WOMAJV'S STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY IN GERMANY. 329 



against tlie Latin and later against the Frencli. In tliis struggle 

 women took a prominent part, especially through membership in 

 the society called the " Order of the Palms," which, before the 

 beginning of the Thirty Years' War, united the strongest spirits 

 of Germany for this purpose. The first woman to join this soci- 

 ety was Sophie Elizabeth, Princess of Mecklenburg, married in 

 1636 to the Herzog of Braunschweig. She was followed by many 

 others, both of the nobility and the common people, and was named 

 by virtue of this leadership " The Deliverer." 



In the eighteenth century we have the founder of the German 

 theater, Caroline iSTeuber. In the artistic sense she was the first 

 director of the German stage, the first to turn the attention of the 

 greatest actors of her day to the ideal side of dramatic presenta- 

 tion. Early in the eighteenth century women began to take up 

 university studies. A certain Frau von Zingler received a prize 

 from the University of "Wittenberg for literary work, and the wife 

 of Professor Gottscheds entered upon a contest for a prize in poetry 

 with her husband. 



We find some old verses published in Leipsic, in a book of stu- 

 dents' songs, in 1736, recognizing the fact that women attended 

 lectures in the university there, although the reference is rather 

 sarcastic, speaking of " beauty coming to listen in the halls of 

 learning." 



In 1754 the first woman received her degree of Doctor of Medi- 

 cine in Ilalle — Dorothea Christine Erxleben, nee Leborin, a 

 daughter of a physician, who attained to this result only after 

 many years of painstaking effort. With her father's help she 

 studied the classics and medicine, and gradually, in spite of the 

 objections of his brother physicians, began to practice as a doctor 

 imder her father's protection. She is said to have cured her pa- 

 tients cito tuto, jucunde, and in 1742 she published a book on the 

 right of women to study, the title of which, according to the cus- 

 tom of the day, included the full table of contents. This book 

 passed through two editions, and enabled her to gain the attention 

 of Frederick II, who was persuaded to order the University of 

 Ilalle to grant her the privilege of taking her examination there. 

 The day arrived, and the hall was crowded for the occasion; the 

 candidate passed the ordeal in a brilliant manner, and took the 

 oath for the doctor's degree amid a storm of applause from the 

 listeners present. 



In the present century the germ of the movement for educa- 

 tional rights for women came into consciousness in Germany in 

 the stormy year 1848, and first found expression and life through 

 the work of two women — Louise Otto Peters and Auguste Schmidt. 



VOL. LVI. 26 



