Caroline Auguste Fischer (1764–1842)

Caroline Auguste Fischer, née Venturini, was born in Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany, to a family that was probably of Italian descent on her father's side. Her parents were Charlotte (Köchy) and Karl Venturini, a chamber musician at the ducal court in Brunswick. In 1793, she was married to Christoph Johann Rudolph Christiani, the court chaplain in Copenhagen, Denmark, who also ran a boys' school. The couple had a son, Rudolf. Caroline moved in Danish and German artistic circles, and began to write. She published her debut novel, Gustavs Verirrungen (Gustav's Errors) anonymously in 1801. That same year, she and Christiani divorced, and she lost custody of her son as was customary in that era. She moved to Dresden, Saxony, and published an epistolary novel, Die Honigmonathe (The Honeymoon, 1802). She began a relationship with Christian August Fischer, a merchant, writer, and professor in Würzburg, with whom she had a son, Albert, in 1803. The couple lived apart, but eventually married in 1808, probably so that their child would be considered legitimate. They divorced seven months later. She published two more novels and several collections of short stories and fairy tales. Her works, probably influenced by her own life, often challenged traditional female role models and called for the rights of women. Although she stopped publishing in 1820, her writing had a significant impact on discussions of women's rights in the 19th century. Later in life, Fischer earned her living as the manager of a reform school in Heidelberg and as a book dealer in Frankfurt am Main.