Weibliche Autorschaft im deutsch-englischen Kulturtransfer des 17. Jahrhunderts. Margareta Maria von Buwinghausen und Walmerode und die Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft

Margareta Maria von Buwinghausen and Walmerode (1629-after 1679), born in Lutheran Stuttgart, was the first woman to earn public recognition in the realm of English-German cultural transfer in 17th century Germany. She translated Joseph Hall’s treatise, Heaven upon Earth, from French into German: Waarer und großmütiger Christen Krieg- Sieg- und Frieden-Spiegel. [Tübingen: Werlin 1652]. The young noblewoman wrote her reliable friend, Johann Valentin Andreae, in a surprisingly confident style and tone about the genesis of this translation. Support from the network of largely aristocratic and Protestant Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft, represented by well-known members such as Andreae, Georg Philipp Harsdörffer and Johann Wilhelm von Stubenberg, was fundamental for the realization of the project in order to equalize gender-based obstructions, such as lack of cavalier tours and exclusion from university education. Therewith, in Buwinghausen’s case, members of a ‘European’ society paved the way for a young, ambitious and intellectually alert noblewoman to become an author and thus visible in the early modern republic of letters as well as on the contemporary book market.