author
Marie Hankel
1844–1929
A pioneer of original Esperanto poetry, she helped turn a new language into a living literary culture. Her writing and organizing also connected closely with wider causes, including women's suffrage.
1 Audiobook
Tri unuaktaj komedioj
by August von Kotzebue, Marie Hankel, T. Williams
About the author
Born in Schwerin in 1844, Marie Hankel was a German writer who became one of the earliest and best-known literary voices in Esperanto. She is widely described as the first Esperanto poet, and she learned the language relatively late in life before throwing herself into the movement with remarkable energy.
She is especially remembered for helping build Esperanto literature as a community, not just a personal project. Sources consistently note that she founded the Esperantista Literatura Asocio, and that her work helped establish original poetry in Esperanto at a formative moment. She was also married to the mathematician Hermann Hankel.
Beyond literature, she is associated with women's suffrage and with a broader idealistic spirit in early Esperanto culture. Marie Hankel died in Dresden in 1929, but she remains an important figure for readers interested in the beginnings of international-language literature.