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Carl or Karl Künzel (24 April 18083 February 1877) was a German
From the 1840s he lived at 963 Vor dem Sülmertor in Heilbronn and then from 1850 in a building at 9 Wilhelmstraße in the same town, at the corner of Cäcilienstraße and Wilhelmstraße. The latter house had large rooms for social events and he furnished the building with antique furniture, including two early 17th century cupboards that had been dismantled to save them from the
autograph
An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Intern ...
-collector.
Life
The eldest son of city-councillor Bernhard Künzel and his wife Marie Magdalene, Carl Künzel was born inHeilbronn
Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District.
From the late Middle Ages on, it developed into an important trading centre. At the begi ...
, where his father owned a house at 305 Metzgergasse. After leaving school, Carl's father let him sign up for an apprenticeship at the paper factory just founded in the town by the Rauch brothers and was taken on there afterwards, mainly sent out to visit customers and eventually spending 55 years there in total. Even as a young man he realised there were major gaps in his education and began filling many of them on a self-taught basis, getting up at 4 am to do so. He used work trips and contacts to customers to start building his autograph collection. From the 1860s he was mainly based in Heilbronn but holidayed in France and Italy.
From the 1840s he lived at 963 Vor dem Sülmertor in Heilbronn and then from 1850 in a building at 9 Wilhelmstraße in the same town, at the corner of Cäcilienstraße and Wilhelmstraße. The latter house had large rooms for social events and he furnished the building with antique furniture, including two early 17th century cupboards that had been dismantled to save them from the Thirty Years War
The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine, or disease, whil ...
, one of whose clay-clad doors had been used as the gate to a pigsty in Arles
Arles ( , , ; ; Classical ) is a coastal city and Communes of France, commune in the South of France, a Subprefectures in France, subprefecture in the Bouches-du-Rhône Departments of France, department of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Reg ...
before Künzel rediscovered it. Emil Michelmann, ''Carl Künzel. Ein Sammler-Genie aus dem Schwabenland'', Stuttgart 1938, S. 8–11
Künzel belonged to the town's Gräßle-Gesellschaft or Herbulanum, which had emerged from Philipp Sicherer's circle of friends. In the 1840s the baker and landlord Christoph David Gräßle ran a wine-tavern or 'Weinwirtschaft' on Fleiner Straße opposite the choir of St. Kilian's Church. There the Gräßle-Gesellschaft was founded on 1 May 1845, with members including David Friedrich Strauß
David Friedrich Strauss (; ; 27 January 1808 – 8 February 1874) was a German liberal Protestant theologian and writer, who influenced Christian Europe with his portrayal of the "historical Jesus", whose divine nature he explored via myth. St ...
, Adolf Goppelt, Gustav Rümelin, Heinrich Titot, Adolf
Adolf (also spelt Adolph or Adolphe, Adolfo, and when Latinised Adolphus) is a given name with German origins.
The name is a compound derived from the Old High German ''Athalwolf'' (or ''Hadulf''), a composition of ''athal'', or ''adal'', mean ...
and Alfred Schliz, Eduard Zeller
Eduard Gottlob Zeller (; ; 22 January 181419 March 1908) was a German philosopher and Protestant theologian of the Tübingen School of theology. He was well known for his writings on Ancient Greek philosophy, especially Pre-Socratic Philosophy, ...
, Kuno Fischer
Ernst Kuno Berthold Fischer (; ; 23 July 1824 – 5 July 1907) was a German philosopher, a historian of philosophy and a critic.
Biography
After studying philosophy at Leipzig and Halle,
he became a privatdocent at Heidelberg in 1850. The B ...
, Christian Märklin, Friedrich Theodor von Vischer, Karl Reinhold Köstlin and Justinus Kerner
Justinus Andreas Christian Kerner (18 September 1786, in Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany – 21 February 1862, in Weinsberg, Baden-Württemberg) was a German poet, practicing physician, and medical writer. He gave the first detailed ...
. In the 1890s Gräßle's house was demolished and the body moved to the 'Traube' guesthouse at 3 Wilhelmstraße, although it had already begun using the Harmonie (later known as the Alte Harmonie) and the Liederkranzhaus in the 1880s.
In this circle Künzel was teased with nicknames such as "the all-administrator" ("der Allverwaltende") and was particularly used as a travel-manager. He died of oedema
Edema (American English), also spelled oedema (British English), and also known as fluid retention, swelling, dropsy and hydropsy, is the build-up of fluid in the body's tissue. Most commonly, the legs or arms are affected. Symptoms may inclu ...
in Heilbronn in 1877.
Sammlung
Schiller's comic works
Künzel as a literary figure
Marriage and issue
Bibliography
* Emil Michelmann, ''Carl Künzel. Ein Sammler-Genie aus dem Schwabenland'', Stuttgart 1938 * ''Carl Künzels „Schilleriana“. Briefe an Schiller und Schillers Familienmitglieder nach den Abschriften im Besitz des Wiener Goethe-Vereins'' (= Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse. Sitzungsberichte, 229. Band, 3. Abhandlung)References