ABSTRACT
Amelie Ernst was a considerable celebrity in her own right. French dictionaries and reference books say that she was born in mutzig on 14 April 1834. Amelie studied at the Paris Conservatoire under the two great actors Provost and Mlle Mars, and appears to have made her debut at the Salle Herz – a venue normally used for music. Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst and Amelie are most likely to have met in Paris in early 1852, at what was clearly a difficult and confusing time of her life. They got on so well that, within a few weeks, she and her mother – acting as chaperone – decided to travel through Switzerland with Ernst. Quite apart from her personal feelings, Amelie's new professional partnership with Ernst suited her admirably. She felt more comfortable in public reading than acting, and her appearances on the professional stage had not passed without criticism.
