Käthe Schirmacher

Käthe Schirmacher (Danzig, 6 August 1865 – Meran, 18 November, 1930) was a German writer, journalist, and political activist who was considered to be one of the leading advocates for women's rights and the international women's movement in the 1890s.

Early life and feminism

Schirmacher was born on 6 August 1865 in Danzig, Kingdom of Prussia.

Käthe Schirmacher was the daughter of a wealthy merchant, but her family fortune was lost in the 1870s early on in her life. Schirmacher was one of the first women in Germany to earn a doctorate, studying at the Sorbonne and from Autumn of 1893 to the Spring of 1895 in Germany and earning her doctorate in Romance studies in Zürich under Heinrich Morf. Something that was unknown to the public was her homosexuality. Over the course of her life Schirmacher would have multiple partners, but her time in Zurich was spent with Margarethe Böhm.

In 1899, Schirmacher was one of the principal founders of the Association for Progressive Women's Organizations in Berlin. In 1904 she was also involved with the International Alliance of Women. During this period of time between the 1890s and the early 1900s, Schirmacher travelled around Europe and the United States and have lectures on German culture and women's issues. One of the things that Schirmacher wrote and lectured about was the idea of the "modern woman." In both her lectures and her personal writing, she expressed the necessary traits to be a modern woman; they are highlighted in Die moderne Frauenbewegung (The Modern Woman's Rights Movement, 1909).