Marianne Ehrmann  Marianne Ehrmann (née: Marianne Brentano-Corti, also "Marianne Ehrmann-Brentano" and "Madame Sternheim", born 25 November 1755; † 14 August 1795) was one of the first women novelists, publicists and journalists in the German-speaking countries. Born in Rapperswil in the canton of St. Gallen in Switzerland, Marianne was the daughter of Sebastiana Antonia Corti ("Curti") and the merchant Franz Xaver Brentano. She had nine siblings; her mother died on 22 April 1770. Around 1772/73 Franz Xaver Brentano moved with his children to Wurzach in southern Germany. In 1775 died also her father, and a little later died her only surviving sister. Marianne Brentano moved to her uncle Dominic von Brentano, who was a priest and chaplain at the Imperial Abbey of Kempten. He supported the young woman in the following years, when Marianne Brentano worked as a governess in aristocratic houses. Around 1777 Marianne Brentano married an officer of unknown name, but she got divorced in 1779, after he gambled away the money and was violent; she may have had a miscarriage caused by his ill-treatment of her. He became indebted, stole money and fled to escape punishment. Marianne was financially, physically and psychologically ruined after two years of marriage, fell into insanity and was confined for months. With the help of her uncle, she recovered. About three years later, she went to Vienna, where she unsuccessfully worked as a governess, and then joined a troupe of actors. Under the name "Madame Sternheim" she worked a number of years on the stage. With various theater companies, among them with the group of Simon Friedrich Koberwein in Strasbourg, Marianne Brentano toured Austria, France, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, and even Hungary and Transylvania. Her first tracts, "Müssige Stunden eines Frauenzimmers" (literally: Leisure Hours of a Lady)"" (By an Observer) and "Philosophie eines Weibes, von einer Beobachterin" (Philosophy of a Woman, by a woman observer),, were published anonymously; the latter caused quite a stir. During a stay of the troupe in Strasbourg, the author met the junior postdoctoral lawyer Theophil Friedrich Ehrmann.