Hermine Körner

The widowed mother moved with her five children from Berlin to her parents' house in Altenkirchen (Westerwald), where Körner spent her childhood.

In Wiesbaden, she discovered her passion for the theater, which she shared with her lover, the Austrian officer Franz Ferdinand Körner.

With the assistance of her father-in-law August Körner, an influential Viennese banker, she was given the opportunity to audition for the director general of the Vienna Court Opera.

Körner debuted in 1898 at Vienna's Burgtheater and eventually obtained an engagement at the Emperor's Jubilee Theatre.

From 1905 to 1909 Körner played in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus under Louise Dumont and her husband Gustav Lindemann, but went to the Court Theatre in 1909 in Dresden.