Franziska Feifalik

Franziska "Fanny" Feifalik, née Rösler

Franziska "Fanny" Feifalik , née Franziska Rösler , Rössler or Angerer (born January 28, 1842 in Vienna , Austrian Empire ; † July 14, 1911 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary ) was an Austrian hairdresser and close confidante of Empress Elisabeth of Austria- Hungary .

Life

Franziska Feifalik, née Rösler, according to other sources née Angerer, came from a humble background, she was the daughter of a midwife and a hairdresser on Spittelberg in Vienna . She learned her father's trade. She then found employment as a cloakroom and theater hairdresser at the Vienna theaters. Her work was soon greatly appreciated. Even famous actresses such as Maria Geistinger , Pauline Lucca or Katharina Schratt had Fanny do their hair for the stage.

Her manual skills were noticed in Viennese theater circles and that's why she found a job in the Imperial and Royal Court Theater next to the castle . During a visit to the theater, Empress Elisabeth noticed the beautiful, imaginative hairstyle of the main actress in the play (it was the actress Zerline Gabillon ). When asked, the Empress was informed that the hairdresser was Miss Fanny Angerer, who had only recently been hired as a theater hairdresser at the Burgtheater. Elisabeth then entered into personal negotiations with Franziska, recruited her from the Burgtheater and offered her the position of “the empress’s personal hairdresser”. For Fanny, the simple girl of the people, who was summoned to the Viennese court personally by Her Majesty, this was tantamount to a fairytale-like, unusual career. Fanny's attitude caused quite a stir at the time. On April 27, 1863, the Wiener Morgen Post wrote the following in its “Daily News” column: The long-standing question as to whether a hairdresser would enter the service of Her Majesty the Empress has finally been decided. Fraulein Angerer renounced the hairdressing order for court actresses and the fee set for it, and in return received annual compensation of 2,000 fl., so that she could devote herself to the highest service as imperial hairdresser, whereby, if her time permitted, other artistic merit was not excluded is.

Fanny Rösler/Angerer was not only (almost) the same age as the Empress, she also had a beautiful, slender figure and was also very similar to Elisabeth. Elisabeth preferred "beautiful people" regardless of her gender, which was also proved by her "beauty album" in which she collected photos of good-looking people.

Fanny was the only person who was always close to the empress at home and when travelling, presumably becoming her closest confidante and providing her with news about all events inside and outside the court. She was employed for a lifelong annual salary of 3,000 Fl , was able to use a court carriage on journeys to see the Empress, and received daily allowances for meals on journeys. Apart from a small number of ladies, for whom Her Majesty granted special permission, she was only allowed to do the hair of the Empress.

Fanny, who spent almost three hours a day with the empress at her morning toilet, developed into one of the empress's closest confidants, which made many ladies-in-waiting - especially Countess Festetics - jealous. The Empress also used her hairdresser as her double more often . In 1885, for example, Elisabeth had her hairdresser drive around the harbor of Smyrna in a gala boat and receive the homage of the city's notables, while she herself went ashore on a barge and went on a sightseeing tour of the city unrecognized. And Countess Irma Sztáray also reports on an incident at the Marseille train station in February 1895, where Fanny on the platform received the bows and honors of the assembled crowd as "Empress of Austria with dignity". Elisabeth remarked laconically: "Let's not disturb the good Feifalik!" and got on the train laughing and unnoticed. Of course, Elisabeth could only "use" her double there, where she was not well known, mostly that was only possible abroad.

Washing the hair usually lasted a whole day and was repeated about every three weeks. Elisabeth could get very angry when her hairdresser showed her a comb with "dead" (falling out) hair. That's why Fanny had adhesive tape attached to the inside of her apron to hide the hair that had fallen out. After the end of the procedure, Fanny bowed with the remark "I sink at Your Majesty's feet!"

From then on, Fanny Rösler/Angerer was the most important hairdresser in the Danube monarchy. Her part in Elisabeth's beauty should not be underestimated; her interesting hair creations contributed to the fact that Elisabeth was perceived as a cult figure. Elisabeth's intricate crown of hair, with long plaits intertwined on top of her head, became her famous "wanted poster hairstyle" a creation of Fanny, which was copied many times, but always in vain. Fanny's hairstyles were not only imitated by Elisabeth's sisters, but also by numerous ladies of the high nobility and society of the time, who considered it an honor to have their hair done by Fanny.

Over the years, Elisabeth became extremely dependent on Fanny. Elisabeth had a personal interest in Fanny, under no circumstances did she want to do without her services. When Fanny fell in love with the bank official of middle-class origin Hugo Feifalik (1834–1914) and intended to marry him, the empress should have dismissed Fanny according to the rules of court etiquette at the time, since only unmarried women were allowed to be companions of the empress. But after her marriage on January 7, 1866, Elisabeth made a personal request to her imperial husband to allow Fanny to stay. She even took Hugo Feifalik into her service, which started a steep career for him. As early as 1867, Hugo Feifalik was appointed "Her Majesty's private secretary" and awarded the "title, rank and character of a kk court secretary". He then advanced to the position of "government councilor" and privy councilor at the Viennese court and was knighted in 1880 as "Hugo Ritter von Feifalik". The Feifaliks served the Empress faithfully at the Viennese court for more than thirty years. During this time it exercised quite a significant influence on Elisabeth.

Elisabeth forbade her Greek readers, such as Konstantin Manos, to pay too much attention to Fanny Feifalik while she was doing her hair. "This woman is a strange person," Elisabeth told him. "She doesn't know whether to look at you or despise you or belittle you. And her husband is crazy in other ways. He suffers from megalomania. If there were no such people, life would be very serious.”

According to reports in the Neue Freie Presse on December 18, 1896, two years before the violent death of the empress, Fanny left the court in Vienna with her husband and went into retirement. The “request for retirement by the Empress’s longstanding, well-deserving cabinet secretary, Hofrathes Hugo Ritter v. Feifalik, and his wife, the imperial hairdresser Mrs. Francisca v. Feifalik" was granted in December 1896. In gratitude for "about thirty years in the service of the empress", Franziska v. Feifalik was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit with the Crown , her husband was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold . Fanny received a pension from the Viennese court and died in Vienna on July 14, 1911 at the age of 69.

Remarks

1. ↑ A fee of 2,000 guilders a year was an unusually high amount for that time, which corresponded to the annual salary of a university professor. The biggest stars of the Burgtheater at the time, e.g. B. Charlotte Wolter or Joseph Lewinsky received an annual fee of 3,000 guilders.
2. ↑ Fanny's tasks also included daily weighing and determining body measurements (waist, thighs, etc.). The information was carefully entered into a book every day.
3. ↑ Elizabeth had beautiful hair, which at times reached down to the floor. Its maintenance was all the more complicated

literature

• Egon Caesar Conte Corti : Elisabeth, the strange woman, Vienna 1934
• Stefan Haderer: In the shadow of Homer. Empress Elisabeth in Greece , Vienna 2021, ISBN 978-3-7541-5700-8 .
• Brigitte Hamann : Elizabeth. Empress against her will. Piper, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-492-24552-8 .
• Lisa Fischer: Shadows cast in the future; Empress Elisabeth and the women of her time, Böhlau Verlag Vienna, Cologne, Weimar 1998, ISBN 3-205-98765-9 , p. 8 ff.
• Irma Countess Sztáray: Erzsébet királyné kíséretében ("In the company of Queen Elizabeth"; memoirs), Gabo Kiadó n.d., ISBN 963-8009-60-8 (Hungarian)

itemizations

1. ↑ Her Apostolic Majesty the Empress. In:  Ischl bathing list / Ischl cure list / cure list Bad Ischl / cure list Bad Ischl , June 2, 1865, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
2. ↑ ^{a b c} The hairdresser of Empress Elisabeth. In:  Neues Wiener Journal , September 25, 1927, p. 7 (Online at ANNO ).
3. ↑ According to baptismal register 01-04, folio 22 of the parish of Vienna 1st Maria Rotunda, source: https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/
4. ↑ Lisa Fischer... p. 81 (see literature)
5. ↑ News of the day. In:  Morgen-Post , April 27, 1863, p. 2 (Online at ANNO ). quoted from Brigitte Hamann..., p. 204 (see literature)
6. ↑ Egon Caesar Conte Corti... p. 356f
7. ↑ Sztáray... p. 30f (see literature)
8. ↑ Marriage according to marriage register 02-13, folio 4 of the Vienna 1st St. Augustin parish on January 7, 1866. The marriage to Hugo Feifalik produced a son (Hugo), who according to the baptismal register 01-12, folio 1 of the Vienna parish 1. St. Augustine was born on February 5, 1867. Source: https://data.matricula-online.eu/de/
9. ↑ Official part. In:  Wiener Zeitung , October 22, 1867, p. 7 (online at ANNO ).
10. ↑ Her Majesty the Empress and Queen. In:  Ischl bathing list / Ischl cure list / cure list Bad Ischl / cure list Bad Ischl , June 25, 1874, p. 1 (online at ANNO ).
11. ↑ Stefan Haderer: In the shadow of Homer. Empress Elisabeth in Greece . Editor: Stefan Haderer. Vienna 2021, ISBN 978-3-7541-5700-8 , p. 136-137 .
12. ↑ ^{a b} Personal News. In:  Neue Freie Presse , December 18, 1896, p. 19 (Online at ANNO ).