Hermione von Preuschen (1854–1918) was a German painter, poet, and world traveler — the woman behind the Mors Imperator scandal of 1887, admired in her lifetime by Rilke, and today almost unknown in the English-speaking world. This site is an attempt to change that.
Here you will find a biography built on primary sources, a catalogue of her books with the original scans, the paper trail of how the world saw her, and — for the first time anywhere — English translations of her German writing.
Her works
On the Artistic Education of Woman
Her 1896 lecture to the International Women's Congress in Berlin, demanding that the art academies be opened to women — her feminism in her own words.
In English in revision
Open Letter on “Mors Imperator”
Her answer, in the press, to the Berlin jury that rejected Mors Imperator — the first time she took her own case to the public.
In English draft
Spanish Artists in Rome
The first of three surveys of artistic Rome she wrote for a Viennese art weekly in 1892 — the year she was, in effect, its Rome correspondent.
In English draft
Night and Revolt
Two poems in a Viennese art weekly, June 1892 — printed in the wilder form she later edited out of the book.
In English draft
Yoshiwara
A novel that follows its heroine Indra from Berlin across India, Ceylon, Burma, and Japan — named for Tokyo's pleasure district.
The Novel of My Life
Her autobiographical novel — 'a woman's life at the turn of the century' — published posthumously.
In English · all 75 chapters draft
Tollkraut
Her first collection of short fiction — thirteen novellas, dedicated to Konrad Telmann.
Not translated yet
Via passionis
A book of 'life-songs' — her first major poetry collection.
Not translated yet
Noch einmal „Mors Imperator“
An elegiac poem-cycle mourning her husband Konrad Telmann, its title reprising her famous painting.
Not translated yet
Flammenmal
Poems under a Leonardo epigraph — a book she illustrated with reproductions of her own paintings.
Not translated yet
Translation status
6 English texts online. Every one is a new, AI-assisted draft under human review — the tier says how far each has got.
- draft
- Only AI translation — no human verification.
- in revision
- Being worked through right now by a non-German-speaking editor: the translation, the facts, the glosses and the context. Expect changes.
- revised
- That editing pass is finished — checked by a non-German-speaking human, but not against the German. Nothing is at this tier just now.
- final
- Reviewed and verified against the German by a fluent reader. Nothing has reached this tier yet.