Hermynia zur Mühlen
Hermynia zur Mühlen was an influential figure born into the Austro-Hungarian nobility in 1883, known for her work as a writer, translator, and political activist. As the only child of an aristocratic family with deep ties to the Habsburg monarchy, she experienced both privilege and personal challenges, including health issues and political opposition. After marrying Baron Victor von zur Mühlen, she faced difficulties in pursuing her educational aspirations and confronting the landowners' opposition to her initiatives for local children's education. Zur Mühlen's political engagement intensified following the Russian Revolution, leading her to join the Communist Party and become a prominent columnist in leftist media.
Her literary contributions include fairy tales with socialist themes and translations of over a hundred works, notably by American socialist Upton Sinclair. Throughout her life, she was critical of rising fascism, producing works that warned of its dangers, such as her novel "Unsere Töchter, die Nazinen," which was banned shortly after publication. Following her escape from Nazi-occupied territories, she lived in England until her death in poverty. Hermynia zur Mühlen's legacy is marked by her commitment to social justice and her efforts to document the political tumult of her time, making her a significant figure in early 20th-century literature and activism.
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Subject Terms
Hermynia zur Mühlen
Writer
- Born: December 12, 1883
- Birthplace: Austria
- Died: March 19, 1951
- Place of death: Radelts, Hertfordshire, England
Biography
Hermynia zur Mühlen was born into the Austro-Hungarian higher nobility as the Countess de Crenneville, the only child of Count Viktor de Crenneville (1847-1920) and his wife Isabella Louise Alexandrina Maria von Wydenbruck (1862-1936). The history of the Crenneville family reaches back into the twelfth century; they had served the Habsburg monarchy since the seventeenth century. Hermynia was raised mainly by her maternal grandmother, who bought a villa in Gmunden am Traunsee when the child was four. Her father was in the consular service, and in the course of living in his various postings in Europe and North Africa, Hermynia became multilingual.
In 1898, she attended a girls’ boarding school in Dresden. She then studied for two years at the convent in Gmunden, qualifying in 1901 as an elementary school teacher, but due to her high social standing she was not able to enter the profession. She trained as a bookbinder, worked eight-hour days for one week and sympathized from then on with the working class.
On June 16, 1908, she entered into a marriage below her class with Baron Victor von zur Mühlen (1879-1950), moving to his estate in Eigstfer near Fellin (now Viljandi), Estonia. Her pregnancy in 1909 ended in major surgery from which she never fully recovered. Her efforts to start a school for local children were opposed by the landowners, and her husband did not share her political views. She contracted tuberculosis, went to the sanatorium in Davos, Switzerland, in 1913 and did not return.
At the sanitarium she met her life partner, Stefan Isidor Klein (1889-1960), a Viennese Jew who shared her leftist leanings and literary inclination. They settled in Frankfurt am Main in 1919. When the Nazis came to power in 1933 they fled to Vienna; when Austria capitulated to the Germans in 1938, they fled to Czechoslovakia, where they married. The couple then fled to England in 1939, where they remained. Zur Mühlen was in ill health, suffering from asthma and cancer, and died in extreme poverty.
Zur Mühlen was inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917, and was a member of the Communist Party of Germany from 1919 to 1934. In Berlin and in Frankfurt am Main, she became one of the best-known columnists in the leftist press. She also wrote fairy tales with a communist message. Zur Mühlen was also a prolific translator, translating more than a hundred books, including twenty novels by the American socialist Upton Sinclair. She was accused of high treason for her 1924 story Schupomann Karl Müller, in which the main character, a policeman, joins revolting workers in a demonstration; the charge was dropped. In 1929, she wrote her autobiography, Ende und Anfang (The Run-Away Countess).
Some of zur Mühlen’s books were published again in Austria in the 1990’s, when their warnings about the rise of fascism seemed alarmingly relevant. For example, her novel Unsere Töchter, die Nazinen (our daughters, the Nazis), banned almost immediately after its publication in 1935, portrays the appeal of fascism for three young women: one each from the aristocracy, the middle class, and the working class.
Tremendous political upheavals occurred during zur Mühlen’s lifetime. She found personal fulfillment by becoming a part of the socialist movement, which sought to ensure a better life for the vast majority of people, and by documenting the dangers of the fascist ideology that exiled her from her native Austria and Germany.