Lily Braun
Lily Braun (2 July 1865 – 8 August 1916), born Amalie von Kretschmann, was a German feminist writer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).She was born in Halberstadt, in the Prussian province of Saxony, the daughter of Hans von Kretsc
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Lily Braun (2 July 1865 – 8 August 1916), born Amalie von Kretschmann, was a German feminist writer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).She was born in Halberstadt, in the Prussian province of Saxony, the daughter of Hans von Kretschmann [de], General of the Infantry in the Prussian Army, and his wife Jenny, née von Gustedt (1843–1903). Her maternal grandmother, the writer Jenny von Gustedt (1811–1890), had been an illegitimate daughter of Jérôme Bonaparte, Napoleon's brother who was King of Westphalia, and his mistress Diana Rabe von Pappenheim. Lily Braun's great-niece, Marianne von Kretschmann married Richard von Weizsäcker, President of Germany from 1984 to 1994.
Raised according to the Prussian virtues of order and discipline at changing places throughout her father's military career, she nevertheless developed a direct and open personality, encouraged in particular by her grandmother Jenny von Gustedt [de]. She was considered to be highly ambitious and her family provided her with a broad education by numerous private teachers. From an early age on, she began to question her parents' bourgeois values as influenced by Lutheranism and Calvinism as well the position of women in Prussian society. When her father retired in 1890, she had to establish a sustainable livelihood herself.
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