Druskowitz was born at
Hietzing, in
Vienna. In 1874 she moved to Zürich and completed her
abitur in 1878. After studying
philosophy,
archeology,
German literature,
Orientalism and modern languages, she became the first Austrian woman and the second after
Stefania Wolicka to obtain a doctorate in philosophy, with a dissertation on
Byron's
Don Juan. She then worked as a literary history teacher in different universities (Vienna, Zurich, Munich, Basel). She also traveled to North Africa, France, Italy and Spain before returning to Vienna. In 1881 she met
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach who introduced her to her literary circle. Three years later, she became acquainted with
Lou Andreas Salomé and
Friedrich Nietzsche, whom she was introduced to by the circle of
Malwida von Meysenbug. Helene Druskowitz was one of the happy few who received a copy of the fourth book of
Thus Spoke Zarathustra, published at the author's expense. However, the relationship with Nietzsche did not last long. In 1885 she published a book on
Three English Writers,
Joanna Baillie,
Elizabeth Barrett Browning and
George Eliot. Helene Druskowitz's brother died in 1886, and her mother in 1888. In 1887, she began a live-in relationship in Dresden with the opera singer
Therese Malten. She started to drink excessively and also had some drug problems. After a romantic separation in 1891, she finally slipped into alcoholism, and was sent in 1891 to a
psychiatric hospital in
Dresden. However, Helene continued to write and publish until 1905. She helped found the feminist reviews
Der heilige Kampf (
The Holy Struggle) and
Der Federuf (
The Call to Feud). Druskowitz criticized both religion, sexism and, after her break with Nietzsche,
his philosophy. She died at the end of May 1918 in
Mauer-Öhling, of
dysentery, having spent the last 27 years of her life in a psychiatric institution. == Works ==