Berlin Choice Woman

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From a young age, Luise Greger has been extremely gifted. She started taking piano lessons at six years old and by the age of ten she was already giving performances to very important audiences. She played in front of the tzar of Russia when she was only ten years old, I would have been so nervous at ten years old! Later in life she got a divorce from her husband and had to support herself through her music. She was composing, teaching, and performing in order to survive. Once she was too old to travel anymore she moved into an old folks home and then was euthanized by the Nazis. 


I think that her contribution is important because she was a woman and a jew and yet she still was able to write such beautiful music that was able to support her throughout her life. I feel like there was a stigma around women musicians in that they are less gifted and can’t compose complicated or impressive pieces, but she proved lots of people wrong. Also being able to live and have your only source of money your talents is extremely impressive, even today if you are an artist it is hard to make a living out of that! 


I don’t think she has been commemorated very well. There was no plaque or statue dedicated specifically to her, but it is cool that the philharmonic building is still in the place where she used to live and write her music. I thought the story of the two BYU students who went looking for her music at her relative's house was so interesting! I love that they were interested enough to go and look for it where no one else had bothered to. And now because of them, we have her music more accessible to everyone, therefore bringing her music back into the world!

 

Comments

  1. Kaia HathawayJune 12, 2024 at 12:53 PM

    Really nice post, Betsy! I'm also not sure if I would say that Greger has been properly commemorated yet. She was a talented and remarkable woman, but her work has only recently been rediscovered. And even though we are now spreading her music, she is still quite unknown to a lot of people. It's also very difficult to learn about what happened to her at the end of her life. Despite being one of the greatest female composers, she was considered "useless" due to her age. As if she didn't face enough challenges already, this horrible act of killing people because of age had to happen.

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  2. Meg KiehlJune 14, 2024 at 7:54 AM

    Betsy, I really enjoyed your post on Luise Greger. I can’t believe at such a young age she could perform in front of such important people! She definitely had obstacles to overcome. Being accepted as a musical performer and composer as a woman, having to support herself in a world where men were the wage earners, and being Jewish in Germany. All of these obstacles still exist today, but not to the extent that they did for Luise Greger.

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