Auguste Schmidt, was a pioneering German feminist

Feminism

Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...

, educator, journalist and women's rights activist.

Life

She was the daughter of Prussia

Prussia

Prussia was a German kingdom and historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organized and effective army. Prussia shaped the history...

n army artillery lieutenant Friedrich Schmidt and his wife Emilie (born Schöps). In 1842 the family moved from Breslau to Poznan

Poznan

Poznań is a city on the Warta river in west-central Poland, with a population of 556,022 in June 2009. It is among the oldest cities in Poland, and was one of the most important centres in the early Polish state, whose first rulers were buried at Poznań's cathedral. It is sometimes claimed to be...

 where from 1848 -1850 she studied to be a teacher.

Between 1850-1855 she worked as a private teacher for a Polish family, and later at a private school in Upper Rybnik

Rybnik

Rybnik is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship. Rybnik is located close to the border with the Czech Republic and just outside the southern border of the largest urban area in Poland, the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union...

. Then from 1855 -1860 she was teacher at the Maria Magdalena municipal School in Wroclaw

Wroclaw

Wrocław , situated on the River Oder , is the main city of southwestern Poland.Wrocław was the historical capital of Silesia and is today the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. Over the centuries, the city has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, but since 1945...

. In 1861 she moved to Leipzig to become the Director of the Leipzig "Latzelschen höheren Privattöchterschule", a girls private school.

From 1862 she was teacher of literature and aesthetics at one of Ottilie von Steyber's (1804-1870) Mädchenbildungsinstitut (Girls Educational Institutes). One of her students was Clara Zetkin

Clara Zetkin

Clara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and fighter for women's rights. In 1910, she organized the first International Women's Day....

. In 1864 she started a friendship with Louise Otto-Peters

Louise Otto-Peters

Louise Otto-Peters was a German writer, feminist, poet, journalist, and women's rights movement activist. She often wrote under the pseudonym of Otto Stern. She is widely acknowledged as the founder of the organized German women's movement.-Life:Louise Otto-Peters was the daughter of a...

.

In 1866, she joined with Louise Otto-Peters in founding the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein (ADF)(General Union of German Women) in Leipzig to work for better women's access to higher education and the professions as well as better protective legislation for working women. Schmidt and Otto-Peters served jointly as president and edited the house organ, Neue Bahnen (New Paths).

1869 she founded the association of German teachers and educators and in 1890, together with Helene Lange

Helene Lange

Helene Lange was a pedagogue and feminist, and a symbol of the Women's Movement in Germany.-Education and pedagogy:...

, she founded the "Allgemeinen Deutschen Lehrerinnen-Vereins" (ADLV) (General German Teachers Association).

In 1894, she became the first president of the Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (BDF), (League of German Women's Associations), which brought together thirty-four women's civil rights movement groups under a controlling body.

She retired in 1900 and died in 1902.

In 2003 a 14m long plaque was attached to the house in which she lived between 1863 to 1864
at Lortzingstraße 5, Leipzig, to commemorate her life.