Fanny Lewald was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 Jewish  author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

Biography

She was born at Königsberg

Königsberg

Königsberg was the capital of East Prussia from the Late Middle Ages until 1945 as well as the northernmost and easternmost German city with 286,666 inhabitants . Due to the multicultural society in and around the city, there are several local names for it...

 in East Prussia

East Prussia

East Prussia is the main part of the region of Prussia along the southeastern Baltic Coast from the 13th century to the end of World War II in May 1945. From 1772–1829 and 1878–1945, the Province of East Prussia was part of the German state of Prussia. The capital city was Königsberg.East Prussia...

. When seventeen years of age she accepted Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

. She traveled in the German Confederation

German Confederation

The German Confederation was the loose association of Central European states created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 to coordinate the economies of separate German-speaking countries. It acted as a buffer between the powerful states of Austria and Prussia...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. Travel developed her powers of composition, and in 1841 she published her first novel in her cousin August Lewald

August Lewald

August Lewald was a German author.-Biography:Lewald was born at Königsberg. He entered the Russian service at Warsaw, as secretary, during the War of Liberation. He became an actor, and after 1818 he was manager and director of theatres at Hamburg, Stuttgart, and elsewhere...

's periodical Europa, under the title Der Stellvertreter. In 1845, she settled at Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

. Here, in 1854, she married the author Adolf Stahr. In 1876, after his death, she moved to Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

, where she engaged in literary work until her death in 1889.

Lewald is less remarkable for her writings, which, though displaying considerable talent and culture, are mostly sober, matter-of-fact works, than for her championship of women's rights

Women's rights

Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...

 and for her scathing satire

Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...

 on the sentimentalism of the Gräfin von Hahn-Hahn

Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn

Countess Ida von Hahn-Hahn was a German author.-Biography:She was born at Tressow, in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She was the daughter of Carl Friedrich Graf von Hahn , who was well known for his enthusiasm for stage productions, upon which he squandered a large portion of his fortune...

. This author she ruthlessly attacked in the exquisite parody Diogena, Roman von Iduna Gräfin H...-H... (2nd ed., 1847).

Among the best known of her novels are:

• Klementine (1842)
• Jenny (1843)
• Prinz Louis Ferdinand (1849; 2nd ed., 1859)
• Das Mädchen von Hela (1860)
• Von Geschlecht zu Geschlecht (8 vols, 1863-1865)
• Nella (1870)
• Die Erlöserin (1873)
• Benvenuto (1875)
• Stella (1883; English trans. by B. Marshall, 1884)

Of her writings in defence of the emancipation of women, Osterbriefe für die Frauen (1863) and Für und wider die Frauen (1870) are conspicuous. She also wrote sketches of travel. Her autobiography, Meine Lebensgeschichte (6 vols, 1861-1862), is brightly written and affords interesting glimpses of the literary life of her time.

A selection of her works was published under the title Gesammelte Schriften in 12 vols (1870-1874).