Fanny Tarnow

Franziska Christiane Johanna Friederike "Fanny" Tarnow (17 December 1779, Güstrow – 4 July 1862, Dessau) was a German author. She wrote under the names Fanny Tarnow and F.T.

Fanny Tarnow was the first child of the lawyer and secretary of state in Güstrow David Tarnow, later a Gutsbesitzer or landholder, and his wife, Amalie Justine Holstein. She grew up in wealthy circles, but was unable to walk after a fall when she was four. After her father lost his property, the family moved to Neu-Buckow and Fanny became a governess, first at Rügen for four years then at Rohlstorff. In 1805 she began publishing her journals anonymously and made contact with cultural figures including Johann Friedrich Rochlitz, Julius Eduard Hitzig, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, Rosa Maria Assing, Rahel and Karl August Varnhagen von Ense. From 1807 to 1812 she was a governess in Wismar and Rankendorf, then until 1815 she went to nurse her ill mother in Neu-Buckow.

From 1816 to 1818 she lived with a childhood friend in Saint Petersburg, where she met Friedrich Maximilian Klinger, August von Kotzebue and Count Jacob Johann Sievers. This was followed by temporary stays in Berlin and at her sister's house in Lübeck. Fanny and the writer Amalie Schoppe also headed a girls' reformatory in Hamburg. In 1820 Fanny moved to Schandau - during this time she befriended Helmina von Chezy, Elisa von der Recke, Ludwig Tieck, Christoph August Tiedge and countess Egloffstein. She then temporarily lost her sight due to illness and so in 1829 she moved to stay in Weißenfels with her sister Betty. Worried friends then selected some of her writings and published then on a subscription basis, raising 5,000 Taler for her. After that she mainly worked translating French and English works into German. From 1841 she lived in Dessau.

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