HAHN-HAHN, IDA

HAHN-HAHN, IDA. - German woman writer, b. at Trassow (Mecklenburg-Schwerin) on 22 June 1805, d. at Mainz on 12 Jan. 1880 in the convent of the Good Shepherd, founded by her in 1852. After a youth spent in unhappy circumstances, and having separated from her husband in 1829, she wandered through Europe (diaries and tales made her name known).

As an “emancipated” woman she also composed poems and novels that offered only an anti-Christian conception of the world and displayed profound restlessness; which, however, at the same time revealed an inner need for peace. On 26 March 1850, in fact, she converted to Catholicism under the guidance of W. Ketteler, parish priest in Berlin at that time; then the gradual transition, which had been taking shape, from individualism to a religious morality was fully accomplished. Byronian lyrics gave way to praises of the Virgin (Unserer lieben Frau, 1851) and sacred songs (Das Jahr der Kirche, 1854); a notable series of novels (Maria Regina, 2 vols., 1860; Dorative, 2 vols., 1861), Peregrin (2 vols., 1864); moreover, Bilder aus der Geschichte der Kirche (4 vols., 1853–66), and translations of ascetical books.