Leading women - Ragnhild Goldschmidt

On the occasion of International Women's Day, we have chosen to write a longer post about one of the overlooked Danish Jewish women in Danish history. The choice fell on Ragnhild Goldschmidt, writer, feminist and "spiritual". Find out more about her life and lifestyle below. 

by Museum Inspector Sara F. Stadager, mag.art.

"Laura Holm and I had been schoolmates and intimate childhood friends."

This is how the book begins A Woman's Story. The book was published in 1875 by an anonymous author, but carried a recommendatory foreword by the prominent author and newly appointed professor Meir Aron Goldschmidt.

The book's narrator is Sofie Stein. She talks about her friend Laura Holm, who seeks an emotional release from a life of poverty. She falls in love with a married man who leaves her, and Laura is lost and dies. The book's narrator's name is hidden far into the novel and only slowly is a hint of the Jewish background the author himself comes from revealed. The main character in the story celebrates Christmas and is confirmed with her Christian friend. In other words, it is not the Jewish identity that is at the center of the book, but the female one. The men are extras in this story.

The book's author was Ragnhild Goldschmidt (1828-1890). She was the younger sister of two prominent personalities in the 1800th century. The aforementioned writer Meir Aron Goldschmidt (1819-1887) and businessman Moritz Goldschmidt (1822-1882), who founded the firm Crome and Goldschmidt. Both men were recognized in their respective fields at the time, although also controversial because of their Jewish background. From 1839, the eldest had to financially take care of the sister, who as an unmarried woman could not achieve financial independence despite working as a house teacher and training in housekeeping. Women only gained that right in 1880.

Ragnhild avoided her brother's acquaintances, and also read the authors her brother reviewed, including the female authors Fanny de Bretteville and Mathilde Fibiger. They were known for their novels that highlighted the position of women in society.

In 1872, Ragnhild, together with two other women, founded Kvindelige Læseforening, which became a hotbed for part of the 1800th-century women's struggle by creating a politically neutral space with security and encouragement to write and give lectures about the position of women. Ragnhild, who in 1881 became chairman of the association, described the vision for the association in 1883:

 "The Women's Reading Association is really the first step on the path of emancipation, because it loosened, even if only slightly, the woman from the home" […] "it was a step forward for its time, and it is now only waiting for the younger people to take it in hand and bring it to a height with today's ideas" [...] "Perhaps the wish with which the association was born, but has never been able to achieve, will be realized: that women with common interests, wealth of knowledge and education set each other up here" [...] "because they need room for a greater, or at least for a different view than the horizon of the home allows, and thereby make the association a gathering place for spiritual women, who with life and skill discuss and fight about the currents, ideas and events of the times and through the debate come to clarity about one's own thoughts and outlook on life in order to later build on that".

The great legacy of Ragnhild Goldschmidt lies in creating the foundation on which the Women's Reading Association could stand and grow. After her death, Sophie Alberti took over the presidency and under her the number of members increased fivefold over a 20-year period. Ragnhild's writing was not great, one novel and two short stories. The work was put into the association and managing it through political stormy years. For the same reason, today she is only peripherally illuminated in the women's case.

At her death, Ragnhild Goldschmidt was described by Elisabeth Grundtvig (1856-1945) in the following way: "I have heard people say that when Miss Goldschmidt entered a room, it became funny, and this is so far from being an exaggeration , that the expression is not strong enough; it often became much more than amusing; it became spiritual”.

If you want to know more or read Ragnhild's novel, it can be accessed completely free online at the Royal Library: https://www.kb.dk/e-mat/dod/130021305538.pdf

Elisabeth Grundtvig's speech at Ragnhild Goldschmidt's death can be read here: https://dansketaler.dk/tale/elisabeth-grundtvigs-tale-ved-mindefest-for-ragnhild-goldschmidt-1890/