Elisabeth Lemke (5 July 1849 – 11 August 1925) was a German historian, researcher of folklore,

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and prehistory of Upper

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

, poet, and writer.

Life and work

Lemke was born on 5 June 1849 in Rombitten (now Rąbity in northern Poland), the eldest of 10 children of the local landowner, Richard Lemke, and was raised by a governess. She was interested early on in the customs and traditions of her East Prussian homeland. She acquired knowledge on her own initiative that went beyond her schooling. In 1886 at age 37, she moved to

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. There she attracted attention by giving a series of more than 200 public lectures on ethnological and prehistoric topics and did so in Germany,

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, and Scranton Pennsylvania. Her discussions included topics that were extremely diverse: prehistoric children's toys, magic dolls, board and stone games, spinning and weaving equipment, plant mythology, soldiers' songs, and Sicilian baked goods. Most of her lectures were later printed in the journal of the Society for Local History of the Province of

Brandenburg Brandenburg, officially the State of Brandenburg, is a States of Germany, state in northeastern Germany. Brandenburg borders Poland and the states of Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony. It is the List of Ger ...

. Lemke's financial independence allowed her to travel extensively to Russia, America and North Africa. Artifacts that she brought back with her found their way into the museums of Berlin, Danzig,

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

and

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

. Her main published work ''Volkstümliches in Ostpreußen'' (three parts 1884-1899) contains her extensive collection of material on the ethnography of her homeland. Lemke was a participating member of several scientific associations, including a full member of the Berlin Anthropological Society, corresponding member of the Prussia in Königsberg, the Lithuanian Literary Society, committee member of the Society for Folklore. She worked with the Germanisches National-Museum in Nuremberg and the Märkisches Provincial Museum in Berlin, among others. In 1899, the Märkisches Provincial Museum awarded her its gold medal, the first woman to receive that honor. Lemke also made many connections to museums and associations around the world, including the National Museum in Washington, D.C., as a result of her participation in prehistoric excavations. With the end of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Elisabeth Lemke settled in Oliva near Danzig. She remained unmarried and died on 11 August 1925 in a retirement home in

Sopot Sopot (; or ) is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomerania Province and has the City with powiat ri ...

(then in the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

Selected works

* ''Volkstümliches in Ostpreußen''. 3 vols.. Mohrungen/Allenstein 1884–99; unveränderter Nachdruck: Olms, Hildesheim/New York 1978, ().

References

*Johannes Bolte: "Elisabeth Lemke †". In: ''Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde'', Jahrgang 35/36 (1926), S. 145 f. *Sigrit Kauffmann: "Elisabeth Lemke (1849–1925). Leben und Schaffen der bedeutenden volkskundlichen Forscherin", in ''Mohrunger Heimatkreis-Nachrichten'', 97. Ausgabe, Sommer 2002, pp. 41–4

*"Lemke, Frl. Elisabeth". In Sophie Pataky (Ed.): ''Lexikon deutscher Frauen der Feder''. Band 1. Verlag Carl Pataky, Berlin 1898, S. 490 f. (Digitalisat). *Hugo Rasmus: ''Lebensbilder westpreußischer Frauen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart'' (''Quellen u. Darstellungen zur Geschichte Westpreußens'', Band 22), Münster 1984, S. 98. *Peter Letkemann: Lemke, Elisabeth in der ''Ostdeutschen Biographie'' (Kulturportal West-Ost) – OstdtBio {{DEFAULTSORT:Lemke, Elisabeth 1849 births 1925 deaths German women historians 19th-century German historians 20th-century German historians 19th-century German poets 20th-century German poets German women poets 19th-century German women writers 20th-century German women writers German folklorists German women folklorists German women biologists 19th-century German botanists 20th-century German botanists German women botanists People from Iława County German prehistorians Historians from the Kingdom of Prussia