Her father was imprisoned for joining one of the revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire and he died young leaving the family impoverished.

Her first poem Lieder einer Verlorenen was written at the death bed of her husband and published with the assistance of the writer Friedrich of Saarland.

[3] She married nobleman Adalmar von Breden in 1873, and became financially secure again with that marriage.

The marriage allowed her to join the Viennese elite making her way into the literary circle which Ludwig Anzengruber belonged.

[2] Ada Christen's published works as cited by An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers.