-
Luisa Neubauer
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
There is also version.
-
Geertruida Wijsmuller-Meijer
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
There is also version.
-
born August 9, 1899, Maryborough, Queensland, Australia
died April 23, 1996, London, England
Australian writer, drama critic, student of myths, author of Mary Poppins books
120th birthday on August 9, 2019
“Myth has been my study and joy ever since the age . . . of three.
The true fairytales … come straight out of myth. One might say that
fairytales are the myths falling into time and locality.”
Recently I asked a friend if she were a fan of Mary Poppins. “Oh yes!” she replied, “that was a great movie!” – referring to the 1964 Disney movie of that title. “Did you like the books?” I asked. “Books? What books?” she wondered.
My friend wasn’t alone. Apparently some people who know and love the movie are not familiar with the six books of stories about the mysterious nanny that inspired it – one of the most popular and successful in American film history – nor with their author, P. L. Travers. Even less well known is the fact that Travers, in addition to writing her Mary Poppins books, was a serious student of myths and fairy tales, and wrote and spoke extensively about them in different cultures – Australian, Celtic, Native American, Indian – and their meaning in our…read more
-
Diana von Poitiers
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Born June 21, 1904 in Baden, Austria (near Vienna)
Died April 26, 1941 in Toulouse
Austrian historian
Lucie Varga is yet another gifted and talented young woman whose life and work were abruptly cut short by Nazi barbarism. When she died at the age of 36, she was on the cusp of a career as an important historian. In addition to her dissertation, she left behind several notable essays and reviews on a wide range of subjects including National Socialism, witchcraft beliefs in Ladinia in South Tyrol, and the Cathars.
In her famous study of National Socialism (1937), she delineated how fear of losing status united a group of men whose common motivation was the defense of “social honor.” Varga took seriously the Nazi concept of honor and was the first historian to examine the symbolic and emotional dimension of Nazism and its quasi-religious organizational structures, which ultimately resulted in a mass social movement.
Varga came from an upper-middle-class Jewish family from Hungary. After earning her Abitur from the progressive school founded by Eugenie Schwarzwald she married…read more
-
born April 26, 1941 in Berlin
died November 26, 2001 in Berlin
German politician (SPD) and biologist
20th anniversary of death on November 26, 2021
The most striking thing about the politicians of the Federal Republic of Germany is that they seem strangely colorless and interchangeable. There are hardly any inspirational figures or role models among them.
Regine Hildebrandt was a woman who departed from this type in an appealilng way, as one who spoke plainly, stood up for her goals to the last, and consistently represented her views without shifting with every wind. For this, she was highly esteemed and revered, especially in the new German states: nicknames such as "Mother Courage of the East," "Voice of the East" and "Avenger of the Disinherited" are eloquent testimony to this. Her non-conformist demeanor often made her a target for her political opponents, especially where she could not be met factually (e.g., Der Spiegel, June 1, 1998; Die Welt, April 26, 2001).
Regine Radischewski was born in Berlin on April 26, 1941. Her father was a pianist and répétiteur at the State Ballet School, her mother a housewife, later…read more
-
born on December 11, 1849 in Sundsholm, Sweden
died on April 25, 1926 in Vattersee, Sweden
Swedish educator and publicist
100th anniversary of her death on April 25, 2026
In 1895, Ellen Key gave a lecture on the controversial topic of “the misused power of women” at a women's conference in Copenhagen. Previously an unknown teacher and lecturer at the Workers' Institute in Stockholm, she subsequently became a focal point of the European women's movement and an influential publicist. According to Ellen Key, women are different from men and they should recognize this for their own good and for the good of human society. “Mannish women,” she asserted, only support dangerous, decadent tendencies in modern society; these women even act against their nature, since women can never achieve what men achieve in art, philosophy, and other fields. As mothers, however (also in a figurative sense), women could play a vital historical role in countering inhuman, individualistic tendencies.
Ellen Key grew up as the daughter of a wealthy and liberal family. She was educated athome and displayed an aversion to housework at a young age. Her mother supported her…read more
-
Karin Boye
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Lucy von Jacobi
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Wallis Simpson, Herzogin von Windsor
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Jeanne Mammen
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Germaine de Staël-Holstein
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Erma Bombeck
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Isabella von Kastilien
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
Elizabeth II., Königin von England
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
born on April 21, 1816 in Thornton, Yorkshire/ England
died on March 31, 1855 in Haworth, Yorkshire/ England
British writer
170th anniversary of her death on March 31, 2025
The eldest of the famous sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë wrote revolutionary novels about women who fiercely fought the restrictions imposed on them by the patriarchy. Many found this rebellious literature immoral, and even pornographic. In contrast to her heroines, Charlotte Brontë lived an extremely conventional and “womanly” life, devoting herself first to the care of her younger siblings and later attending selflessly to her brother and father. She never once neglected their needs or the household in favor of her writing.
Charlotte's father Patrick Brontë (1777-1861), who played a dominant role in her life, came from Northern Ireland and from the poorest of circumstances. The talented and ambitious boy attracted the attention of Methodist clergymen who encouraged him and later enabled him to study theology at Cambridge, where he also took on the more aristocratic spelling of his name (Brontë instead of Brunty).
From poor farm boy to esteemed pastor – an unusual…read more
-
Marie Anne Tellegen
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
born April 23 1951 on Ebeye Island in the Marshall Islands
died June 18 1996 on Majuro Island in the Marshall Islands
Anti-nuclear Activist and Marshall Islander
“We are testing these bombs for the good of mankind and to end all wars.” So spoke a U.S. Navy officer in 1946 – the year after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II – to explain to the people of the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean why the U.S. was about to embark on a series of tests of nuclear bombs there. The same year, a U.S. Navy press release included this statement: “The natives are delighted, enthusiastic about the atomic bomb, which has already brought them prosperity and a new promising future.”
Darlene Keju would strongly disagree. Between 1946 and 1958, a total of 67 bombs were tested in the Marshalls – atomic bombs like the ones used in Japan, and the much more powerful hydrogen or thermonuclear bombs. Islanders were exposed to high levels of radioactive fallout, resulting in a wide range of devastating health problems, including radiation sickness, cancers, and severe birth defects. Many were evacuated to ostensibly safer…read more
-
Born May 23, 1892 in Stuttgart
died on April 26, 1976 in Bielefeld
German-Czech textile artist
130th birthday on May 23, 2022
First highly praised, then forgotten, finally misinterpreted and, more recently, controversially discussed because of two, long unknown carpets with Nazi insignia. - The reception history of Bauhaus-, Burg-, and Bethel artist Benita Koch-Otte reflects two well-known desiderata: On the one hand, research on the female half of the art school is still incomplete more than 80 years after the Bauhaus closed. Even for exposed female artists such as Koch-Otte, a relevant catalog of works is lacking. On the other hand, in the discussion about avant-garde artists who carried out Nazi-serving tasks after 1933, a profound revision of widespread Bauhaus myths is more than overdue.
"Obsessed with weaving": student in Weimar.
Eastern 1920, at the age of 27, Benita Koch-Otte* enrolled as a student at the Bauhaus in Weimar; "incomprehensibly stupid" (cited in Schenk zu Schweinsberg, 2012, p. 43) was how her father Rudolf Otte, a chemist with a doctorate, called this step: his self-critical…read more
-
Anne Klein
This biography is not yet available in English.
You can find the German version here.
-
born on July 17, 1939 in Goro near Ferrara/ Italy
died on April 23, 2021 in Milan/ Italy
Italian singer and actress
85th birthday on July 17, 2024
Maria Ilva Biolcati, known internationally as Milva, was an extremely versatile singer. Whether chansons, pop songs, opera arias or Brecht/Weill compositions - the woman with the dramatic red hair (hence her nickname La Rossa) mastered them all with equal virtuosity.
Born into a family of fishmongers, she had to begin working at an early age as her father had squandered away most of the family’s money. After training as a singer, Milva started out as a nightclub singer; at the age of 21, she won an RAI talent competition and landed her first recording contract. In 1961, she achieved her breakthrough in Italy by winning third place at the San Remo Festival. She also appeared as an actress for the first time and married her manager Maurizio Corgnati the same year. Their only daughter Martina was born in 1963.
In the following decades, Milva became an internationally acclaimed star. She sang in many languages, but was particularly popular in Germany and France. Her…read more
-
born on March 16, 1924 or 1928 in Berlin, Germany
died on April 24, 2021 in Klosterneuburg, Germany
100th/96th birthday on March 16, 2024
German singer
"I never fooled myself - and I never cheated at cards," she assures us, and we are happy to believe her. Nevertheless, the question remains as to her real age and year of birth. Was it 1924 or 1928? Both dates can be found in the online and offline biographies. Let's simply congratulate her on an unprecedented operatic career spanning almost half a century at the world's leading opera houses in Berlin, Vienna, Munich, Milan, Paris, London, Chicago and New York.
Christa Ludwig made her first public appearance in 1946. The extent to which she shaped not only the German classical music scene as a sought-after mezzo-soprano can fortunately be heard in numerous audio, DVD and video recordings, some of which were in private hands and released later. This applies first and foremost to her performances as opera singer from the late 1950s until her last stage appearance at the end of 1994 as Klytemnestra in Strauss' Elektra at the Vienna State Opera, where she was an indispensable…read more
-
Born in Breslau on 23 April 1941
Died in Bourg-St-Andéol, France, on 8 November 2018
German painter, sculptor and poet; feminist cultural worker
At an early age Lena Vandrey was described as “unusually gifted,” “precocious” and “brilliant”— and left to deal with these labels on her own. The little “genius” began producing drawings and poems at age 2. Following happy years spent at a commercial school Lena left Germany and moved to France—the Vandreys were of Huguenot origin. Her path led her from Paris to Provence, to a lonesome house on a high plateau: 21 years without electricity, seven years without telephone, 35 years of water problems and very often long treks on foot with a heavy load.
Rebuilding: not only this ruin but also many others, and collecting. Vandrey’s collection of women’s household and religious art and artifacts now belongs to the state. Many films and books document this work.
Then came the Zyklus der Unverwesbaren Geliebten (Cycle of Incorruptible Lovers), a gift to the French women’s movement, the MLF; only those who really desire it are meant to recognize themselves in this dream…read more
