Realities and Fantasies of German Female Leadership

ELISABETH KRIMMER is Professor of German at the University of California, Davis. PATRICIA ANNE SIMPSON is Professor of German at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. ELISABETH KRIMMER is Professor of German at the University of California, Davis. PATRICIA ANNE SIMPSON is Professor of German at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. MARGARETMARY DALEY is Associate Professor of German at Case Western Reserve University and author of Women of Letters: A Study of Self and Genre in the Personal Writing of Caroline Schlegel-Schelling, Rahel Levin Varnhagen, and Bettina von Arnim (Camden House, 1998).. Aude Defurne received her PhD in German Literature at KU Leuven, Belgium, and co-edited Strategic Imaginations. Women and the Gender of Sovereignty in European Culture (Leuven UP, 2020). SARAH VANDEGRIFT ELDRIDGE (d. 2025) was Associate Professor of German at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. LISA FETHERINGILL ZWICKER is Professor of History at Indiana University, South Bend.

• Introduction - Elisabeth Krimmer and Patricia Anne SimpsonWomen's Political Authority in Maria Antonia Walpurgis von Sachsen's Talestris: Königin der Amazonen (Thalestris: Queen of the Amazons, 1763) - Seth BerkMaxims of Leadership for a Silent Readership: Sophie von La Roche's Pomona für Teutschlands Töchter and Mein Schreibetisch - Margaretmary DaleyMarcus Aurelius, Also for Girls: Discussions on the Best Form of Government in Enlightenment Hamburg - Almut SpaldingDux Femina Facti: Gender, Sovereignty, and (Women's) Literature; Marie Antonia of Saxony's Thalestris and Charlotte von Stein's Dido - Anke GilleirDux Femina Facti: Gender, Sovereignty, and (Women's) Literature in Marie Antonia of Saxony's Thalestris and Charlotte von Stein's Dido - Aude DefurneCrossing the Front Lines: Female Leadership, Politics, and War in Die Familie Seldorf - Sarah Vandegrift EldridgePower Struggles between Women in Schiller's and Jelinek's Works - Inge StephanAge and Purpose: Unmarried Women and Female Agency in the Works of E. Marlitt and Hedwig Dohm - Lauren Nossett"Heroism of the Mother": Women's Right's Pioneer Jeannette Schwerin, Motherlove, and Women's Leadership in German-Speaking Central Europe, 1890-1914 - Lisa Fetheringill ZwickerStrategic Optimism: Bertha von Suttner's Activism for Peace - Elisabeth KrimmerHumanizing Socialism: The Feminist Dimension of Rosa Luxemburg's Intellectual Leadership - Peter HudisFollow-the-Leader: Tracing Male Influence on Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph des Willens - Rachel J. Halverson"Leaning In": The Career Woman as Instrument of Neoliberal Critique - Helga DruxesChange, Persistence, and Contradiction: The Representation of Female Political Leadership in Gendered Media - Dorothee BeckPetra Kelly: A Green Leader out of Place? - Stephen Milder and Friederike Brühöfener"Mama Merkel" and "Mutti-Multikulti": The Perils of Governing While Female - Patricia Anne SimpsonWomen Leaders in Troubled Times: The Leadership Styles of Angela Merkel and Hillary Clinton - Joyce Marie MushabenBibliographyNotes on the ContributorsIndex

Krimmer and Simpson bring together literary, historical, political, and media analyses to chart the shifting parameters for women's societal contribution and leadership since the eighteenth century. . . . [T]he contributions provide valuable insights into the strategies that women throughout German history have adopted to legitimate themselves amongst skeptical audiences. . . . German Studies scholars with interests in the history of women's writing and contemporary politics will find this volume particularly valuable; its historical and thematic depth promise new insights to any reader.