In 1933, Lou Andreas-Salomé, born in St Petersburg in 1861, was living a secluded life in Göttingen. There she spoke to the German scholar, Ernst Pfeiffer, about her life.

She was ahead of her time. The intelligent, free-thinking and pugnacious woman lived a life far from convention as a philosopher, writer and psychoanalyst. Friedrich Nietzsche revered her, Sigmund Freud was her trusted friend and Rainer Maria Rilke her lover.