Franziska von Rosen was born in Copenhagen into a family of the official class. In her memoirs and records, she provides a lively account of her childhood and teenage life in a cheerful, comfortable, and modern middle-class home with a bathtub and hot running water. This home opened its doors to guests such as the poets Baggesen and H. C. Andersen and the composer Weyse, and she and her mother often visited the theatre. As a young girl, she had lessons in French and music.
Her memoirs, published posthumously by her daughter, also describe the distressing year of war, 1864. Her husband, who was wounded at the battle of Dybbøl, had died by the time she reached the camp hospital.