Setting the Scene: The Parsonage

One of the profound changes that the Reformation enacted was the abolishment of life-long celibacy for the clergy in protestant churches (Karant-Nunn 2003; Plummer 2012). As the sixteenth century progressed, there emerged the picture of a homogeneous class with a homogeneous mission, although the life of a preacher at a court or a theologian at a university was far removed (and not only geographically) from that of a village pastor (Schorn-Schütte 1998).

There were shared commonalities among members of the new Protestant clerical estate and these reflected on their families. First of all, pastors were invariably of burgher origin and their profession solidified their position in this class. Secondly, clergymen were university educated. They had attained university degrees, saw themselves as scholars and published whenever possible the fruits of their pastoral labor, sermons for all occasions or books of spiritual advice for a variety of circumstances. As the only one with a higher education, the pastor must have stuck out in a primarily agrarian community and that reflected on his wife and children as well. In many cases their daily activities also included a fair amount of farm labor, as small-town clergymen tried to augment their income by maintaining live-stock and growing produce for the everyday needs of their family. There, the family was supposed to pitch in. In fact, in his popular handbooks for pastors Johann Adami advised his readers to marry daughters of clergymen, especially those that were accustomed to country life and country labor, because they knew what was expected of them (Adami 1692: 223 – 229). In his advice for “the exemplary and god-pleasing preacher child,” he emphasized that the children of pastors were to set a good example for everyone (Adami 1701).

The local pastor might offer meals and lodging to the schoolmaster or to boys studying to enter a university. This provided the children of pastors with an intellectual schoolhouse atmosphere, but also required cooperation of the whole family, of especially wife and daughters.11 Many an obituary of a pastor’s daughter records that their childhood had been harsh and laborious (Göschel 1668; Moore 2012). But their education also enabled them to help in more intellectual endeavors. For instance: Paul Bose (Bosius, 1630 – 1694), a deacon in Dresden was well known for his sermons and his scholarship. After his wife died in childbirth, his two daughters ran the household and were known to take care of his extensive library and help him with his correspondence (Kühn 1690).12

Despite their humble origins, the pastors’ education and profession often gained them entry into and access to the landed gentry. As students, they may have had to work as home tutors or sing in the school choir at weddings and funerals to earn their keep. But after years of study, they obtained a position, married, and joined the citizenry of large and small towns. Their children, including daughters, received an education commensurate with this social position, extending beyond the basics of reading and writing. This was especially true for pastor’s daughters in larger cities, where tutors were available. It was not crucial whether the father or mother did the teaching, it was more important whether they saw the need to have instruction for their daughters as well as their sons. Boys would leave home to attend school elsewhere; for girls, home schooling was the only avenue of learning beyond the basics (Koldau 1002). The study of a foreign language, Latin and increasingly French, was useful to female children who could not attend the so-called Latin schools, as it provided them access to books and subjects not available in the mother tongue. The Magdeburg pastor Andreas Cramer created a Wunderkind in his daughter Anna Maria (1613 – 1627), who died at age fourteen. On her gravestone, the proud father ordered the inscription that she was well versed in Latin and Hebrew and devoted to the study of sacred literature (Bauer 1917: 2, 149; Koldau 1019). Adalbert von Hanstein in his opinionated but still highly informative and insightful book groups pastor’s daughters with “Gelehrtentöchter,” daughters of scholars, and that is certainly appropriate (Hanstein 1899: 1, 41 – 49).

Although many pastors' daughters married pastors, they also tended to marry men in other learned professions. In 1668, Christina Regina Kratzenstein, daughter of an Erfurt pastor, married the physician Christoph von Hellwig (1663 – 1721), who became well known for his medical works among which was a Frauenzimmer-Apoteckgen (“The Women’s Apothecary” 1700).13 His preference for writing in German rather than Latin was prompted by his desire to reach a wider audience including women and especially midwives. Well versed in chemistry, his wife is supposed to have helped him with his medical recipes. Justina Siegemund née Dittrich (1636 – 1705), daughter of a pastor in Ronstadt, wrote her own handbook for midwives entitled Die Hof-Wehemutter (“The Court Midwife” 1690) with extensive instructions and illustrations that went through seven editions. It was the first medical handbook written by a German woman.

We find mention of similar accomplishments in the works of Georg Christian Lehms, Christian Franz Paullini, Gottlieb Siegmund Corvinus, who gained literary fame by publishing collections with short biographies of women who had come to their attention.14 In the case of Corvinus’s Lexicon such mention was mixed in with recipes for cakes, explanations of kitchen gadgets and useful household hints. The authors copied each other diligently, interspersing names of historical figures with those of contemporaries, in many cases those of acquaintances. It was all highly flattering and shows that some portions of society were indeed welcoming the accomplishments of women in socially approved endeavors. However, the fact that such accomplishments received notice shows that they were by no means common and that such approval could be withdrawn at any moment.

Thus, was the experience of Maria Margarethe Winckelmann (1670 – 1720), who had been educated by her father, a pastor in Panitzsch near Leipzig (Schiebinger 1996: 21 – 38; WF 57). She had studied astronomy from an early age, then married an astronomer, Gottfried Kirch (1639 – 1710), and assisted him in many of his observations and in the publication of a number of popular calendars and almanacs. On March 21, 1702, she even discovered a previously unknown comet, although her husband took credit (had to take credit) for its discovery. After Gottfried Kirch died, she was denied her husband’s place as the head of the Royal Academy of Sciences. When in 1716 Maria’s son Gottfried became director of the Berlin Observatory of the Royal Academy, members complained that she took a too prominent role during visits to the observatory and she was forced to withdraw.

In circles in which literacy was a given and fathers were often published authors, family members were inclined to look favorably on the literary activities of sons and daughters. In his Säkularisation als sprachbildende Kraft, Albrecht Schöne (1968) discusses the writings of four well known authors all of whom were the sons of pastors. For their lexicon Women of the German-Speaking Lands in Learning, Literature and the Arts during the 17th and the Early 18th Centuries (1984), Jean Woods and Maria Fürstenwald discovered the existence of about 600 forgotten women who came from all stations in life, about thirty of which were pastor’s daughters; all living around 1700. Of these thirty, most had published at least one or two poems. The publishing aspect is important here, because in addition to preserving a record, it also meant that someone did sponsor, prepare or accept what a woman had written and saw to it that it was published. In the Lexicon, burgher daughters, including pastor’s daughters, appear in the company of noble women, whose access to publishers was facilitated by their larger purse and political influence. It is, therefore, revealing that the thirty pastor’s daughters not only represent a cross section of the social and professional standing of the Lutheran clergy but also of most of the literary genres available to women authors.

A supportive social setting was conducive to providing women with inspiration, occasions, a forum and an opportunity to see some of their poems in print. One such setting was the Pegnesischer Blumenorden in Nuremberg, one of the few literary societies originating in the latter half of the seventeenth century that admitted burgher women as members (Wade 2011; Scheitler 2007).

Anna Maria Omeis became a member under the presidency of her brother Magnus Daniel Omeis.15 Maria Magdalena Götz née Stephan, a pastor’s daughter married to a goldsmith was one of thirteen women admitted in 1680 under the presidency of Sigmund von Birken (1626 – 1681).16 When his successor, Martin Limburger, edited a poetry collection to commemorate his predecessor, Götz-Stephan contributed poetry as well.17 The most prolific of the pastor’s daughters in the Blumenorden was Maria Catharina Stockfleth née Frisch (1634 – 1692).18 She was one of the earlier members, having been admitted by Sigmund von Birken in 1668. Together with her husband, the theologian Heinrich Arnold Stockfleth, she wrote Die kunst- und tugendgezierte Macarie (“The Artistic and Virtuous Macarie” 1669). The second volume of this popular pastoral novel (1673) is considered to be one of the first German novels written by a woman, focusing on many issues concerning women. Her “Rede der Dorilis” (1679) is a plea for women’s emancipation.19

In a less organized but equally supportive social setting, women engaged in similar literary activities. In her thorough study of a group of upper class women in the city of Altenburg, Anna Carrdus has shown how in a supportive environment of family and friends, women were encouraged to write poetry, and that such literary activities were part of a social network, that ultimately benefited the culture and education of the town. Pastor’s wives and daughters who resided in Altenburg or the surrounding countryside were part of this network (Carrdus 2004).

There were two literary categories, in which the participation of women was prized and praised, although usually with some condescension. One was devotional literature, the other occasional literature.20 Piety was one of the desired virtues for all women and the reading of devotional literature was much encouraged (Moore 1991). When women wrote religious literature, this was generally admired as the expression of a pious woman. Sophia Regina Laurentius née Gräf, daughter of a small-town pastor and married to a small-town pastor was one of the few who saw her writing published as an independent work: Eines andächtigen Frauenzimmers S. R. G. Ihrem Jesu im Glauben dargebrachte Liebes-Opffer.21 In the foreword, the unknown editor (“N.N.”) provided the traditional justification for the printing. The poetry might not be of high quality, he wrote, but it was the result of a devout habit of Sunday meditations. Actually, the poems, some of which could be sung with existing melodies, are in clear language and they evidence a sense of rhythm and style. Like much of the devotional poetry written by women, they are influenced by church hymns.

Although pastor’s daughters could be considered to learn about religion and theology from the cradle and although many are praised for their piety and knowledge of the Catechism, the Bible, and devotional literature, they walked a fine line when it came to expressing more unorthodox religious ideas. Controversial statements, especially in print, could reflect adversely on their fathers and husbands. Only on rare occasions did pastors’ daughters speak out on controversial subjects, e. g., Dorothea Ruckteschel née Schilling (1670 – 1744), daughter of a pastor in Stübach (Franconia) who was married to a pastor as well.22 She was one of the more radical adherents of Lutheran Pietism, publishing letters she had sent to those who in her opinion had not adhered to the teaching of Luther, taking issue with their thoughts especially regarding marriage and family. She also wrote a furious but theologically sophisticated treatise: Das Weib auch ein wahrer Mensch: Gegen die unmenschlichen Lästerer Weibl. Geschlechts (‘Women, True Human Beings, Against the Inhuman Blasphemers of the Female Gender,’ 1697) against a spurious document that made the rounds all through the seventeenth century in which the anonymous authors maintained that women had no soul.23

Most of the publications by women in the seventeenth century were occasional poetry, that is, they were written for certain occasions (births, weddings, funerals, holidays, visits by friends, family or dignitaries) and they occur with other poems and prose written for that occasion. Women may have written in other genres, but the occasional poems were most likely to be printed and thus preserved. It is not accidental that the growing custom of writing poetry intended to commemorate and thus memorialize social and familial occasions in the lives of the bourgeoisie coincided with an increase in poetry by burgher women. Many of these literary activities remained unrecognized, unheralded, and unpublished, but in a society that grew accustomed to write or receive poetry for many public and familial events, women too could take up the pen to honor religious and/or social occasions and some of these efforts did make it into print.

The tradition of printing funeral books, which contain – in addition to the funeral sermon and a biography – poems of condolence (epicedia), provided women with an opportunity to add their verses to a compilation of poetry in an approved published genre. Dorothea Gress née Pfeiffer wrote poems for several funerals of the noble families of her acquaintance, signing them with “your faithful servant Dorothea Greßin.”24 However, women were more likely to add their verses to occurrences in more familiar surroundings. Catharina Kettner née Deuerlin(g) (1617 – 1686), married to Hermann Kettner, pastor in Stolberg, appended her poetry to the funeral book of her children. She also published devotional literature, some of which she wrote with her son, also a pastor.25 Anna Charitas Lochner, daughter of Jacob Hieronymus Lochner, cathedral pastor in Bremen, contributed a commemorative poem to her father’s funeral book.26 These poems adhere to an established tradition, but especially the ones written for family members show personal sorrow. They belie the criticism that such poetic expressions were invariably formulaic and lacked feeling and personality.27

Other occasions for which poetry would be welcome were birthdays, weddings, and visits. Again, women took advantage of the budding tradition that welcomed poetry for such occasions, showing that they, too, could participate in an accepted poetic pastime that praised and commemorated life’s stations of rulers but also of people in their acquaintance. As the daughter of the court preacher in Wolfenbüttel and later the wife of the superintendent in nearby Seesen, Anna Margaretha Pfeffer née Specht delivered poems for all occasions.28 In addition to religious poetry, she wrote verses commemorating social occurrences at the ducal court in Wolfenbüttel.29 Later, as a widow, she sent a manuscript collection of her poetry to the newly founded University of Göttingen, and was made a poet laureate in return. She could not attend the ceremony in Göttingen since women had no access to functions at the University, but someone made the trip to Wolfenbüttel to deliver the silver laurel wreath (Ebel 1969: 32 – 33).

Most of the pastor’s daughters listed by Woods and Fürstenwald never saw more than a few poems published. Compared with the noblewomen in the Lexicon, there is a dearth of independent works by burgher women. But once in a while, we find mention of (unpublished) collections of poems, like the one by Maria Magdalena Götz née Stephan, which shows that some women were not only prolific poets but collected and saved their poetry.

The Parson’s Daughter: Susanna Elisabeth Zeidler

It is against this late seventeenth-century background – the educated, socially respected climate of the parsonage and the possibilities and limitations of its daughters – that we have to view the Jungferlicher Zeitvertreiber, ‘the Maidenly Pastime’ of Susanna Elisabeth Zeidler. It helps to explain what and why and how she wrote, living in a supportive household, excelling in allowed conventions, writing in socially approved genres, and still being subject to doubtful criticism, whenever her poetry ventured outside not neccessary supportive social circles and approved topics. The collection resembles a portfolio, showcasing what a pastor’s daughter was capable of, while never negating – indeed it says so in the title – that this was a “pastime.” But along with that recognition comes a defense of the poetic talents of a woman poet, who will be able to write in a supportive albeit restricted environment.

With the Thirty Years War (1618 – 1648) finally over, Gottfried Zeidler (1623 – 1699) was ordained a Lutheran pastor. He married and obtained a position in the small town of Fienstedt near Halle that had been vacant for a long time because of the war.30 Seven children were born. The oldest two were boys; the younger five were girls.31 Susanna was the third child and the first daughter.

In 1674, Susanna’s father lost his eyesight.32 When this affliction began to intervene seriously with his pastoral duties, the second son, Johann Gottfried, became the substitute pastor in 1679, a position he held until 1700.33 It was not his ideal career choice. Later on he published several works that were highly critical of the clerical profession, especially the never-ending duties and deprivations of the village pastor.34 However, it probably saved the family’s livelihood. If he had not come home, the position would have gone to a different pastor. Never mind his misgivings, he seemed to have acquitted himself faithfully.35 When the father passed away in 1699 the town offered him the permanent position, which he declined. Zeidler, his family, including his mother and his sister Regina moved to Halle where he earned a (not always copious) living as an auctioneer that is, as a buyer and seller of books for the University of Halle. Among the many works he published were a primer that showed a new method to teach reading,36 several encyclopedic picture books;37 an extensive defense of the divining rod;38 and a bookbinding manual that because of its thoroughness has stood the test of time.39 As a fervent admirer of Christian Thomasius, he translated several of the latter’s Latin works into German.40 This list of works shows his varied interests. They did not always earn him the respect of the critics, who were turned off by his anticlerical statements and his staunch defense of unexplained natural phenomena.41 However, his “homecoming” in 1679 must have livened up the family discussions, and he certainly proved to be a supportive force when it came to the literary endeavors of his sisters. For Susanna, he arranged the publication of a collection of her poetry. Their sister Regina contributed extensive translations from French to his Pantomysterium.42

In some of his works, Johann Gottfried mentioned that his childhood was poor. In her introduction to the Jungferlicher Zeitvertreiber, Susanna recollected that she had been “lonely” since she had missed the company of similarly educated girls, but she found pleasure (“Ergetzlichkeit”) in “excellent history books, and merry songs and poems,”43 the earliest ones of which must have been supplied by her father, who probably instructed her in reading and writing as well. Like her sister she must also have learned French. From the close relationship with her brother Johann Gottfried, crowned a poet laureate while in Wittenberg (JZ 16 – 18), we can gather that he probably provided her with the books that helped her acquire the extensive knowledge of classical literature and versification that is so evident in her poetry, especially after he moved back to Fienstedt in 1679.44

In spite of her purported loneliness, her family connections provided a fertile field for the poet’s pen. They appear in the various letters to her brother when he was a student and then a lector in Wittenberg, as well as in a funeral poem for the death of her grandmother (VI. 39 – 40). One poem is addressed to her future husband, commenting on his departure after a visit (XVI. 48 – 51).45 The family likewise lauded the publication of the Zeitvertreiber with congratulatory verses: by her father (6 – 7), her husband-to-be (10 – 11), one of her husband’s new colleagues, Benedict Debresius (6), and one by her brother, who raised her up to the Olympus and compared her to Sappho (7 – 10).

Beyond the immediate family, the Zeidlers were part of a “parson’s network”. Various epithalamia and other wedding-related poems show a wide circle of family and acquaintances.46 Susanna also contributed a poem to the publication of a prayer book of another pastor.47 Even the poems written after her wedding, one to an uncle of her husband and one to her husband’s new employer, give evidence of a circle of family, friends, and acquaintances, all somehow connected to pastors and/or their families, illustrating again that support for their writing ambitions from family and friends was conducive to emerging women poets.48

Susanna’s most valued friendship was with the pastor’s daughters in the neighboring town of Beesenstedt. Susanna corresponded, often in verse, with Anna Susanna Sicelius and her younger sister Maria Elisabeth, when the rough condition of the roads or the all-pervasive plague-epidemics would prevent visits.49 When the younger sister passed away in the plague epidemic of 1681, she wrote a heartfelt poem, evincing that such funereal poetry could be deeply personal.

Wir hofften als man sprach/ es wird nu Frieden werden/
Das Unglück würde gantz verschwinden von Erden/
Weil man bey Friedenszeit fein sicher leben kann.
So ist es weit gefehlt/ so fängt sichs erst recht an.
Das hochbetrübte Land/ das durch das schlimme Morden.
Und Tyranney der Pest so gar verwüstet worden/
Das stecket allbereit die Trauerfahne aus/
Weil man in grosser Zahl die Kinder trägt hinaus. […]
Ich aber wuste mich damahls nicht zu besinnen
Aus was Ursachen sich die edlen Pierinnen
So sehr bekümmerten/ und wer die Nimphe sey/
Die edle Nimphe die der blasse Tod so frey
Und jehling hingerafft in ihren jungen Tagen
Und möchte gleichwohl nicht die Pierinnen fragen
Biß ich hernach erfuhr mit hochbetrübten Sinn/
Es sey das liebe Kind/ Die Jungfer Sikelin.50

The author must have gained nothing but praise from the recipients of her poems, honoring special events and milestones in the lives of family members and acquaintances, all of them tied to specific occasions, some with religious topics.51 However, she entered a male domain when she wrote a welcoming poem for the visit of the Elector Friedrich Wilhelm, new ruler of the Duchy of Magdeburg. It was printed and presented to the Elector with other congratulatory poems during a reception at the town hall in Halle on July 4, 1681, attended by the clergy of Halle and the surrounding region (Dreyhaupt 1880).

Ihr Musen/ die bißher mit hochbetrübter Zungen,
Ein trauriges Gedicht und Sterbelied gesungen/. […]
Indem der schnelle Gifft der Pestilenz verheeret/
So manche schöne Stadt/ in welcher er verzehret/
Und mehr als tausendfach vermindert und geschwächt
Durch seine Grausamkeit das menschliche Geschlecht,
Stellt dieses Trauren ein/ nachdem sich alles wieder
Nunmehr ergetzet hat/ stimmt an die Freuden–Lieder.
Das in den Himmel schalt derselben süsser Thon.
Erhebt mit hohen Ruhm bis an der Götter Thron
Den grossen Friederich/ last eure Seiten klingen/
Den theuren König und Churfürsten zu besingen.52

It is a well-crafted poem in alexandrines, one of the most commonly used meters, hitting just the right note of pride and humility, using a variety of classical allusions. It showed her familiarity with the poetics of her time, and her mettle as an accomplished poet. It assured her a mention in the works of Erdmann Neumeister and subsequently in those of others. (Neumeister 1695: 117 – 118.) Neumeister called her poetry elegant and graceful (anmutig), comparing it with the poetry of Paul Fleming, a poet of occasional poetry par excellence. However, Neumeister could not refrain from commenting that most of the works by women required a more lenient approach.

Other critics must have openly questioned whether a woman was capable of writing such an accomplished piece, since the overall tone of the Zeitvertreiber is defensive. In the foreword, she admitted to having had less academic training in versification and poetics, but she defended her literary creations. While her hands were busy doing the daily chores, she wrote, the making of these German verses occupied her mind leaving no space for idle thoughts, resulting in poems that are virtuous enough that they will be pleasing to God and Man. To print these in a collection had not been her idea. On the contrary, she had discarded many of her poems, after doubts had been raised that a woman could have written them. In the “Begläubigung der Jungfer Poeterey (‘Accreditation of Women’s Poetry’ 31), she confronts a Rhapsodius, who had doubted that she had written the poetry she claimed as her own, countering that one could just as well doubt that he was the author of his wedding poem. While again admitting that women lacked academic training, she maintained that God and nature gave them the same talents. Some of her responses were in a lighter vein. When she received praise for her poetry, she answered humorously but pleased: “What? Has Apollo now deigned to descend from Parnassus to bestow praise on an unworthy nymph?”53 In another she answered a laudatory poem with one of her own, using the traditional form of the alexandrine and a number of classical allusions proving her artistry.54 However, in one short poem she refused to engage in a mode of writing, called Gelehrtenpoesie (literally: scholars’ poetry), an emerging tradition in which university educated poets tried to impress the reader with as many learned allusions as could be crammed into their verses. “Whatever is too high to put into verse, I will leave to the scholars. Although I have loved the art of poetry for a long time, they have had more training in this art.”55

One of the reasons for printing the collection was that it would leave a token with friends and acquaintances that she would not be able to visit as often in her new abode. That this social life played against the background of a parsonage in a small town seemed not to have bothered her, although it must have been an issue with her brother, who had to leave Wittenberg for Fienstedt as can be gathered from one of Susanna’s verses, a dialogue, in which one party defends living in the country and another living in the white mountains (Wittenberg).56 In another poem she defends the farmers, saying they have far better manners than the world gives them credit for.57 It is therefore fitting that the collection closes with a poem written after the goats destroyed most of her vegetable garden, a prime example of the poet’s ability to find subjects in every-day life, showing that occasional poetry can be a creative outlet for a woman’s poetic talents, even for those living in the confines of a village parsonage.

Ach ist es nicht schade/ der herrliche Garten/
Aus welchem man könte viel Früchte erwarten
Voll köstlicher Bäume und Kräuter gepflanzt/
Mit künstlichen Wällen und Mauren umschantzt. […]
Das irdische Paradieß lustiger Pracht
Das haben die Böcke zu nichte gemacht. […]
Die Thüren und Riegel? Ist alles vergebens/
Der Bock mit Gefährligkeit Leibes und Lebens
Steigt über die Mauer/ springt wider hinab/
Beschelet die Bäume / die Zweige bricht ab.
Macht also in wenigen Stunden zu nichte
Das was ich viel Jahre mit mühe verrichte/58

After Susanna Zeidler married, she moved to Detershagen. Since the publication of the Zeitvertreiber was delayed she had the opportunity to add several poems written after her wedding, thereby contradicting her prognosis that she would have little time for writing as a new pastor’s wife. She dedicated the volume to the wife of one of her husband’s new employers, showing again that she could use her writing in a public setting, this time in aid of her husband’s career. Then she disappears from our records, except for a short mention in the funeral book for her father, that she passed away on October 4, 1693 (Zeidler et al. 1699: A3v). But her publication provides a permanent record and the city of Fienstedt has recently recognized their famous daughter by renaming a street in her honor. It seems a fitting tribute. May this short discussion of one pastor’s daughter in the seventeenth century and her exemplary collection lead to further discoveries of her poetic contributions and those of others and a reevaluation of the home environment that was conducive to the writing of women.

Works Cited

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