1st Student's Major
English, World Languages and Cultures, Educational Studies: K-12 and Secondary Programs
1st Student's College
Education
Students' Professional Biography
My name is Tesla Gontjes. I am from Duluth, Minnesota, and I am pursuing a Bachelor's in English and German Education. I hope to teach middle and high schools in these subjects, as well as study abroad in Germany.
Mentor's Name
Nadja Kramer
Mentor's Email Address
nadja.kramer@mnsu.edu
Mentor's Department
World Languages and Cultures
Mentor's College
Arts and Humanities
Abstract
Children, cooking and church: Like most of the European world before 1900, these were “the three Cs” designated by society for women in Germany. However, some women broke through these expectations and pursued a fourth “C”: Civil action. Such a woman was Bettina von Arnim (1785-1859). A writer, activist, feminist, and intellectual, von Arnim was politically active during a time when women were delegated to domestic duties and expected to be completely subservient to their husbands. She lived during a tumultuous era of French, Prussian, and Austrian occupation of Germany during the early 19th century. Instead of being a mild-mannered bourgeois widow, von Arnim interacted with many well-known German cultural figures, such as the Grimm Brothers, Goethe, and Beethoven. Like the politically active men in her life, von Arnim took action in an oppressive society, fearlessly voicing her own opinions while supporting other oppressed groups such as Jewish people, the poverty-stricken, and revolutionaries. While not well-known outside of German-speaking circles, von Arnim’s contributions serve as an example of active citizenship despite being a member of “the weaker sex.” Therefore, Bettina von Arnim is not only an important woman in German history, rather, an important person in world history.
Recommended Citation
Gontjes, Tesla L.
(2022)
"Bettina von Arnim and Civil Action: How to Defy Oppression by Championing Others,"
Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato: Vol. 22, Article 3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56816/2378-6949.1222
Available at:
https://cornerstone.lib.mnsu.edu/jur/vol22/iss1/3
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