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Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn

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German author (1805–1880)

Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn
Born22 June 1805
Tressow
Died12 January 1880 (aged 74)
Mainz
OccupationWriter
LanguageGerman language
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Countess Ida von Hahn-Hahn (German: Ida Gräfin von Hahn-Hahn; 22 June 1805 – 12 January 1880) was a German author from a wealthy family who lost their fortune because of her father's eccentric spending. She defied convention by living with Adolf von Bystram unmarried for 21 years. Her writings about the German aristocracy were greatly favored by the general public of her time. Ida von Hahn-Hahn often wrote about the tragedies of the soul and was influenced by the French novelist George Sand. She "was an indefatigable campaigner for the emancipation of women" and her writings include many strong female characters.

Biography

She was born at Tressow, in the duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. She was the daughter of Count Karl von Hahn [de] (1782 – 21 May 1857 Altona) of the von Hahn family, who was well known for his enthusiasm for stage productions, upon which he squandered a large portion of his fortune. In his old age, he was obliged to support himself by managing a provincial company and died in poverty.

In 1826, Ida married her wealthy cousin Friedrich Wilhelm Adolph Graf von Hahn [de], which gave her the doubled name. With him she had an extremely unhappy life, and in 1829 her husband's irregularities led to a divorce. She spent the years after her divorce ignoring social norms by traveling and living with Baron Adolf von Bystram. Bystram encouraged her to write about their travels across Europe and the Near East.

Ida, Countess von Hahn-Hahn

In 1847, the author drew upon herself the merciless ridicule of Fanny Lewald, who "attacked her as a self-indulgent aristocrat indifferent to the plight of the poor." After the revolutions of 1848 and the death of Adolf von Bystram in 1849, she embraced the Roman Catholic religion in 1850, after having opened the Bible on some day in 1849 and seeing this passage: "Arise, be enlightened O Jerusalem, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon there." The countess Ida even visited the Prince Bishop Diepenbrock, of whom she asked whether or not she could be absorbed into the Catholic Church. Hahn-Hahn justified her step in a polemical work entitled Von Babylon nach Jerusalem (1851), which elicited a vigorous reply from Heinrich Abeken, and from several others as well.

In November 1852, she retired into the convent Du Bon Pasteur at Angers, which she however soon left, taking up residence in Mainz as a "layperson in a convent she had co-founded for "fallen" girls." She would die there (at Mainz) in 1880. Hahn-Hahn devoted herself to the reformation of outcasts of her own sex, and wrote several works, among which are: Bilder aus der Geschichte der Kirche (3 vols., 1856–'64); Peregrina (1864); and Eudoxia (1868).

Writings

For many years, her novels were the most popular works of fiction in aristocratic circles; many of her later publications, however, passed unnoticed as mere religious manifestoes. Ulrich and Gräfin Faustine, both published in 1841, mark the culmination of her power; but Sigismund Forster (1843), Cecil (1844), Sibylle (1846) and Maria Regina (1860) also obtained considerable popularity. For several years, the countess continued to produce novels bearing a certain subjective resemblance to those of George Sand, but less hostile to social institutions, and dealing almost exclusively with aristocratic society.

Her collected works, Gesammelte Werke, with an introduction by Otto von Schaching, were published in two series, 45 volumes in all (Regensburg, 1903–1904).

Gräfin Faustine

Gräfin Faustine or Countess Faustine travels to the Orient and ends up in "a cloister to expiate her sins". Countess Faustine is a female Don Joan set in a world of adultery.

Catholic writings

After converting to Roman Catholicism, Hahn-Hahn began writing to encourage conversions to the Catholic Church.

Publications

Countess von Hahn-Hahn's published works as cited by An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers. All publications listed below are in German.

References and notes

  1. Regarding personal names: Gräfin is a title, translated as 'Countess', not a first or middle name. The masculine form is Graf.
  2. ^ Wilson, Katharina (1991). An Encyclopedia of continental women writers. Vol. 1. New York and London: Garland Publishing, Inc. pp. 523–524. ISBN 9781558621510. OCLC 59817136.
  3. ^ Argyle, Gisela (2007). "The Horror and the pleasure of un-English fiction: Ida von Hahn-Hahn and Fanny Lewald in England". Comparative Literature Studies. 44 (1): 144–165. doi:10.1353/cls.2007.0026.
  4. ^ Kontje, Todd (1998). Women, the Novel, and the German Nation 1771–1871. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521631106.
  5. ^  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Hahn-Hahn, Ida, Countess von". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 819.
  6. ^ Ripley, George; Dana, Charles A., eds. (1879). "Hahn-Hahn, Ida Marie Luise Sophie Friederike Gustave" . The American Cyclopædia. p. 378.
  7. Scheid, Nikolaus (1913). "Ida Hahn-Hahn" . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  8. ^ Chambers, Helen (2007). Humor and Irony in Nineteenth-Century German Women's Writing. Rochester, New York: Camden House. ISBN 9781571133045.

Further reading

External links

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