ABSTRACT
Johanne Luise Heiberg (1812-90) was the most famous Danish actress of the nineteenth century. Her talent was generally recognized to be of the highest international standard, equal to the best of what could be seen on the stages of Paris, Berlin, and Vienna. Between 1826 and 1864, she played more than 250 different characters, most of which were leading roles. She was married to the leading theater man of the time, the polymath Johan Ludvig Heiberg (1791-1860), who was one of the most important cultural figures in Copenhagen during the period from the 1820s to the 1840s. However, Johanne Luise Heiberg, or Fru Heiberg as she was known to her contemporaries, is well-known not only for her career in the Danish Royal Theater, but also for her four-volume autobiography, A Life Relived in Memories, which, since its publication in 1891-92, has been one of the most discussed works in Danish literature.1 This book has been particularly important due to the extraordinary tableau it presents of the people and events of the Danish Golden Age. Thus, it is no exaggeration to say that, thanks both to her qualities as an actress and, it must be admitted, to her social position as Johan Ludvig Heiberg’s wife, Johanne Luise Heiberg was a central cultural figure of her time, who had a profound impact on her contemporaries in many different ways.
