25 Facts About Ricarda Huch

Ricarda Huch was a pioneering German intellectual.

Ricarda Huch was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.

Huch was born in Braunschweig to Richard Huch and Emilie, born Hahn, in 1864.

Ricarda Huch matriculated into a PhD program in history and received her doctorate in 1892 for a dissertation on "The neutrality of the Confederation during the Spanish War of Succession".

Ricarda Huch argued that German Romanticism went through a period of blossoming and a later period of decay.

Ricarda Huch identifies late German Romanticism with a leaning towards simplistic folklore, myth and self-destructive tendencies.

Ricarda Huch lamented the aspirituality and technocentrism of her own day and expressed the hope that after the rejection of Romanticism in the first half of the 19th century the intellectual achievements of Romanticism would be regenerated.

Ricarda Huch emphasised the role of women in early German Romanticism, pointing to the writings of Caroline Schelling, Dorothea von Schlegel, Karoline von Gunderrode, Rahel Levin, Bettina von Arnim and Dorothea von Rodde-Schlozer.

In 1914 Ricarda Huch celebrated her fiftieth birthday, three weeks after the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo, her final volume of her trilogy on the Thirty Years' War had just been completed.

Ricarda Huch stressed the particularity of urban organisms and the communal spirit cities generated.

Ricarda Huch examined the Medieval commune and charted the development of self-governing communities based on personal involvement and solidarity.

Ricarda Huch had first examined the idea of self-reliant communities, which she contrasted to what she perceived as artificial modern societies, in her biography of Bakunin.

Ricarda Huch responded, saying that she will not forego her right to freedom of expression and asked Schillings whether her refusal to sign the declaration will inevitably lead to her exclusion from the academy.

Ricarda Huch responded, saying that it is natural for a German to feel German, but that she condemned the Nazis' strong-arm tactics, brutal centralization and intimidation of those with other opinions.

Ricarda Huch called the Nazis' tactics un-German, defended her right to freedom of expression and noted that she was not in agreement with the Nazi doctrine.

Ricarda Huch remained in Berlin and researched early German history, starting with Charles the Great.

Ricarda Huch's views were an open challenge to the Nazi doctrine on Germanic culture and its roots.

Bohm was able to secure a teaching contract with Jena University, but in 1937 he and Ricarda Huch were accused of sedition because the two had defended the intellectual capacities of Jews at a dinner party.

When Jena was to become part of the Soviet zone of occupation Ricarda Huch fled to West Germany and settled in Frankfurt.

Ricarda Huch began work on a book celebrating members of the German resistance to Nazism.

Ricarda Huch reasoned that this ultimate sacrifice had helped all Germans to retain a grain of human dignity during a period of near boundless brutality.

Ricarda Huch argued that those who had resisted allowed all humans to rise from the swamp of everyday routine, light the spark for the fight against the bad and maintain the belief in the noble godliness of humanity.

Ricarda Huch was the honorary president of the 1947 German Writers' Congress in Frankfurt.

Ricarda Huch died at the age of 83 in November 1947, her book on the German resistance remained unfinished.

Ricarda Huch continued to live in Germany, made no attempt to conceal her convictions and published in Germany through Swiss publishers.