Amalie sieveking biography

German humanitarian, charity worker, and educator who played an important role in making philanthropic activities more available to German Lutheran women. Born Amalie Wilhelmine Sieveking in Hamburg, Germany, on July 25, 1794; died in Hamburg on April 1, 1859; had three brothers; never married.

Born a patrician's daughter in 1794 in Hamburg, Amalie Sieveking was orphaned at an early age, her mother dying when she was four and her father when she was fifteen, in 1809.

Because her father's fortune had been eroded by the French occupation and the end of a once-prosperous trade with Great Britain, Amalie and her three brothers were separated and sent to board in the homes of relatives and friends.

Her own school lessons—but not her brothers'—were discontinued. Later, in her adult years, when she had become a proselytizer for women's entrance into public charity, she made much of the disparity in educational opportunities for women and men.

Sieveking