That women took deep interest in folk-songs we know from the fact that several of the most valuable collections of mediæval songs came down to us through women like Clara Haetzler, a nun in Augsburg, and Katharine Zell. The latter states that these lovely poems were sung by workmen and vintages as well as by the mothers at the cradle, and by the servants while they were washing the dishes.
It is not before the 17th Century that women authors of poems begin to write under their names. Among them we find the countesses Anna Sophie von Hesse-Darmstadt (1638–1683) and Amalia Juliane von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. The latter was the author of about six hundred songs, of which the funeral-hymn “Wer weiss wie nahe mir mein Ende” is sung in all Protestant churches of Germany to-day.
The 18th Century produced a number of other women poets, among them Louise Adelgunde Gottsched, Dorothea, Countess von Zinzendorf, Anna Louise Karsch, Sidonie Zäunemann, and Christine Marianne von Ziegler. The last two enjoyed the special patronage of the Emperor, who bestowed upon them the title “Kayserlich gekrönte Poetinnen.”
With the beginning of the 19th Century appeared new groups of women poets, among them Bettina von Arnim, Karoline von Günderode, Elisabeth Kulmann, Louise Brachmann, Betty Paoli, Louise von Ploennies and Adelheid von Stolterfoth, the “Philomele of the Rhine,” so called for her lovely songs and tales in praise of that noble river. In 1797 one of the greatest female poets of all times was born: Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, a native of Westphalia. Compelled to lead a quiet, secluded life by the delicate state of her health, she devoted herself to study and literature, and wrote a number of masterful ballads of which “The Battle in Loenerbruch” has few equals in powerful and realistic description. Her poem “Die beschränkte Frau” is one of the gems of German poetry.
Among the large numbers of German poets of the latter part of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th Century Isolde Kurz, Lulu von Strauss, Margarete Beutler, Agnes Miegel, Tekla Lingen, Ricarda Huch, Frieda Schanz, Anna Ritter, Hedwig Dransfeld, Wilhelmine Wickenburg-Almasy, Hermione von Preuschen, Klara Müller-Jahnke, Hedda Sauer, Maria Eugenie delle Grazie, Angelika von Hörmann, Marie Janitschek, Ada Christen, Mia Holm, Alberta von Puttkammer, Anna Klie, are the names of a few of the many distinguished poets of our present days.
Among American women of German descent we find likewise a number of gifted poets. The two anthologies “Deutsch in Amerika” (Chicago, 1892) and “Vom Lande des Sternenbanners” (Ellenville, N. Y., 1905) contain many contributions of Dorothea Boettcher, Elizabeth Mesch, Edna Fern, Amalie von Ende, Marianne Kuenhold, Maria Raible, Minna Kleeberg, Bella Fiebing, Henni Hubel, Martha Toeplitz, and others, distinguished in form as well as rich in imagination and powerful in expression. Several German-American women also became favorably known by valuable works in prose, as for instance Therese Albertine Louise Jacob, the wife of Professor Robinson, of New York. Under the name of Talvj, she wrote historical works about Captain John Smith and the colonization of New England, and a “Historical Review of the Language and Literature of the Slavic Nations, with a Sketch of their Popular Poetry.” Of her many poems and translations Goethe spoke with great admiration. Her novels are far superior to the average in style and interest.
In the Netherlands the novels of Elizabeth Bekker were extremely popular at the end of the 18th Century. She ranks high among Dutch authors. Her “Historie van William Levend,” the “Historie van Sara Burgerhart,” “Abraham Blankaart” and “Cornelia Wildshut” are her greatest works. The poems of Agathe Dekken are to this day esteemed masterpieces of Dutch poetry. During the 19th Century Mrs. Bosboom-Toussaint’s novels, and Helen Swarth’s poems “Passiebloemen” have been widely read.
The most eminent woman writer of Denmark was Thomasine Kristine Baroness Gyllembourg-Ehrensvärd, who introduced into Danish literature a novel vein of realism and domestic humor. Although she has had many imitators, she is still without a rival. Hadda Raonkilde has exerted a powerful influence upon Scandinavian literature.
The two most successful women-novelists of Norway are Anna Magdalene Thoresen and Jacobine Camilla Collet, author of the excellent novel “Amtmandens Döttre” (“The Governor’s Daughters”). In 1894 all Norway celebrated her eightieth birthday as a national holiday.