Sophie von Hatzfeldt

Sophie Gräfin[a] von Hatzfeldt, born Gräfin von Hatzfeldt-Schönstein zu Trachenberg (10 August 1805 in Trachenberg (Lower Silesia) – 25 January 1881 in Wiesbaden) was active in the German working-class movement and partner and confidante of Ferdinand Lassalle.

[1] In 1822, Sophie was forced to marry her distant cousin, Count Edmund von Hatzfeldt-Wildenburg (28 December 1798 in Kinzweiler – 14 January 1874 in Düsseldorf) with whom she had three children (including Paul von Hatzfeldt, who was Ambassador to London and Constantinople, Foreign Secretary, and Head of the Foreign Office).

Sophie became an independent and politically active woman; her house in Düsseldorf became an important meeting point of activists, including Karl Marx, during the March revolution in 1848.

[6][1] After Lassalle's death in 1864, seeing herself as the one responsible for continuing his work,[6] she saw to the publishing of his hitherto unpublished writings and was active in the Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (ADAV) that had been founded by Lasalle - even if, according to Prussian law, she was not allowed to become an official member.

In 1867, she founded an ADAV splinter group, the Lassallescher Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (LADAV).