KICKTON, Erika

Erika Kickton was born on 21 May 1896 in Berlin (Germany). There is no information about her school and academic studies, but she first worked as a music teacher and as a music contributor for the local newspaper in Potsdam. In the 1920s and 30s she lived in Locarno (Switzerland) together with her female partner. During this time Erika Kickton worked as a writer, composer and journalist. She published poetry collections like "Gedanken und Stimmungen in Versen" (1921) and some of her poems were set to music by other composers like the "Two songs after poems by Erika Kickton for voice and piano op.59" by Arno Liebau. Erika Kickton also composed music herself, mainly songs. Her "Three songs after poems by Hermann Löns" were published in 1937. But her main profession was the journalism. She wrote articles for several music journals and also published books on musical themes, for example "Was wissen wir über Musik?", an introduction to musicology published by Merseburger in 1926.

Some time in the 1930s Erika Kickton moved back to Potsdam-Neubabelsberg. There is an documented incident during the Nazi regime that Erika Kickton refused to make the Hitler salute and therefore was arrested for two weeks. But there is no other information about her activities at that time. In 1947 Erika Kickton received a PhD in philosophy and later lectured characterology at the university in Frankfurt/Main.

Erika Kickton died on 28 September 1967 in Wiesbaden (Germany).