Anita Augspurg

Anita Augspurg (22 September 1857 Verden an der Aller – 20 December 1943 Zürich) was a German jurist, actress, writer, activist of the radical feminist movement and a pacifist.

Biography

The daughter of a lawyer, during her adolescence Augspurg worked in her father's law office until she reached the age of majority. In Berlin she completed a teachers training course for teaching at Women's colleges and also took acting classes in parallel. From 1881 to 1882 she was an apprentice to the Meiningen Ensemble, and took part in concert tours across Germany, the Netherlands and Lithuania. Her maternal grandmother, who died in 1887, left her a considerable inheritance, which made her financially independent.

After a five-year career as an actress, she went with her friend Sophia Goudstikker to Munich, where in 1887 they jointly opened a photography studio, the Hofatelier Elvira. The two women wore short hair, unconventional clothing, and frequently made public their support for the struggle for the liberation of women and their free lifestyle. Because of that unusual lifestyle, Augspurg was exposed to personal attacks by anti-feminists far more than were other personalities of the women's movement. Nonetheless, her contacts made through the stage and the studio quickly made her well-known, and she eventually had the Bavarian royal family as a customer.