Pfeilschifter, Julie Sophie Marie Agathe von

Composer, pianist, music teacher

born: 15.04.1840 in Mannheim

died: 19.05.1918 in Wiesbaden

Pfeilschifter, daughter of the Catholic publicist Johann Baptist von Pfeilschifter, began piano lessons at the age of seven. In 1855, she performed as a pianist for the first time in a concert in Bessungen near Darmstadt. She had to give up her music studies in Frankfurt am Main due to a lack of money.

Her concerts, with which she earned her living on her own, took her from Frankfurt to many cities. Probably around 1872, she was employed as a piano teacher for the daughters of the composer Julie von Waldburg-Wurzach at Schloss Kißleg in Württemberg. From 1881, Pfeilschifter lived in Wiesbaden, where she worked as a composer and piano teacher and slowly gained recognition for her song compositions.

Her greatest success came with the composition of three dance divertissements, which were performed at the Wiesbaden Court Theater: "Agnete - Phantastische Szene für Musik und Tanz", "Der Vöglein Morgengruß" and "Fortuna, genannt Frühling".

Despite her teaching activities and the recognition her compositions received, she was unable to support herself. Her financial situation deteriorated to such an extent that numerous well-known personalities, including the poet Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, who had always supported Pfeilschifter, published an appeal for donations in the "Wiesbadener Zeitung" on October 6, 1908.

Today, Pfeilschifter is regarded as an example of single, working women in her time who tried to earn a living independently. Many of her compositions can still not be found today.