Erika Wedekind

[3] Born in Hanover, Wedekind grew up at Lenzburg Castle in the Swiss canton of Aargau,[4] which had been purchased by her father, a general practitioner.

[6] Wedekind made her debut in 1894 as Frau Fluth in The Merry Wives of Windsor by Otto Nicolai[7] and in the same year received her first engagement at the Dresdner Hofoper, where she was a celebrated coloratura soprano until 1909.

Her brothers, the writers Donald and Frank Wedekind, who had no professional success at the time, received occasional financial support from her sister.

She gave more than a thousand performances in Germany, Prague, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Budapest, Stockholm, Paris and London before becoming an internationally sought-after singing teacher between 1914 and 1930.

In 1909 she was awarded the civic gold medal Bene merentibus (to the well deserving) by the Ministry of the Royal House of Saxony for her achievements.