Emma Körner

Because Theodor had volunteered as a member of the Lützow Free Corps in the Befreiungskrieg against Napoleon in 1813, the Körners were avoided by many, both socially and politically, during the period of the Saxon king’s alliance with the French.

Theodor Körner fell in battle at Gadebusch, Mecklenburg in August 1813; two years later, Emma visited his grave in Wöbbelin with her parents.

Seized with grief, Emma wanted the grave opened, but her father refused, fearing the effects on her of an overwhelming flood of emotion.

For political reasons her parents, now bereft of children, abandoned Dresden with her aunt, and departed for Berlin, where her father joined the Prussian state service.

Until it was destroyed in the bombing of Dresden in World War II, the “Körner-Museum” in their old family home displayed paintings and compositions by the Körners and by Dora Stock.