Augusta Bender

Augusta Bender (born March 20, 1846 - September 16, 1924) was a German educator, poet, and author.^[1][2] She also supported women's rights.^[3][4]

Bender was born in the village of Oberschefflenz, Germany, to a poor farming family.^[2] She was the youngest of six siblings.^[4] Although she felt out of place in school, her mother encouraged her love for learning.^[2]

Later, Bender chose not to marry. She worked to earn her own money, which was not what most women in her time did. She also only ate plants and worked for animal rights.^[3]

At 16, Bender left her village for school.^[4] At 17, she tried to publish her poetry, but no one would print it. She kept writing anyway.^[1] She tried to work as an actor. Then she went it live in Mosbach to learn to be a teacher. She became a private one-person teacher in 1886.

Moving to Heidelberg, Bender worked as a teacher and tour guide. She planned to move to the United States in 1871, but she got sick. However, she kept speaking about women's rights in cities like Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, and Mannheim.^[2][4][3]

In 1891, Bender worked as an instructor at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts. Later, she went back to Germany to write more.^[1]

Bender also did research on German folk songs and wrote other things, for example nursery rhymes, proverbs, poems, and novels.^[2][3]

Bender died on September 16, 1924 at a home for old people in Mosbach.^[4][1]

• Rasche Entschlüsse (1868)
• Ein Bild aus der Wirklichkeit (1869–70)
• Ein dunkles Verhängnis (1869–70)
• Deutsche Liebe in Amerika (1882)
• Die Frauenfrage in Deutschland (1883)
• Mein Bruder (1883)
• Haideblumen (1887)
• Die Reiterkäthe: Heimatroman aus dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg (1893)
• A German Girl in America/Ein deutsches Mädchen in Amerika. (1893 in English) (1901 in German)
• Hausfreundin 1, 2 & 3 (1900–1903)
• Sorle, die Lumpenfrau (1901)
• Oberschefflenzer Volkslieder (1902)
• Das Spinnrad (1902)
• Der Kampf ums höhere Dasein (1907)
• Kulturbilder (1910)
• Die Macht des Mitleids (1905)
• Auf der Schattenseite des Lebens (1913–14)^[5]