author
Marie Madeleine
1881–1944
Known by the pen name Marie-Madeleine, this German writer and poet became famous very young with bold, sensuous verse that stirred both fascination and controversy. Her work, especially Auf Kypros, found a wide audience and left a distinct mark on early 20th-century German erotic literature.
1 Audiobook
Pantherkätzchen
by Marie Madeleine
About the author
Born Gertrud von Puttkamer in East Prussia in 1881, she published under the name Marie-Madeleine. She is remembered as a German writer and poet whose work explored erotic desire, including love between women, in a way that was unusually open for her time.
Her best-known book, Auf Kypros (1900), brought her early success and made her a widely read literary figure. She went on to publish poetry and prose that often mixed lyrical language with themes of passion, longing, and transgression.
She died in 1944. Although her reputation has long been shaped by the scandal and novelty surrounding her subject matter, her writing still stands out for its frank emotional intensity and for the place it holds in the history of queer and erotic literature in German.