Humanities & Social Sciences
February 2019
Ich habe Licht gebracht!
Louise Otto-Peters, eine deutsche Revolutionärin
by Zimmer, Anja
"I have brought light", cries five-year-old Louise Otto when she is allowed to light one of the new sulphur woods for the first time."Bringing light" - This resolution runs like a red thread through Louise's life. At a time when bourgeois girls are not even allowed to leave the house alone, Louise travels Germany all by herself. And although it is strictly forbidden to even mention grievances, Louise's political poems, articles and novels repeatedly highlight the appalling living conditions of the industrial proletariat, focusing on the rightsless female workers. And she realises that there can be no social justice without equality between men and women. She demands - almost painfully topical - equal pay and the right to work for all women. Great hope for change is finally brought by the revolution that begins in March 1848. Louise and her like-minded friends already believe they have achieved their goals when a National Assembly is set up in Frankfurt's Paulskirche. In order to create a network of solidarity for women in this atmosphere of new beginnings, Louise founds Germany's first women's newspaper. She finds a supporter in the young revolutionary August Peters, with whom she soon has more than one friendship. But the counter-revolution is not long in coming: when the Dresden May Uprising is bloodily crushed, Louise is subjected to spying and interrogation. Her world is completely darkened when she learns that August Peter is a prisoner of the Prussian army ... Anja Zimmer describes the life of the writer and co-founder of the German women's movement Louise Otto-Peters (1819-1895) in an exciting novel and shows that many of Louise's demands have lost none of their topicality.
