„O Kinder, möchtet Ihr dergleichen nie erfahren“

Abstract The autobiography of Margarethe Elisabeth Milow, a merchant’s daughter from Hamburg, is not only a precious source for the living conditions of protestant middle-class women in the 18 th century, but it also illustrates that writing was practised as one habit among many others. The paper shows that the formally heterogeneous text owes its existence to strict routines, which Milow carried out conscientiously until her death. As she addresses her report to her children, it can also be read as an educational text: Fulfilling the demand of the admired theologian Julius Gustav Alberti for a progressive religious education centred on the life of the individual, Milow places herself as a narrator matured by female experience who finds instructive exempla in her own life story. Finally, the paper reveals a tension in Milow’s writing: On the one hand, she writes (family) history out of a strong sense of duty, on the other hand, she writes for the pleasure of exploring her talent to tell effectively constructed stories .