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Elizabeth A.Sackler Center for Feminist Art

Augusta Schmidt

b. 1833, Breslau, Germany; d. 1902, Leipzig, Germany

The correct spelling of this name is AUGUSTE SCHMIDT.

German feminist and educator Auguste Schmidt became a teacher at the age of seventeen, working in Breslau and Leipzig. In 1866, she joined Luise Otto-Peters in founding the Allgemeiner Deutscher Frauenverein (General Union of German Women) in Leipzig. Schmidt and Otto-Peters served together as president and edited the house organ, Neue Bahnen (New Paths). The organization worked for women’s access to higher education and the professions, as well as protective legislation for working women. In 1894, Schmidt became the first president of the Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine (League of German Women’s Associations), uniting thirty-four groups.