Sieveking, Amalia, the founder and long the head of the woman's union for the care of the poor and the sick of the city of Hamburg, belonged to one of the most respected senatorial families of that city, and was born in 1794. She lost her parents at an early age, and was received into the home of an elderly relative of her mother, where she began, when scarce seventeen years of age, to display the qualities which stamped her a born deaconess. Her earliest efl'orts were exjiended on an uninstructeil girl living in the same house with her- self, and live other girls were soon added to her school. She devoted three hours a day to instruction in ele- mentary branches, omitting nothing but religion, which she did not at the time either possess or understand. Kempis's Imitation of Christ first directed her thoughts towards the Bible, and A. II. Francke's Manuductio ad Lectionem Scri])t. Sacr. ((). v.) taught lier to find the sense of Scripture by comparing its parts together, and also to transmute all that shoidd be found into experience, through jirayer and personal ajiplication. She claims, accordingly, that her faith was grounded on no human authority whatever, but solely on that of the Lord. The doctrine of tlie atonement continued to troulile her, however, until an enliglitened Bilile student, who had been the school friend of lier early -deceased brother, was able to relieve her doid)ts. Religion was now given a prominent place in her curriculum, and a weekly " Bible-hour" was added to her labors, for the benefit of such as had by confirmation been removed from school into the walks of common life. These Bible -hours yielded fruit also for a wider circle through a publica- tion issued in 1822, and entitled lietrachtumjen iib. ein- zehie Thiilc d. heil. Schrifl, u|)on which followed, in 1827, liesrhiifliyuni/eH init d. hiil. Srhrijl, and in 1855 UnterhaltuM/en iib, einzelne Ab.^chnitte d. heil. JSchriff, These schools for girls were continued, with rare inter- ruptions, down to the last year of her life, the sixth class being admitted in 18.54; and it became a desirable thing in the eyes of her neighbors, even when they dif- fered from Ikt in religious ojiiiiion, to have their chil- dren place(l under her care.
The disposition to give and help in everj' way was too strong ill Amalia's nature to be confined within the limits of her school. She thought at first of organizing
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an evangelical sisterhood after the pattern of the Rom- ish orders. Her way was made clear, however, by the first breaking-out of the cholera ei)idemic in Europe in the summer of 1831, when she offered her services to the cholera hospital, wliich were accepted. She was at last placed ov'er the entire corps of male and female nurses. The experience so gained was practically utilized after- wards in the forming of a wumaii^s societi/ for the relief of tlie poor and the sick instead of the proposed sister- hood. It was composed of women belonging to the middle and higher classes of society, at first thirteen in number (1832), and was placed under stringent rules of administration. Direct visitation was made a duty, certain families being assigned to a number of mem- bers, wlio were required to visit in succession and record the results of the visits in books provided for that pur- )Kise. No case of chronic poverty was received, and the most careful inquiries were made with reference to ap- plicants for aid, covering the business, number of per- sons in the family, their age and sex, attendance on schools, the home, and its appearance as to neatness and order. A weekly meeting was held in wliich the claim of such applicants to admission was discussed, and at which they were placed uniler the care of certain mem- bers if received. It was also a principle never to visit the poor empty-handed, but never to give them money, orders on tradesmen or provisions in kind being pre- ferred; and if want of work was the occasion of the suf- fering, tlie effort was made to secure employment. The union even erected a number of manufactories itself. and ha I them managed under its control, for the pur- pose of affording employment to the poor, and its re- ports show that this part of its business was not con- ducted at a loss. Nor was the spiritual welfare of its clients neglected. Every visitor was expected to use all proper effort to secure tlie moral and religious im- ])roveinent of the persons under her care, no less than to minister to their temporal needs. The workings of this union caused its fame to spread, not simply through- out an appreciative city, but over wide areas, so that when a terrible conflagration laid Hamburg low in 1842, contributions from women's unions in numerous German cities, all of which called themselves daughters of the union of Hamburg, were forwarded to the parent society f >r its use. Amalia Sieveking's life-purpose was thus fidly realized, and crowned with blessing beyond all her expectations. The last two years of her life were shadowed by pulmonary troubles, which destroyed her strength and compelled her gradual withdrawal from tlie work whose supervision had become to her a second nature. She died April 1, 1850. For her life, see Denk- iLuirilii/keitcii aus d. Lebeii I'oii A m.nUd Sievekiiuj, etc. (Hamb. 1860). — Herzog, Real-Encijkiop. s. v.