The prolific but now almost forgotten writers Karoline Pichler, Henriette Paalzow, Otilie Wildermut, Countess Ida Hahn-Hahn, Fanny Lewald and Louise Mühlbach were followed in the second part of the 19th Century by Eugenie John, better known under her nom de plume Marlitt. Her novels “Das Geheimniss der alten Mamsell” (“Old Mamselle’s Secret”), “Heideprinzesschen” (“The Princess of the Moor”), “Gold Else” (“Gold Elsie”) and others met with tremendous success and have been in translations also enjoyed by many English and American readers.
With like enthusiasm the women of Germany read the novels of Wilhelmine Heimburg, Louise von Francois (“Die letzte Reckenburgerin”) and Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach. The latter is regarded as the greatest of all modern novelists of Germany, Paul Heyse not excepted. When the University in Vienna bestowed upon her the degree of Doctor phil. honoris causa, the enormous body of her readers heartily rejoiced. Her most famous novel is “Das Gemeindekind” (“The child of the Parish”). She also published a volume of “Aphorisms.”
Wilhelmine von Hillern’s once much read novel “Die Geierwally” has been surpassed by far more valuable works of Ilse Frapan, Ida Boy-Ed, Helene Pichler, Margarete von Bülow, Bianca Bobertag, Ossip Schubin, Helene Böhlau, Emma Vely, Emmy von Dinklage, Dora Dunker, Marie von Bunsen, Sophie Junghans, Louise Westkirch, Clara Blüthgen, Olga Wohlbrück, Carry Brachvogel and a number of other modern writers.
Among them Enrica von Handel-Mazetti and Ricarda Huch are distinguished by their great ability in drawing strong characters as well as deeply affecting situations. The first of the two authors transports her readers in the two novels “Meinrad Helmpergers denkwürdiges Jahr” and “Jesse und Maria” to the turbulent times of the 17th and 18th Centuries, when a superstitious world was upset by cruel warfare between Catholics and Protestants. Ricarda Huch created works of equal value in the novels “Erinnerungen von Ludolf Urslen dem Jüngeren” (“Reminiscences of Ludolf Urslen, Junior”), “Aus der Triumphgasse” (“From the Alley of Triumph”) and “The Verteidigung Roms” (“The Defense of Rome”).
Elizabeth von Heyking carried the reader to the more recent times of the Chinese Boxer War with her admirable novel “Briefe die ihn nicht erreichten” (“Letters he did not get”).
Clara Viebig belongs likewise to the great novelists of modern times. Having manifested in her first collection of short stories, “Kinder der Eifel” (“Children of the Eifel Plateau”), a most extraordinary gift of observation and description, she brought this talent to full development in her splendid novels “Rheinlandstoechter” (“Daughters of the Rhein”), “Das schlafende Heer” (“The sleeping army”) and “Absolve te.”
Gabriele Reuter treated in her novels “Aus guter Familie” (“Of good family”), “Frau Bürgelin und ihre Söhne,” “Ellen von der Weiden,” and “Liselotte von Reckling” various phases of the woman’s question. In the first book she protests against the injustice created by custom and tradition, which allows men to propose, while women are condemned to remain silent.
Finally we must mention the noble woman who, most intensely realizing the deep longing of mankind for peace, with her famous book “Die Waffen nieder!” (“Lay down your arms!”) exerted probably the greatest influence any author ever had through a single volume: the Austrian Bertha von Suttner. The powerful appeal of this great book, which was translated into more than twenty different languages, led Alfred B. Nobel, a rich Swedish scientist and the inventor of dynamite, to bequeath the annual interest of his great fortune to whoever has contributed most to the peaceful progress of mankind during the year immediately preceding. It was not more than just that the great merit of Madame von Suttner was acknowledged by awarding to her in 1905 the Nobel Prize for peace.
Having devoted her whole life to the cause of peace, Bertha von Suttner died in June, 1914, while engaged in preparations for an International Peace Congress to be held in September of that same year in Vienna. Fate spared her the bitter disappointment to see the outbreak of the most cruel and destructive war in history. But her call “Lay down your arms!” will live. It will remain the watchword and summons of all who with this high-priestess of peace believe that war is the most unreasonable and most criminal act men can commit.
Of course, German women have also contributed to the literature about the woman’s question. Perhaps the most valuable work in this line is Dr. Kaethe Schirmacher’s book “Die moderne Frauenbewegung,” giving a history of the woman’s rights movement in all countries of the world. As there has been no English book covering this broad subject, it was translated by C. C. Eckhardt and in 1912 published at New York under the title “The Modern Woman’s Rights Movement.”