Quick Facts
Biography
Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer (23 June 1800 [1799?] in Stuttgart – 25 August 1868 in Berlin) was a German actress and writer.
Biography
She was the daughter of an estate agent named Pfeiffer. She received her early training at the Munich court theatre. She made her debut in Munich at the age of 13, and in 1818 began to play leading tragic roles at various theatres. In 1825, she married the historian Christian Andreas Birch of Copenhagen, but continued to act.
From 1837 to 1843, she managed the theatre at Zürich. After visiting professionally most of the cities in Germany, in 1844 she accepted an engagement at the royal theatre in Berlin, to which she remained attached until her death.
Her daughter, Wilhelmine von Hillern, also became an actress.
In 2011 Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer's work was honoured by the Gesellschaft zu Fraumünster.
Works
Dramatization of popular novels was her specialty, for which her intimate knowledge of the technical necessities of the stage fitted her. Her plays, adapted and original, fill 23 volumes (Gesammelte dramatische Werke; Leipzig, 1863–1880). Many continued to retain the public favor. Her novels and tales were collected in three volumes (Gesammelte Novellen und Erzählungen; Leipzig, 1863–1865). Among her plays are:
- Dorf und Stadt (after Berthold Auerbach)
- Die Frau in Weiss (after Wilkie Collins)
- Der Glöckner von Notre Dame (after Victor Hugo)
- Der Goldbauer
- Die Grille (after George Sand)
- Die Günstlinge
- Der Herr Studiosus
- Hinko
- Kind des Glücks
- Steffen Langer aus Glogau oder Der holländische Kamin
- Der Leiermann und sein Pflegekind
- Mutter und Sohn
- Nacht und Morgen (after Edward Bulwer-Lytton)
- Pfefferrösel
- Die Waise aus Lowood (after Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre)