BRAUN, LILY (1865-1916), German Socialist and writer, was born at Halberstadt. The daughter of Gen. von Kretschmann, she was brought up in an atmosphere of Prussian militarism, but was nevertheless drawn to the Socialist movement. In 1896 she married Heinrich Braun, a Socialist writer and politician. In connection with her interest in Socialism she visited England and met leading members of the Fabian Society. Much of her written work deals with the place of women in politics; e.g., Die Frauen frage (1901) ; Frauenarbeit and Hauswirtscha f t (I 90I) ; and Die Politik and die Frozen (19o4). Im Sclzatten der Titanen (19o8) is drawn from the life of her grandmother, Jenny von Gustedt, a natural daughter of Jerome Bonaparte. This, with her Memoiren einer Sozialistin, published in two volumes, Lehrjahre and Kampf jahre (1910 and 191I) gave her a European reputation. The Me moiren, cast in the form of a novel, was largely autobiographical, and pictured the growth of the German Social Democratic move ment at the end of the 19th century. Among her other books are Die Liebesbrie f e einer Marquise (1912) and Lebensucher (1915).
Her son, OTTO BRAUN (1897-1918), who fell in the World War, showed a precocious genius. Ayes nachgelassen Scliri f ten eines Fridlivollendeten (1919) containing poems, essays and pages from his diary, edited by Julie Vogenstein, displays an amazing maturity and has found many readers outside Germany.