Born: 1 November 1841, Germany
Died: 3 August 1922
Country most active: Germany
Also known as: Wilhelmine Theodore Marie Schelle
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
In Freyenstein was Reverend Schelle, for forty-two years the true friend and pastor of his community. This was the father of Minna. She was also his favorite child out of a little flock of four. The mother was practical, industrious and exact, yet she made a lovely home for the family, a delightful interesting welcome for their friends. Minna attended high school and thought of studying a teacher’s course. When the death notice arrived of her older brother, Minna stayed home with her parents to help them forget their sorrow. When she was twenty-two, a serious illness gave her parents much worry, and her father called a young physician to her bedside. After her recovery, the young doctor kept on coming to see her. Out of the engagement soon came marriage. The parents found him worthy of their daughter. Several years of happiness and a lovely child crowned this young families’ existence. War between Denmark and Prussia called Dr. Latzel to do medical military service. He was gone for nine months and when he returned he was a nervous wreck. December, 1865, a diphtheria epidemic called the little son from this heart broken mother.
Soon the young father had to be sent to an asylum, where he died the following year. Minna’s parents called her home. For a while the sympathetic family tried everything to make her forget her losses. One day she found a position as governess in Paris and this lasted about two years. Minna was called home and found her father very ill. After his recovery, she took an engagement as a teacher in a skirls’ school. The director of the school was Edward Cauer, a widower with several children. He liked the charming young widow, found her a very interesting person. They were married in 1869, and they had twelve years of genuine happiness.
She contacted great persons, as Dr. E. Cauer was on the Berlin Educational Board in 1880. A long illness deprived him serving in his beloved profession. He died in 1881. For a while Minna Cauer was unable to collect her many talents, but at last she turned to literary work. In 1888 she was asked to organize the women; Verein Frauenwohl. It was about the same time Susan B. Anthony stirred the organization in the United States with greater energy than ever. A little later she started a magazine, Frauenbewegung. She suffered much under the indifference of the German women and the belittling of her advanced idea of the men. Minna was a strong crusader for the cause, she gave many talks, wrote articles for the newspapers and contacted the persons at the head of many institutions. She was often called to the Censure’s office, she had to keep articles of her own creation out of her own paper. During the war she served with the Red Cross, after the war she visited prisons, hospitals and blind asylums. No one suffered more for this condition than Frau Cauer. She met the Misses Jane Addams, Hopkins and Dr. Wood at a Food Blockade Inspection, and spent an enjoyable afternoon with them. Dr. Wood brought all kinds of groceries from Holland, so the investigation party did not need any food from starving Germany. The last years of her life she devoted to the Voters League. For her great service in educational matters, a girl’s school is named in her honor. Her great store of experience is helpful to the very end. Though she was misunderstood many times her colleagues realized what a leader they lost in Minna Cauer in 1922.