We have few sources of information about the life, works and activities of Luise Greger, the major female songwriter at the turn of the last century. She was born 1861 in Greifswald and started learning the piano at the age of five. It is said that her unusual talent took her to Russia in 1871, where she played for the family of the Czar. She began writing songs at the age of about eleven. Unconfirmed sources claim that she studied for one year in Berlin at the “Königliche Hochschule“ (Royal University). She herself stated that she was taught singing in Berlin by Hedwig Wolf and that Richard Strauß bestowed on her the professional title of „composer“. In 1888 she married the Berlin doctor Ludwig Greger (1860–1919). In 1894 the family moved to Kassel, where Luise Greger devoted more of her time to composing and concerts. After her divorce in 1911, in particular, she and her oldest son Helmuth held musical salons in her apartment at which she performed her numerous songs.
Luise Greger was well-known in her time in Germany and the rest of Europe as a singer and song composer; famous singers included her songs in their repertoire and her works were performed in Dresden and Leipzig, in the Odeon in Munich, the Gürzenich Hall in Cologne, especially often in Kassel and in many other towns. In 1930 she was made an honorary member of the ”Elsaß-Lothringischer Bund“ (Alsace-Lorraine Association), her composition for a four-part choir “Hymne an den Elsaß” (Hymn to Alsace) was performed in the Kassel City Hall at the celebrations on the occasion of its 10th anniversary. In 1931 she spent several days in Doorn, in Holland, for the memorial celebrations for the Empress Augusta Viktoria, who had died in 1921, and presented the Emperor’s second wife with some of her compositions. On December 10, 1933 she was present at the premiere of her fairy tale opera “Das Gänseliesel” (The Goose Girl) in the municipal theatre in Baden-Baden. Luise Greger died on January 25, 1944 in Merxhausen.
It has not been possible to determine the exact number of her works, in 1925 it was said to be more than 120, later there was talk of a total of some 250. It was only in her old age that she approached the major task of writing an opera – the piano excerpt from her fairytale opera “Das Gänseliesel” is opus no. 170. Her second and probably last work of this kind, the fairytale opera “Teddy”, is believed lost, it is doubtful whether the work was ever finished and performed. Luise Greger´s works are published by the publishing house Furore Verlag. A box of sleeping notes and a few meagre biographical details are all we have at the moment. May we appeal here to all who read this to follow up any references to Luise Greger’s person, her surroundings and her music and to pass them on to us. Thank you.
