Death of Fanny Mendelssohn

Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel died on 14 May 1847 in Berlin, at the age of 41. She suffered what was described as a stroke while rehearsing a choral piece by her brother Felix for one of the family's famed Sonntagsmusiken (Sunday concerts), which she had organized and led at the Mendelssohn family home for over a decade.

Her death was sudden and devastating to her family, particularly to her brother Felix, who was reportedly so overcome with grief that he collapsed upon hearing the news. Felix himself would die just six months later, in November 1847, at age 38—a coincidence that has led biographers to speculate about shared hereditary health vulnerabilities within the Mendelssohn family.

At the time of her death, Fanny left behind a vast catalogue of unpublished work—over 460 compositions including songs, piano pieces, chamber music, choral works, and a cycle of character pieces for piano called Das Jahr. Her husband Wilhelm Hensel, a court painter, took on the task of preserving and eventually publishing some of her remaining manuscripts posthumously, ensuring that at least a portion of her creative legacy survived.

Her death, occurring so soon after she had finally begun publishing under her own name, has been viewed by later scholars as a poignant symbol of a career and body of work cut short just as it was beginning to receive its due public recognition.