Carl Christian Schmidt (medical doctor)
Carl Christian Schmidt (born April 2, 1793 in Leipzig , † June 13, 1855 in New York , USA ) was a German doctor, journalist, actor, theater director and theater director .
Life
Carl Christian Schmidt's father was the Leipzig master tailor Christian Friedrich Schmidt. After graduating from the Grimma State School , Schmidt began studying medicine at the University of Leipzig in 1811 . At the age of 20 he joined the Lützow Freikorps in 1813 and returned temporarily to the university in 1814. As early as 1815 he began a career in the theater, initially under Principal Klingemann in Braunschweig with the Walther Society. After a short break, during which he returned to Leipzig University, he played in Bremen and then under Sophie Walther in Halle (Saale) , Merseburg , Naumburg and Lauchstädt . After a performance on December 12, 1820 by Karl Theodor von Küstner in Leipzig, the latter hired him in 1821 for the role of lover at the Leipzig City Theater . Two years later Schmidt married his colleague Franziska Hanff , with whom he left the Leipzig stage at the end of April 1826.
Schmidt then resumed his medical studies, which had been interrupted several times, studied at the Universities of Prague and Leipzig and was awarded a doctorate in Leipzig on September 25, 1831. med. PhD. Both his publications on medical topics and his yearbooks of domestic and foreign medicine as a whole gained widespread recognition and resulted in a secure income.
Against this favorable financial background, Schmidt successfully applied for the management of the Leipzig City Theater when Friedrich Sebald Ringelhardt resigned from his office at the end of 1842. In addition, the city's magistrate was impressed by Schmidt's enthusiasm and his aim to raise the artistic level of the repertoire in line with the educated Leipzig public. According to the lease he signed on November 22, 1843, he not only had to pay a lease of 1,065 thalers, but also to take over the 31 members of the Leipzig City and Gewandhaus Orchestra , to increase their salaries and to pay two free To give performances for the poor house and theater boarding house. On August 10, 1844, after a break of one and a half years, the city theater was finally reopened with the performance of Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos .
Despite the success with Heinrich Marr as chief director and actor as well as popular actors such as Joseph Wagner, Karl Wilhelm Meixner , Heinrich Richter and the actresses Marie Baumeister , Bertha Unzelmann and Caroline Günther-Baumann, the income was soon no longer sufficient to cover the increasing obligations, This also included the costs for the new gas lighting and the more sophisticated decoration measures that resulted. Schmidt resorted to austerity measures, of which u. a. Albert Lortzing was affected by resigning from his position as Kapellmeister , and also obtained financial support from the magistrate, but eventually had to gradually invest all of his cash and at the beginning of 1847 even mortgage his private house at 23 Hohen Strasse. In addition to Schmidt's financial worries related to the theater, there were uncertainties caused by the political unrest in spring 1848. In autumn 1848 he had driven his family so far into ruin that he was forced to give up the management of the Leipzig City Theater, for which he did the young concert in 1849 - and Kapellmeister Rudolf Wirsing , who was director of the Magdeburg City Theater at the time, was able to win and propose his successor.
In March 1849 Schmidt emigrated to the United States with his wife, two children and his sister-in-law Caroline Hanff, where he died on June 13, 1855.
Works (selection)
- Encyclopedia of the entire medicine, in associations with several physicians, edited by Carl Christian Schmidt , Verlag Otto Wigand, Leipzig, 1841, in the German Digital Library and second volume, C – F, on Google Books .
- Carl Christian Schmidt's yearbooks of domestic and foreign complete medicine , Verlag Otto Wigand, Leipzig, 1848, in the German digital library as well as volume 60 in Google Books .
literature
- Katy Schlegel: Carl Christian Schmidt (physician) . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .
- Felix Eckard: The Leipzig City Theater under Carl Christian Schmidt and Heinrich Marr. Berlin-Dahlem, Colloquium Verlag, 1959.
- Emil Kneschke: On the history of theater and music in Leipzig , Verlag Friedrich Fleischer, Leipzig, 1864, pp. 136–146.
- Eduard Devrient: History of German Dramatic Art, Henschelverlag Art and Society (License Verlag Langen Müller), Berlin 1967, Volume 2, pp. 240, 241, 242.
- Karl Theodor von Küstner: Thirty-four years of my theater management in Leipzig, Darmstadt, Munich and Berlin: On the history and statistics of the theater , FA Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1853, pp. 57–60.
Individual evidence
- ^ Painting by Christian Gotthelf Strassberger (1770–1841)
- ↑ a b Sophie Walther in the Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Gesamtausgabe
- ^ Sisters Hanff In: Karl Theodor von Küstner: Review of the Leipzig city theater. Brockhaus Leipzig, 1830, p. 79.
- ↑ Address book for 1846 a. 1848
- ↑ Hermann Arthur Lier: Wirsing, Rudolf . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 43, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, pp. 520 f.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Schmidt, Carl Christian |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German doctor, journalist, actor, theater director and theater director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 2, 1793 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Leipzig |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 13, 1855 |
| Place of death | New York , USA |