Graz Women's Journal

When the ideas of the Enlightenment spread throughout Europe at the beginning of the 18th century, it would take some time before a magazine specifically for women in the Habsburg Empire came onto the market. The first edition of the “Zeitung für Damen und andere Frauenzimmer” (“Newspaper for Ladies and other Gentlewomen”) by the Graz-based printer Anton Tedeschi from Udine was published in Graz on 4 January 1792. The magazine often changed its name and publisher in the years of publication up to 1797. Already the third number of the first year appeared under the title “Journal für Damen und andere Frauenzimmer” (“Journal for Ladies and other Gentlewomen”). When Kaspar Rodelmayer became proprietor of the newspaper and assumed editorial control, he changed the name to “Damenjournal für das Jahr 1794 Allen Schönen Deutschlands zur angenehmen und lehrreichen Unterhaltung gewidmet” (“Journal for Ladies for the Year 1794. Dedicated to all German Women for their Pleasant and Educative Entertainment”). Michael Hermann Abros finally published the paper as “Gratzer Frauenjournal Österreichs und Hungariens Töchtern gewidmet” (“Ladies’ Journal of Graz. Dedicated to the Women of Austria and Hungary”). He was succeeded by Johann Joseph Bauer who published the first number on 20 January 1796 under the title “Grätzer Frauen – Zeitschrift. Dem schönen Geschlechte und den Freunden desselben gewidmet” (“Graz Journal for Ladies. Dedicated to the Fair Sex and their Friends“). The last owner of the newspaper, Franz Augustin Aufhammer published the periodical as “Frauen-Journal. Dem schönen Geschlecht und ihren Gönnern geweiht von ihren Herausgebern“ („Women’s Journal. Dedicated to the Fair Sex and its Benefactors by its Publisher”).