Friederike Kempner (25 June 1828 – 23 February 1904) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

. The daughter of a well-off family from

Kępno Kępno (german: Kempen in Posen) is a town in south-central Poland. It lies on the outskirts of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, bordering the historical region of Silesia and the Łódź Voivodeship. As of December 31, 2009 Kępno had a populati ...

(german: Kempen), Kempner was born in

Opatów Opatów (; yi, אַפּטאַ, אַפּט) is a town in southeastern Poland, within Opatów County in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Province). Historically, it was part of a greater region called Lesser Poland. In 2012 the populatio ...

, then part of the

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

Grand Duchy of Posen The Grand Duchy of Posen (german: Großherzogtum Posen; pl, Wielkie Księstwo Poznańskie) was part of the Kingdom of Prussia, created from territories annexed by Prussia after the Partitions of Poland, and formally established following the ...

(today Poland). In 1844, her father purchased a manor (''Rittergut'') in Droschkau,

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

, where she and her siblings spent a sheltered youth. By her mother, she received education in the French language, literature, and the

Jewish Enlightenment The ''Haskalah'', often termed Jewish Enlightenment ( he, השכלה; literally, "wisdom", "erudition" or "education"), was an intellectual movement among the Jews of Central and Eastern Europe, with a certain influence on those in Western Euro ...

. In 1864, she was able to establish her own residence at a family estate called ''Friederikenhof'' (Gierczyce) near Reichthal (Rychtal), where she wrote many of her works. By her niece Doris Davidsohn, née Kempner, she was the great-aunt of Jakob van Hoddis. The death of both her parents in 1868 had a lasting effect on Kempner's work. Early in life, she developed an interest in general

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

questions, especially in

hygiene Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

, as well as in reforms of the prison system and the abolition of

solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...

. Suffering from taphophobia like many of her contemporaries, she urgently advocated the introduction of

morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cus ...

s and a waiting time in cases of

suspended animation Suspended animation is the temporary (short- or long-term) slowing or stopping of biological function so that physiological capabilities are preserved. It may be either hypometabolic or ametabolic in nature. It may be induced by either endogen ...

. Kempner left a comprehensive oeuvre of pamphlets, as well as several novellas and theatre plays which, however, remained largely unheeded by literary critics. Some of her exalted poems attained notoriety for their unintentional humor; she was mocked as "The Silesian Swan" by editors like

Paul Lindau Paul Lindau (3 June 1839 – 31 January 1919) was a German dramatist and novelist. Life and Works Lindau was born in Magdeburg as the son of Carl Lindau, a lawyer (Justizkommissar) whose parents Hertz Levin (a physician) and Henriette Cohen had ...

and many parodies were created which later were occasionally even attributed to Kempner herself. This "literary heritage" prompted the author and critic Alfred Kempner (not a direct relative) to adopt the surname ''Kerr'' in 1887. Friedrike Kempner remained unmarried. Some years before her death she was stricken with blindness. She died at her ''Friederikenhof'' manor and is buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery, Wrocław.

Literary works

* ''Gedichte'', 2d ed., Breslau, 1852 (frequently republished) * ''Novellen'', 1861 * ''Denkschrift über die Nothwendigkeit einer Gesetzlichen Einführung von Leichenhäusern)'', 1867 (republished five times) * ''Nettelbeck als Patriot und Kosmopolit'', a novel, 1868 ; Dramas * ''Berenice'', 1860 * ''Rudolf der Zweite'', 1867 * ''Antigonos'', 1880

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kempner, Friederike 1836 births 1904 deaths German poets People from Kępno County People from the Province of Posen German women poets Jewish women writers 19th-century poets 19th-century German women writers 19th-century German writers