Felicitas Kukuck was born in Hamburg in 1914. Her parents encouraged their daughter’s artistic development from childhood and enabled her to attend good music schools. Her teachers included Eduard Zuckmayer (music), Edith Weiss-Mann (piano) and Robert Müller-Hartmann (harmony). Until 1933 she attended the Montessori oriented Lichtwark. The Nazi seizure of power marked a turning point in her life, as she learned that she had Jewish ancestors. She moved to Martin Luserke’s "school by the sea" on Juist, and completed her studies in 1935 at the Odenwald School.

After graduating, Kukuck studied piano and flute at the Berlin Musikhochschule, and in 1937 she successfully passed the examination to become a private music teacher. She studied composition with Paul Hindemith until he emigrated to America, and in 1939 Felicitas Kukuck closed her musical studies.

Felicitas Kukuck was born a Cohnheim, but her father changed this Jewish name in 1916 to Kestner. Her parents emigrated to England, but Felicitas stayed in Germany. In 1939 she married Dietrich Kukuck and a sympathetic state official protected her real name on the marriage certificate so she could continue to live in Germany.[1]

In 1945 her home was destroyed in the war, and Felicitas Kukuck and her son moved by refugee transport to Hamburg where her husband joined her. In 1948, she moved with her family to Hamburg-Blankenese, where she lived and worked until her death in 2001.

She was a member of the artists organization GEDOK, the Community Work Group of the Association Ecumenical Lyricists and Composers, the Working Group Music of the Protestant Youth Association, today’s lyricists and composers group STROKE.

(Contribution by Wes <balkantala@gmail.com>.)