author
Marie Nathusius
1817–1857
A widely read 19th-century German storyteller, she wrote fiction shaped by family life, faith, and everyday feeling. Her books found a large audience in her own time, and she was also known for composing songs and for charitable work.
1 Audiobook
Die Kammerjungfer: Eine Stadtgeschichte
by Marie Nathusius
About the author
Born Marie Scheele in Magdeburg on March 10, 1817, she became Marie Nathusius after marrying Philipp von Nathusius. She was a German novelist and composer, remembered for popular fiction that connected strongly with readers in the mid-1800s.
Sources on her life describe her as the daughter of a clergyman, and note that she and her husband were active in charitable work in Neinstedt, where they helped found a rescue institution for boys. Alongside that work, she built a literary reputation that lasted well beyond her lifetime, with books such as Elizabeth and Diary of a Poor Young Lady later appearing in English translation.
She died in Neinstedt on December 22, 1857, at just 40 years old. Even so, her work kept circulating, and she is still remembered as one of the notable popular women writers of her generation in Germany.