Abstract
Malwida von Meysenbug's autobiographical railway travel story, 'A Journey to Ostend' (1849) reflects the atmosphere of social change in Germany in which it was written. The short-lived revolution of 1848 had engendered hopes of democracy, and the railroad, industrialization's spectacular spearhead, was seen as a vehicle of democratic change. However, middle-class women who wished to participate in this largely male public realm of mobility and democratic change met several challenges. 19th century bourgeois social norms dictated that women's sphere was the domestic one and their behavior should reflect modesty and submissiveness. Women traveling alone in the male public domain of the railroad were departing from the norm and faced social scrutiny. Meysenbug reveals how women travelers maintained the feminine qualities of modesty and respectability by recreating the domestic realm on the railway, the subject of this article.
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