Mathilde Franziska Giesler Anneke
Mathilde Franziska Giesler Anneke was a notable women's rights advocate, born in Lerchenhausen, Westphalia, Germany, in the early 19th century. The eldest of twelve children from a wealthy family, she was educated privately and became acutely aware of societal challenges facing women. After a brief marriage to Alfred von Tabouillot, she fought for and won custody of her daughter, marking the beginning of her advocacy for women's rights. In 1847, she published a significant pamphlet, "Das Weib in Konflikt mit den Sozialen Verhältnissen" (Woman in Conflict with Social Conditions), which launched her public career.
Later, after relocating to America in 1849 following revolutionary upheaval in Europe, Anneke continued her activism. She founded the "Deutscher Frauenzeitung," one of the earliest women's rights journals, and played an important role in the American women’s rights movement, addressing conventions and helping establish the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association. Throughout her life, Anneke faced personal challenges, including a strained marriage and the loss of children, yet remained dedicated to her causes. She eventually opened a girl's school and continued to advocate until her death at sixty-seven, leaving a legacy as a pioneering figure in the fight for women's rights.
Mathilde Franziska Giesler Anneke
- Mathilde Franziska Anneke
- Born: April 3, 1817
- Died: November 25, 1884
Women’s rights advocate, was born in Lerchen-hausen, Westphalia, Germany, the eldest of twelve children of Karl Giesler, a wealthy mine owner, and Elizabeth (Hulswitt) Giesler. She was raised a Roman Catholic and educated by private tutors.
Like many other feminists, Mathilde Giesler became painfully aware of women’s disabilities at an early age. When nineteen, she married a much older man, Alfred von Tabouillot. They had a daughter, Fanny, but the marriage was short-lived. At this time fathers normally had the right to keep their children, but Mathilde Giesler fought for and won legal custody of her daughter and the right to resume using her maiden name.
Subsequently she worked on two books of Catholic prayers for women. Giesler put together collections of poetry in the 1840s and wrote a play in 1844 that was later produced in Germany and the United States. Her other literary works include translations, prose anthologies, and a novel.
Her public career in behalf of women’s rights did not begin until 1847, when she published a pamphlet Das Weib in Konflikt mit den Sozialen Verhältnissen). (Woman in Conflict with Social Conditions). That same year she married Fritz Anneke, a Prussian artillery officer and Communist. Both were involved in revolutionary politics and knew most of the radical leaders, including Karl Marx. After her husband lost his commission and was imprisoned for his activities, Anneke published two journals, first the Neue Kolnische Zeitung and then one of the earliest women’s rights journals, the Frauenzeitung, but both were quickly suppressed. When revolution broke out in 1848, Anneke—a tall, muscular woman—cut her hair short and rode into battle with her husband. Defeated, the couple joined other “Forty-Eighters” and fled to America in 1849, settling in Milwaukee.
To her dismay, Anneke found America a land of human rights and free speech but not equality for women. In 1852 she started a radical women’s journal, the Deutscher Frauenzeitung, which she continued to publish for two and one-half years after she moved to Newark, Wisconsin later in the year. She joined with the American women’s rights movement and addressed the 1853 convention, stating that German women looked to American women for encouragement and sympathy in their struggle. She became a prominent lecturer on women’s rights and abolition and was a founder of the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. She represented the WWSA at several National Woman Suffrage Association conventions.
Anneke’s struggle for independence for herself and all women strained her relationship with her husband. Although they shared political ideals and a mutual affection, they had different careers and were frequently separated. Financial troubles also hurt the marriage (Fritz Anneke was never successful in America), as did the deaths of three of their seven children in a smallpox epidemic in 1858—only Fritz, Hertha, Percy Shelley, and the aforementioned Fanny survived. By 1861 they were permanently estranged, although they never divorced.
Mathilde Anneke lived with her children in Switzerland from 1861 to 1865, writing articles for newspapers. In 1865 she returned to Milwaukee, where she continued her women’s rights and suffrage activities. She supported herself by lecturing, writing, and selling insurance. She opened a girl’s school with Cecilia Kapp, the T Töchter Institut, in 1865. She died at the age of sixty-seven and was buried in the Forest Home Cemetery, Milwaukee.
There is no full-length biography in English. The best English-language biographical sources are Notable American Women (1971) and H. M. Heinzen and H. A. Sanne (Anneke’s daughter), Biographical Notes in Commemoration of Fritz Anneke and Mathilde Franziska Anneke, 2 vols. (1940). See also B. G. Hersh, The Slavery of Sex (1978); E. C. Stanton et al., eds., History of Woman Suffrage, vols. 1 and 2 (1881); and The Dictionary of American Biography (1931).