After training as an actress, Marie secured her first engagement in Karlsruhe, where Hans von Bülow saw her for the first time in 1877, in the title-role of Lessing's comedy Minna von Barnhelm. She subsequently became an actress at the court theatre in Meiningen, where she played leading roles in plays by Schiller, Goethe, and Shakespeare. In July 1882 Marie became the second wife of Bülow, who was then also based in Meiningen, building the court orchestra into one of the finest ensembles in Germany. Bülow had hoped that after remarrying he would be invited to the second Bayreuth Festival that summer for the premiere of Parsifal (through several fund-raising recitals he had raised 50,000 francs for the festival). This did not work out, however, as Bülow was informed that his presence in Bayreuth would be unwelcome to his former wife Cosima and Wagner.