HAHN-HAHN, IDA. — German writer, born at Trassow (Mecklenburg-Schwerin) on 22 June 1805, died at Mainz on 12 January 1880 in the convent of the Good Shepherd, which she had founded in 1852. After a youth spent in sad circumstances and separated from her husband in 1829, she wandered through Europe (her diaries and tales made her name known).
As an “emancipated” woman she also composed poetry and novels that reveal only an anti-Christian world-view and betray a profound restlessness; yet this very restlessness revealed at the same time an inner need for peace. On 26 March 1850, in fact, she converted to Catholicism under the guidance of W. Ketteler, then parish priest in Berlin; at that point the gradual transition, which had been taking shape, from individualism to a religious morality was fully accomplished. To her Byronic lyrics succeeded hymns to the Virgin (Unserer lieben Frau, 1851) and sacred songs (Das Jahr der Kirche, 1854); a notable series of novels followed (Maria Regina, 2 vols., 1860; Doralice, 2 vols., 1861; Peregrin, 2 vols., 1864); besides these, Bilder aus der Geschichte der Kirche (4 vols., 1853–66) and translations of ascetical works.