Else Schürhoff

Else Schürhoff was a German contralto who trained with the baritone Julius von Raatz-Brockmann and first worked as a voice teacher, lecturing at Berlin's academy for church and school music until 1928. She turned to the opera stage in 1929, joining the Hanover Opera House, where she took part in the 1931 premiere of Georg Vollerthun's Der Freikorporal, then moved in 1937 to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, creating the Woman of the People in the premiere of Strauss's Friedenstag in 1938. She was listed on the Nazi regime's Gottbegnadeten-Liste of indispensable artists in 1944, and later sang at the Vienna State Opera from 1941 to 1953 and, as principal alto, at the Hamburg State Opera from 1954. Her roles included Marcellina, Brangäne, the Gingerbread Witch and Herodias; she married the actor Max-Walter Sieg, and her sister Lotte was also a professional singer.