Introduction

Biography

Wilhelmina was the daugh­ter of pas­tor Karl Au­gust Schapper and Ama­lie Wein­rich (1816–1856).

In 1860, her fa­ther be­came Pro­fess­or and Di­rect­or of the Roy­al Theo­lo­gic­al Se­mi­na­ry and Su­per­in­ten­dent for Wit­ten­berg. The fa­mi­ly moved there to a house at the par­ish church square where Jo­hann Bu­gen­ha­gen had lived and where Mar­tin Lu­ther and Phil­ipp Me­lanch­thon had met.

Wilhelmina spent her first years there in a girls’ school in Droy­ßig at Zeitz. The Wit­ten­berg church mu­sic di­rect­or and or­gan­ist Carl Stein (1824–1902) gave her mu­sic the­ory and har­mo­ny les­sons.

In 1865 Wilhel­mi­na mar­ried Au­gust Koch (1836–1910) in the Wit­ten­berg church, with her fa­ther of­fi­ci­at­ing; she ev­en­tu­al­ly gave birth to 10 child­ren. In 1876 her fa­mi­ly moved to El­ber­feld, where Au­gust Koch re­ceived a Lu­ther­an par­ish and lat­er be­came the su­per­in­ten­dent in of­fice.

During a vi­sit in 1887 to her bro­ther Karl, pas­tor at Groß Mör­ing­en, near Sten­dal, she com­posed the tune to Krum­mach­er’s po­em Stern, auf den ich schaue.

At age 50, Wil­hel­mi­na went blind.

After Au­gust re­tired in 1906, the cou­ple moved to Wer­ni­ge­rode. When Au­gust died in 1910, Wil­hel­mi­na went to live with her young­est daugh­ter in Stolp, Po­me­ra­nia.