BIRCH  -

PFEIFFER, CHARLOTTE (1800-1868), German actress and dramatic writer, was born at Stuttgart on the 23rd of June 1800, the daughter of an estate agent named Pfeiffer . She received her early training at the Munich court theatre, and in 1818 began to play leading tragic roles at various theatres . In 1825 she married the historian Christian Birch of Copenhagen, but continued to act . From 1837 to 1843 she managed the theatre at Zurich . In 1844 she accepted an engagement at the royal theatre in Berlin, to which she remained attached until her death on the 24th of August 1868 . Her intimate knowledge of the technical necessities of the stage fitted her for the successful dramatization of many popular novels, and her plays, adapted and original, make twenty-three volumes, Gesammelte dramatische Werke (Leip . 1863-188o) . Many still retain the public favour . Her novels and tales, Gesammelte Novellen and Erzdhlungen, were collected in three volumes (Leip . 1863-1865) . Her daughter, WILHELMINE VON HILLERN (b . 1836), born at Munich, went on the stage, but retired upon her marriage in 1857 .

After 1889 she lived in

Oberammergau and won a reputation as a novelist . Her most popular works are Ein Arzt der Seele (1869, 4th ed . 1886); and Die Geier-Wally (1883), which was dramatized and translated into English as The Vulture Maiden (Leip . 1876) .