CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Eline Heger

Danish actress

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 22, 2026
Entity authorityQ4953225
Source-derived summary

Ellen Marie Heger née Schmidt (13 December 1774 in Copenhagen – 6 June 1842 in Tårbæk), known as Eline Heger, was a Danish stage actress. During her career from 1793 to 1832, she performed no fewer than eighty unique roles.

Heger often performed as a romantic heroine. She is best known for her roles in Adam Oehlenschläger's plays, as she was highly influential in his theatrical career and is believed to have been the model for the Nordic heroine in his tragedies.

Biography

Ellen Marie Schmidt was born 13 December 1774 in Copenhagen to Anne Reinsdorf and Thomas Schmidt. She came from a poor, bourgeois family. Her father was a coppersmith and an alcoholic who was unable to support his family. To supplement their income, her mother washed clothes with Eline's help.

In an effort to earn more money for the family, her mother placed Eline in the ballet school of the Royal Danish Theatre in 1789, hoping to establish another income stream. She was just fifteen years old at the time, and remained a student there until 1793 under the tutelage of Vincenzo Galeotti.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Eline Heger” as danish actress. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Eline, Heger and Danish.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1774, 1842, 1793, 1832—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Eline, Heger and Danish providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Eline Heger”, the useful work is to connect “danish actress” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4953225. The first chronological checks are 1774, 1842, 1793 and 1832.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Eline Heger”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Eline Heger primary sources, Eline Heger archive and Eline research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Eline Heger”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Eline Heger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.