As a young woman she evinced a certain tomboyishness. A phrase reproduced in several sources indicates that she "often violated the conventions of her time: she rode like the devil, shot with pistol, on holiday in 1841 swam in the sea off Helgoland, smoked, and took an interest in gymnastics". When she was thirteen her political consciousness was engaged by the 1830 French revolution, and slightly closer to home, two years later, the "Hambach Festival". She also drew inspiration from the Polish liberation movement. Because of her friendship with , twelve years her senior, it is evident from their correspondence that she was unusually well informed about the Polish situation in the aftermath of successive partitions of Polish territory between Russia and Prussia. Her sympathies lay with the oppressed population, which meant uncompromising rejection of the Prussian and Russian positions. Even before she met Georg Herwegh she was enthusiastic about another revolution: