Margarete Ulrike Augusta Marie Karoline Elsa Reger (née von Bagenski; previously von Bercken, 25 October 1870 – 3 May 1951) was a German writer, the wife of the pianist and composer
Max Reger
Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 187311 May 1916) was a German composer, pianist, organist, conductor, and academic teacher. He worked as a concert pianist, as a musical director at the Paulinerkirche, Leipzig, Leipzig University ...
, whose memory she kept alive by founding an archive, the
Max-Reger-Institute
The Max-Reger-Institute (MRI) is a musicological research institute and archive in Karlsruhe, Germany, dedicated to the work of the composer Max Reger, a representative of German music around the turn of the 20th century. An associated foundation ...
and a foundation, all dedicated to him and his work. The foundation is now named after her.
Life
Born as Margarete Ulrike Augusta Marie Karoline Elsa von Bagenski in Kolberg the daughter of Captain Ernst Hugo Robert von Bagenski (or von Bagensteg or von Bagensky) and his wife Auguste (or Augusta) Karoline Josepha Marie Theresia Fanny Olga (née Baroness von Seckendorff-Aberdar zur Welt), she married in 1887 Franz von Bercken. She met Max Reger in 1893, when she spent a summer vacation in
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...
, where she took voice lessons with him. In 1899 she divorced her husband, but first rejected Reger's courting. He composed many songs between 1899 and 1902. They married on 7 December 1902 in
Bad Boll
Bad Boll is a municipality in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
History
In 1321, the County of Württemberg purchased title over Bad Boll and came to possess it ''de jure'', but it was ''de facto'' still controlled by a ...
and lived in Munich. As she was divorced and a Protestant, the Catholic Reger was
excommunicated
Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...
Leipzig
Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...
,
Meiningen
Meiningen () is a town in the southern part of the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in the region of Franconia and has a population of around 25,000 (2021).
and
Jena
Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...
. She took care of his students as the ''Regermutter'' (Reger mother). The couple adopted two daughters, Marie-Martha Heyer (1905–1969), adopted in 1908 as Christa Reger, and Selma Charlotte Meinig (1907–1963), adopted as Lotti Reger in 1909. The relationship was troubled by Reger's depressions and alcoholism.
After her husband's death in 1916, she took care of their daughters and also kept his memory alive. She initiated a , published in 1930 an
autobiography
An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life.
It is a form of biography.
Definition
The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...
''Mein Leben mit und für Max Reger'' (My life with and for Reger), published his correspondence and prepared the publication of his works. She founded in 1947 the
Max-Reger-Institute
The Max-Reger-Institute (MRI) is a musicological research institute and archive in Karlsruhe, Germany, dedicated to the work of the composer Max Reger, a representative of German music around the turn of the 20th century. An associated foundation ...
with a foundation which was later named after her.
She died in
Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
in 1951. According to her wish, she was buried on the Alter Friedhof close to
Clara Schumann
Clara Josephine Schumann (; née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a ...