Ottilie Wildermuth

Vocation

Notable

German writer, particularly notable for her children's books. Wildermuth showed a strong thirst for knowledge early in life and wrote her own stories and poems. In summer 1833 she was allowed to spend six months studying in Stuttgart. In 1843, aged 26, she married the 36-year-old philologist Wilhelm David Wildermuth. After time as a private tutor in France and England, Wilhelm Wildermuth then moved to be a professor of modern languages in the Lyzeum in Tübingen. Ottilie formed the women of Tübingen into a salon, which she belonged to herself for 34 years until her death. From the very beginning the young couple were friends with Ludwig Uhland, the poet Karl Mayer's family, Klüpfl-Schwab and later several university professors. Her varied education also allowed Ottilie to participate in her husband's work - like him, she taught English. They had five children. In 1847 she sent her first story Die alte Jungfer to the Morgenblatt. Once this had been accepted for publication, she wrote more stories, short stories, novels, biographies, family books, children's history books and idyllic accounts of Protestant Swabian life, in whose circles she moved. Her stories met a public taste and she was printed in the widely-read family periodicals which made her known to other contemporary writers. In 1870 she founded the children's magazine Jugendgarten, later continued by her daughters. In 1871 Ottilie Wildermuth received the great gold medal for Art and Science in Württemberg. In her fiftieth year her health was strongly attacked by a nervous disorder and on 12 July 1877, aged 60, she died of a stroke,in Tübingen. Link to Wikipedia biography