Anna Louisa Karsch

The step-father moved the family to Tirschtiegel, where Karsch worked as a cradle rocker, cowherder, and a house maid to a middle class woman.

"[5] Her poems appeared in local newspapers in Silesia and she developed a group of followers who were mostly Lutheran pastors and their wives.

[3] Her poems grew large followings which brought connections, enough to support her family's financial struggles.

In January 1760, Karsch arranged for her abusive, alcoholic husband to be pressed into the Prussian Army.

Her grief for them, fear of wartime, and despair of financial difficulties led her to writing, "Klagen einer Witwe" (A Widow's Sorrow).

There in Berlin she received her title, "the German Sappho", from mentor and model, Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim.

Frederick II agreed to give her a pension and build a house for her but her novelty at court waned and she descended into poverty.

On the death of the king she approached his successor, Friedrich Wilhelm II in 1787, and he agreed to fill the promise, calling her "Deutschlands Dichterin" — Germany's poet.

Anna Louisa Karsch's published works as cited by An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers.