Sophie von La Roche (1730–1807) is regarded as the first successful German female author. She was an independent writer, publicist, publisher, and editor of the first German women’s magazine. She called for women’s participation in the national patriotic movement in Germany and participated in the construction of a bourgeois ideal of femininity that emphasized the bourgeois virtues of moderation, seriousness, and inwardness. Both national characteristics and gender characteristics were essentialized in the 18th century. The following works by Sophie von La Roche show how nation and gender became intertwined during this period.