HEINKE, Ottilie

Ottilie Heinke was the fourth of seven children of the Prussian civil servant Ferdinand Heinke and his wife Charlotte, née Werner. Her younger sister Clara was a painter in Berlin and a founding member of the Association of Berlin Women Artists . After their father's death in 1857, the two sisters moved from Breslau to Berlin.

Ottilie Heinke began private composition studies with Richard Wüerst in 1865 and was also temporarily trained by the composer Friedrich Kiel, to whom she dedicated Three Piano Pieces for Four Hands, Op. 15. Berlin: Bote & Bock, 1879.

The State Institute for Music Research in Berlin has preserved an album leaf from 1869, dedicated to her by Franz Ries. Ries was a student of Friedrich Kiel at the same time and thus a fellow student of Heinke's. She composed her first works almost simultaneously in 1869. These were published by various Berlin publishers and received public attention as well as reviews in specialist journals. In 1888, Alfred Michaelis described Heinke's compositions in his biographical lexicon, " Women as Creative Musicians," as follows: "The composer understands how to write atmospherically and to create true-to-life, lifelike character sketches." Heinke also dedicated compositions for children for musical education.

In Maxen, she and her sister Clara met many artists at the Serre family home.

Ottilie Heinke remained single throughout her life. She died on November 2, 1888, at the age of 65 in Schöneberg, then an independent town near Berlin, where, after moves from Schöneberger Straße 32 and Bernburger Straße 26, she lived with her sister Clara, who was also single, at Bülowstraße 104.