politically active Fritz Anneke and in the same year she published a pamphlet in defence of the women's rights activist Louise Aston. In 1849, after the defeat of the Baden-Palatinate uprising, the couple fled to US via France and Switzerland.

In 1859 Fritz returned to Europe and Mathilde, after ten years of marriage and five children, established a love relationship with Mary Booth, a younger woman of American Indian parentage. In 1860 they moved to Switzerland, a country that was soon to become a centre for German-speaking lesbians and emancipated women.

After Booth's death in 1865, Anneke returned to the US with her new partner, Cäcilie Kapp. The two women founded a girls' school in Milwaukee, where Anneke died.

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Her work include:

  • Oithono oder Die Tempelweihe (Oithono or the Consecration of the Temple, 1842)
  • Das Weib im Conflict mit den socialen Verhältnissen (Woman in confict with Social Structure, 1848)
  • Memoiren einer Frau aus dem badish-pfälzischen Felduzge (A Woman's Memoirs of the Baden-Palatinate Campaign, 1853)
  • Die Sclave-Auction (The Slave Auction, 1862)
  • Gebrochene Ketten (Broken Chains, 1864)

Source: Excerpts from: Aldrich R. & Wotherspoon G., Who's Who in Contemporary Gay and Lesbian History, Routledge, London, 2001

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