A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Bethmann, Frederica
BETHMANN, FREDERICA,
One of the first ornaments of the Berlin National Theatre, was born in 1760, at Gotha, where her father, whose name was Flittner, had an income by. a respectable office. After his death, her mother married the well-known director Grossmann. He visited, with his family, the cities on the Rhine, Cologne, Bonn, Mentis, etc., where Frederica was married to Mr. Unselmann, who enjoyed great popularity for his rich comic talent, and she then made her first appearance on the stage. Her agreeable voice induced her to appear at the opera. She soon acquired by her singing and acting, in naïf as well as in sentimental parts the undivided approbation of the public; and was called, with her husband, to Berlin, where she became one of the first actresses that Germany has produced, both in tragedy and comedy. In 1803 she was divorced from her husband, to marry the renowned Mr. Bethmann. She died in 1814. A truly creative fancy, deep and tender feeling, and an acute understanding, were united in her with a graceful, slender figure, an expressive countenance, and a voice, which, from its flexibility and melodiousness, was fit to touch the deepest chords of the heart, and to mark with rare perfection the nicest shades of thought and feeling.