German pianist, composer and philanthropist

Elisabeth von Herzogenberg was born in Paris on 13 April 1847, the daughter of Bodo Albrecht von Stockausen, a diplomat of the Kingdom of Hanover and for many years an ambassador in Paris.

An excellent pianist, she was a pupil and then, together with her husband, a friend and close collaborator of Johannes Brahms.
On 26 November 1868 she married the Austrian composer Heinrich von Herzogenberg in Dresden.

In 1872 Elisabeth and her husband moved to Leipzig and soon became part of the city's musical circles, becoming regular acquaintances of Clara Schumann and Johannes Brahms.
Brahms could be said to have been at home with the Herzogenbergs in Leipzig from 1876 onwards, sending them almost all his works before they were printed.

Elisabeth died in San Remo on 7th January 1892, having stayed there for only a few weeks, in the hope that the mild and temperate climate of the Ligurian town would improve her health: the heart problems she had been carrying since her youth had worsened.

He was not yet forty-five years old.

(Based on "La colonia tedesca a Sanremo e in Riviera", Alberto Guglielmi Manzoni, pages 161-173 in the book "Sanremo e l'Europa, l'Immagine della Città tra Otto e Novecento" edited by Letizia Lodi; published by Scalpendi, 2018)