Born Amalie Marie Schneeweiss in Marburg an der Drau, Austrian Empire, she was the daughter of Franz Max Schneeweiss and his wife Eleonore, née Lindes. The family moved to Graz in the early 1850s. She appeared on stage from age 14, under the stage name Amalie Weiss. She later worked in Vienna at the Kärntnertortheater. In April 1862, she was engaged by the Opernhaus Hannover, where she had appeared as a guest several times. There she met the concert master Joseph Joachim, whom she married on 10 June 1863 in the Schlosskirche. The couple had six children. With her marriage, she retired from the stage, but she still performed as a concert singer, often together with her husband and Clara Schumann, a friend. They toured extensively, up to London. She participated in choral performances of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin up to 1870, and became one of their honorary members. Johannes Brahms dedicated his Two Songs for Voice, Viola and Piano to Amalie and her husband, which they could perform together. He wrote one song for their wedding and the baptism of their first son, who was named Johannes after Brahms, and the other decades later with the intention to help the couple's troubled marriage. Amalie was also a voice teacher and, on the recommendation of Johannes Brahms, Marie Fillunger studied under her at the Hochschule in Berlin in 1874. The marriage was dissolved after 21 years, after the jealous Joachim had accused her of adultery. Brahms defended her position. She performed more often after the divorce, to make money. Her focus was on Lied and oratorio. She was often accompanied by the pianist. In 1885 and 1886 she toured with Laura Rappoldi from Dresden. On 1 February1888, she premiered in Berlin at a Liederabend in Berlin the second song of Fünf Lieder, Op. 105 by Johannes Brahms. She founded a school of singing in Berlin. She died in 1899 in Berlin after surgery and was buried on the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Cemetery. Her grave had the status Ehrengrab until 2015.
Friedrich Blume: DieMusik in Geschichte und Gegenwart. Allgemeine Enzyklopädie der Musik, unter Mitarbeit zahlreicher Musikforscher des In- und Auslandes, vol. 7
: Sophie & Co. Bedeutende Frauen Hannovers. Biographische Portraits, Hannover: Fackelträger-Verlag, 1991,, pp. 239ff
Beatrix Borchard: Stimme und Geige. Amalie und Joseph Joachim. Biographie und Interpretationsgeschichte, in Wiener Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte, vol. 5, 2nd ed., Wien: Böhlau Wien,
Hugo Thielen: , in: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon, pp. 380ff
Hugo Thielen: Weiss, Amalie, in: Stadtlexikon Hannover, p. 663
