She received training as an actress from de:Rudolph Beer, who later arranged her stage debut in Zurich.
(1938), Eine Frau für Drei (1939), and Jenny und der Herr im Frack (1941), after which she worked for four years at the Viennese Burgtheater and elsewhere onstage.
She acted only occasionally thereafter, most notably appearing on Broadway three times, in Flight into Egypt, as Margot Wendice in Dial M for Murder and a performance The Diary of Anne Frank.
The couple had two daughters, Christiana Barbara (1939) and actress Bibiana "Bibi" Maria (1942), while Köchert served with Nazi Germany's Wehrmacht during World War II.
The family immediately moved to the United States and Besch adopted Christina and Bibi, who took his surname.