Christiana Friederike Augustine Conradine Bethmann-Unzelmann, née Flittner (24 January 1760 — 16 August 1815) was a German actress and singer.
Life
Friederike Bethmann-Unzelmann was born in Gotha, the daughter of the ducal Saxon government registrar Jacques Flittner and his wife Carolina Sophia Augusta Hartmann. She received her vocal training from her stepfather, the actor and singer Gustav Friedrich Großmann, and made her debut at the Stadttheater in Mainz in 1777. There she also joined Abel Seyler's ensemble, but later switched to her stepfather's troupe. In her first engagements, she sang almost exclusively in operas, where she had her first great successes as an interpreter of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
At the age of 25, Friederike Flittner married the actor and singer Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Unzelmann in Mainz in 1786, with whom she was engaged in Mainz until 1788. She had three children with him, the actor Karl Wolfgang Unzelmann (1786–1843), the daughter Louise Wilhelmine Elisabeth Henriette (baptized 25 June 1790 in Berlin; † 14 May 1852 there), who later married the actor Friedrich Josef Korntheuer, and the xylographerFriedrich Unzelmann (1797–1854).[1]
In 1788, she went to Berlin with her husband and, like him, became a member of the ensemble at the court theater. She worked there very successfully until she divorced her husband in 1803. In 1805, Friederike Unzelmann married the actor Heinrich Bethmann for the second time.
In 1810, Friederike Bethmann-Unzelmann experienced a scandal at the Berlin theater: During a performance of the opera Sargines (Ferdinando Paër), her daughter was booed on stage by the audience. Friederike Bethmann-Unzelmann then stormed the stage, took her daughter with her out of indignation and swore never to perform again. Through the mediation of August Wilhelm Iffland, however, she reversed her decision.[2]
At the age of 55, Friederike Bethmann-Unzelmann died suddenly and unexpectedly on 16 August 1815, in Berlin. Her final resting place is the Unzelmann family grave at Friedhof II der Jerusalems- und Neuen Kirche in Berlin-Kreuzberg. She lies there next to her son Friedrich Unzelmann (1797–1854) and his wife Johanna née Schilling (1797–1873). Three marble plaques with the names of the deceased are attached to the plastered grave wall. A pedestal marble cross stands in front of it. The site is bordered at the front by a grille.[3]
Irmgard Laskus: Friederike Bethmann-Unzelmann: Versuch einer Rekonstruktion ihrer Schauspielkunst auf Grund ihrer Hauptrollen. Kraus, Nendeln 1978, ISBN 3-262-00516-9 (reprint of the Leipzig 1927 edition)
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