Mathile Anneke

From Philosopedia

Anneke, Mathile Franziska Giesler (1817—1884)

Anneke was a freethought editor, educator, and woman’s rights advocate. She met Karl Marx and Michael Bakunin, fought in the German revolutions of 1848 and 1849 and, in 1865, co-founded the Milwaukee Tochter Institut, a German-language girls’ school.

At an 1869 national Equal Rights Association in New York, she said,

• There does not exist a man-made doctrine fabricated expressly for us, and which we must learn by heart, that shall henceforth be our law. Nor shall the authority of old traditions be a standard for us – be this authority called Veda, Talmud, Koran, or Bible. No. Reason, which we recognize as our highest and only law-giver, commands us to be free.

{WWS}