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German Romantic composer and singer.Josephine Lang was a prominent German composer and singer of the Romantic era. Born in Munich, she demonstrated exceptional musical talent from childhood, receiving piano lessons from her mother and later studying composition with prominent figures like Felix Mendelssohn and Ferdinand Hiller. Primarily known for her Lieder (art songs), she composed over 150 songs setting texts by major German poets. She married the jurist and poet Christian Reinhold Köstlin in 1842, and they had six children. After her husband's early death in 1856, she supported her family through teaching and composing. Her music, characterized by expressive melodies and sensitive text setting, was admired by contemporaries including Robert Schumann and Clara Schumann.

• Lang's talent was recognized extremely early; she began composing songs at age 11 and performed publicly as a singer and pianist by her early teens.
• Her marriage to Christian Köstlin in 1842 initially brought stability, but his political activities as a liberal led to his dismissal from his professorship at the University of Tübingen in 1851, causing significant financial hardship for the family.
• Tragedy struck when Christian Köstlin died suddenly of typhus in 1856, leaving Lang a widow with six young children. She faced immense difficulty supporting her family, relying heavily on teaching and the modest income from her compositions.
• Despite her talent and early recognition, Lang struggled to achieve widespread fame and financial security throughout her life, partly due to the societal constraints on women composers in the 19th century.