Anna Margaretha Wiedemann was the daughter of Hans Leonhard Wiedemann, who was born in Neustadt an der Haardt. Her father was employed as a bender in the Electoral Palatinate winery. She was placed in the service of a ‘famous medico’, as she herself writes, who had no children and no other servants. Wiedemann therefore assisted him with the preparation of medicines and wound remedies. It was during this period that she acquired her healing skills. In approximately 1663, she relocated to Frankfurt as a servant. In June 1670, she successfully petitioned the city council to be permitted to practise medicine in her own home.

-Jana Schreiber