Friday 20 June 2014

Frida Bettingen (1865 - 1924) - German


Frida Bettingen was born Frida Reuter in Ronneburg in Thüringen in 1865.

Frida was an expressionist poet about whom very little is known. She grew up in Altenburg and married the school teacher Franz Bettingen from Krefeld in 1885.  The couple had a son who was killed in 1914 in the early part of the war. 

In 1921 Frida spent some time in a psychiatric clinic in Jena, returned home, was sent there again in 1923 and died there the following year. Her main works were Eva und Abel. Kriegsjahr 1918, den Müttern zugeeignet. 1919; Gedichte. 1922; Himmelsbürde. 1937

Information for this panel was collected, translated and contributed by Penelope Monkhouse from Germany.

Penelope Monkhouse (*1952) is a German-British scientist living in Schwetzingen/Germany and is a granddaughter of the novelist, dramatist and literary critic Allan Monkhouse. Literature of the early 20thcentury is presently one of her chief non-scientific interests; she is presently engaged on a comparative study of German and English poetry of this period. She also writes poetry of her own and translates poetry to and from German and English. 

My grateful thanks to Penelope.