Rosalie Wagner

Rosalie Wagner
at the age of 23

Rosalie Wagner , married Marbach (born March 4, 1803 in Leipzig ; † October 12, 1837 there ), was Richard Wagner's eldest sister and a well-known and celebrated theater actress in her time.

Life

Rosalie was the eldest daughter or the third of a total of nine children of the couple Friedrich (1770-1813) and Johanna Rosine Wagner, née Pätz (1774-1848), born in the Leipzig house "Zum Roten und Weißen Löwen", Brühl 3.

Her father, the educated and ambitious police officer Friedrich Wagner, spoke French well and therefore acted as a liaison between the city's magistrate and the occupying power during the French occupation of Leipzig in 1813. He died as a victim of the typhus epidemic that broke out shortly after the Battle of Leipzig. His wife Johanna Rosine was the daughter of a master baker from Weißenfels who broke up with his daughter after she left for Leipzig in 1790 as the lover of Prince Konstantin (1758–1793), brother of the Weimar Duke Karl August . After the death of her husband Friedrich, the widow soon married the close friend of the family, possibly her lover at the time, the painter and actor Ludwig Geyer (1779–1821), who was hired as a character actor in Dresden in 1814.

For this reason, Johanna Rosine moved to Dresden with her seven children. Here, under the guidance of their stepfather, the Wagner children got to know the world of theater for the first time, and on March 2, 1818 Rosalie made her debut as a theater actress at the Dresden court stage. In 1820 the young actress was appointed Dresden court actress.

After Geyer's death (1821), Rosalie did not follow her mother and her younger siblings to Leipzig. The eighteen-year-old stayed - in order to support her family financially - in Dresden, played folk plays on various stages, but also demanding roles such as Emilia Galotti or Luise Miller . From December 1826 to 1828 "Demoiselle Wagner" celebrated great success as a young lover in Prague, where her mother and sister had followed, while Richard Wagner stayed in Dresden. In 1829 she gave brief guest appearances in Hamburg, Darmstadt and Kassel.

In the summer of 1829, at the urging of her family, Rosalie returned to Leipzig. She spoke in that of August 2, August Wilhelm Schlegel translated Shakespeare -Stück Julius Caesar the prologue. A little later she could Leipzig public in the role of Sophie in the Iffland -Stück The dowry delight. The highlight of her short acting career, however, was the role of Gretchen in the first Leipzig production of Faust , which was premiered on August 28, 1829 on the occasion of Goethe's 80th birthday. Richard Wagner was so enthusiastic about the performance of his esteemed sister that in 1832 he created a series of compositions based on Goethe's Faust . Likewise, the democrat and well-known theater critic Heinrich Laube (1806–1884) paid her respect and recognition.

Rosalie Wagner married the writer Oswald Marbach (1810–1890) in 1836 . She died five days after the birth of her daughter Margarete Johanna Rosalie (* October 7, 1837; † 1910) on October 12, 1837 of the consequences of a circulatory collapse and found her final resting place in Leipzig's Old Johannis Cemetery , where a memorial stone is still there today and remembered her mother, who was also buried there.

Memorial stone for Johanne Wagner-Geyer and daughter Rosalie Marbach, b. Wagner, Alter Johannisfriedhof Leipzig

See also

• Richard Wagner (family)

literature

• Hannelore Röpke: "So your Gretchen surprised me in the most pleasant way ..." . In: I have to be able to give myself completely. Women in Leipzig. Published by Friderun Bodeit, Verlag für die Frau, Leipzig 1990, ISBN 3-7304-0256-0 .

Web links

• Article about Rosalie Wagner in the Leipzig Lexikon
• Article about Rosalie Wagner in Wagnerwiki
• Carl Friedrich Glasenapp : The life of Richard Wagner , first volume, 2nd book. Odds and mistakes , 5.  Rosalie Wagner zeno.org

Remarks

1. ↑ Her brother Richard was born in this house as the youngest child of the Wagner family. The house was demolished in 1886, but a memorial plaque at the south entrance of today's “Blechbüchse” commemorates Richard Wagner's birthplace. Rosalie became his favorite sister.
2. ↑ She played Rosalie in the play Das Erntefest by Ludwig Geyer, which has not survived . Her younger sister Luise, born in 1805, made her debut in May 1817 at the age of twelve in the comedy Das Mädchen aus der Fremde , which was also written by Geyer.
3. ↑ Marcel Prawy , Karin Werner-Jensen: Richard Wagner. Life and work. Wilhelm Goldmann, Munich 1982, p. 319.
4. ↑ On this the criticism by Theodor Hell (1775–1856) in the Mitternachtblatt dated August 3, 1829: “[…] unfortunately we did not understand much of it, because Demoiselle Wagner was too incomprehensible and forced in language and movement; she is supposed to be a brave artist, but doesn't have to have spoken many prologues and doesn't know that you have to speak them calmly and clearly and not play. "
5. ↑ Here is an excerpt from the enthusiastic description of Wilhelm Schröder, a philosophy student frequenting the house of the publisher Friedrich Brockhaus: “Rosalie's 'Gretchen' was quite the simple German bourgeois child, a girl's flower of the most beautiful kind, blooming lonely in the quiet garden of the motherhouse, knowing nothing of the great rich and bad world outside, in love, [...] finding her whole world in this love, and since this world betrays it, perishing in this world. "
6. ↑ Dr. phil. Oswald Marbach later became Royal Saxon Councilor, Professor of Technology at the University of Leipzig, director of the physical-technical cabinet, editor of the Leipziger Zeitung (1848–1851) and co-founder of the insurance company Teutonia. He has also written short stories, dramas and sonnets and a book of love that he dedicated to Rosalie. Marbachstrasse in the Leipzig district of Gohlis was named in his honor.