She studied piano with Theodor Leschetizky, music theory with Arnold Schoenberg, and harpsichord with Wanda Landowska in Berlin.

[6] She appeared in the 1939 film adaptation of Wuthering Heights, in which she plays "an acerbic rendition"[1] of Mozart's Rondo alla Turca on a double-manual harpsichord during a party scene.

Malcolm Hamilton, Marilyn Horne, Michael Tilson Thomas, Carol Neblett, and Roger Wagner were among her students.

[22] She gave benefit performances to raise funds for Schweitzer's medical work in Africa.

[11]Her grandson, environmentalist Peter M. Douglas, traced some of his worldview to Ehlers's reverence for life and pacifism.