author
Henriette Wilhelmine Arndt Hanke
1784–1862
A hugely popular 19th-century German novelist, she wrote family-centered stories that spoke directly to women readers of her time. Her books were so widely read that her writing helped support her household after she was widowed.
2 Audiobooks
Die Schwägerinnen. Zweiter Theil.
by Henriette Wilhelmine Arndt Hanke
Die Schwägerinnen. Erster Theil.
by Henriette Wilhelmine Arndt Hanke
About the author
Born in Jauer in Silesia, Henriette Wilhelmine Arndt Hanke became one of the most prolific German writers of the first half of the 19th century. Sources agree that she was born on June 24, though some give the year as 1784 and others as 1785, so that detail is best treated with caution.
She married the pastor Gottfried Heinrich Carl Hanke and lived for a time in Dyhernfurth, where she also took on the care of children from his earlier marriage. After her husband's death, she continued writing extensively, and her novels and story collections became especially well known among women readers. Her work is often described as sentimental or family-centered, rooted in domestic life and everyday moral choices.
Hanke remained closely associated with Jauer, where she also died in 1862. Though she is not widely known to general readers today, literary reference works and historical summaries still remember her as an unusually productive and successful popular author of her era.