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Three days after passing her kenese, a choir that often
exam, Felicitas married Di- premiered and performed
etrich Kukuck, a friend from her music and which, in a
school who also played in the different configuration, still
Hochschule orchestra. Dietrich exists today. From 1971 to
may have helped save her life: 1981 she taught music at the
before their marriage, he se- Lola Rogge Dance School
cretly found a sympathetic clerk in Hamburg, where she
to change Felicitas’s documents composed pieces for perfor-
to reflect Kestner as her official mances and her students’ fi-
birthname rather than Cohn- nal exams.
heim, which still remained on The 1980s saw a bur-
the original document. This geoning peace movement
hid her Jewish ancestry on that spread across Europe,
government paperwork. Their with fierce commitment
marriage was a happy one, with from people in Germany.
their first son born in 1940 in Kukuck joined this move-
Berlin. Shortly after, Dietrich ment, and soon after, be-
was called up to serve in the Source: Archiv Frau und Musik, Signatur NL-FK-1 gan to address themes of
German military, and Felicitas Heirs of Felicitas Kukuck. Open access. war and peace in her music.
was left to care for herself and All rights reserved. Many of her larger works
their young son during the hor- are from this era, including
rors of World War II. In addi- the church opera Der Mann
tion, she supported a young Jewish woman who needed Mose [The Man Moses], the cantata De Profundis, and
shelter and food. Kukuck remained in Germany while many smaller chamber music pieces. One of her larg-
so many members of her family and her friends chose est works, a requiem titled Und es war: Hiroshima. Eine
to leave. She explained in a 1980 interview: “The mu- Collage über Anfang und Ende der Schöpfung [And It Was:
sic—German music, the land of Johann Sebastian Hiroshima. A collage about the beginning and end of
Bach—held me tightly. I was rooted here. I wanted to creation] premiered in 1995 during World Peace Week
live here. I would never have left.” 7 in the ruins of Hamburg’s historic Saint Nicholas
After the war, Felicitas and Dietrich were fortunate church. The same year saw the premiere of the can-
to find each other again in Hamburg and remained in tata Wer war Nikolaus von Myra? Wie ein Bischof seine Stadt
the area. She gave birth to three more children and aus der Hungersnot rettete und vor Krieg bewahrte [Who was
continued her disciplined composition practice. Col- Nicholas of Myra? How a Bishop Saved his City from
laborations with choir directors, school teachers, and Famine and Protected it from War], as well as three
church musicians brought numerous commissions and motets and one more cantata.
occasions to write music for many different instruments Kukuck composed daily until her death in 2001. She
and musicians at varying levels of experience. Kukuck wrote over one thousand works—primarily vocal and
wrote canons and simple part-songs for school music choral pieces—for musicians at all levels. It is rare for
books, pieces for beginning piano and guitar students, a composer to be effective at writing for such a wide
and arranged folk songs for amateur choirs. A collegial range of abilities and to take pride in all of it. Mar-
working relationship with Gottfried Wolters, conductor gret recalls her mother saying that it was easier to write
of the Norddeutschen Singkreis, led to a number of complex music and harder to write simple music. Fe-
8
commissions for motets, oratorios, and other significant licitas wanted “only the best” for children who were
choral works. In 1969 she founded Kammerchor Blan- studying music and, with four children at home and

CHORAL JOURNAL November/December 2025 Volume 66 Number 4 61