Franziska von Reitzenstein


Franziska Freifrau von Reitzenstein was a German novelist.

Biography

Von Reitzenstein was born the daughter of a judicial counselor in Castle Härdenstein in Swabia. She was well educated and moved in aristocratic and noble circles. In 1849 she married the royal Bavarian Rittmeister Freiherr von Reitzenstein. After her husband died in 1853, she travelled to several places of Italy and was inspired to write by Karl Gutzkow. She randomized her male pen name "Franz" in a topographical, statistical lexicon, whereas Nemmersdorf was the former name of a settlement in East Prussia, today Mayakovskoye.
Under her pen name she wrote novels in particular, also some with historical themes. Later she followed in Paolo Mantegazza's footsteps and dedicated her work Kampf der Geschlechter to him, which dealt with the relations between women and men and of the question of women's rights. She wrote also for journals and newspapers, amongst them the "Allgemeine Zeitung" in Augsburg, the "Münchener Zeitung" as well as the appending "Unterhaltungsblatt", also Keil's „Die Gartenlaube“ and several papers in Vienna. Von Reitzenstein owned a house in Munich, where she lived with her cats, which was why she was called "cat baroness" by her neighbors She is buried in the Old Southern Cemetery in Munich. Her grave tomb was designed by Friedrich von Thiersch.

Works