Carl Heinrich Oscar Fielitz

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H. Oscar Fielitz, photographed by Carl Ferdinand Stelzner around 1858

Carl Heinrich Oscar Fielitz , often referred to as H. Oscar Fielitz (born April 9, 1824 , † May 28, 1859 in Braunschweig ), was a daguerreotypist from the early days of photography . Some of his portrait photographs have been preserved.

life and work

Fielitz H Oscar (1824-1859) Charlotte Therese Fielitz nee Elstner mother of HO Fielitz B.jpg
Charlotte Therese Fielitz, b. Elstner, mother


by HO Fielitz, portrayed by him around 1855.

H. Oscar Fielitz came from a family of medical professionals . He was the son of the homeopathic doctor Heinrich August Fielitz , who moved from Halberstadt to Braunschweig in July 1839 , and his wife Charlotte Therese, b. Elstner (born March 10, 1796; † June 12, 1866 in Braunschweig). His father worked in the city as a court medic . Actually, Oscar Fielitz, like his father, grandfather, great- and great-great-grandfather, was supposed to become a doctor. However, the son was more interested in mountain science and chemistry . He therefore studied these subjects at the Universities of Göttingen and Berlin . Through chemistry he came to the relatively new technique of the daguerreotype , which became his passion. Around 1850 H. Oscar Fielitz traveled to the United States , where he stayed for several years and apparently increased and refined his knowledge and skills with photographers such as Guerney, Root and Hesler.

After his return from the USA, Fielitz opened an “American daguerreotype studio ” at the Martinikirchhof in Braunschweig and introduced the “high polish” process that he had got to know in the USA. In addition to Fielitz, other well-known “photographers” were the court painters Christian Tunica , Christoph Friedrich Johann Schulz and W. Neumann in Braunschweig at this time . For the quality of daguerreotypes, which in the judgment of the jury , "the best of its kind in the exhibition" were "immaculate in every way" and was Fielitz in the First General German Industry Exhibition 1854 in Munich a medal of honor in the group XII, benefits visual arts .

In 1857, in that year the Braunschweig address book listed ten daguerreotypists based in the city, Fielitz placed an advertisement in the Photographisches Journal in which he was looking for a job as a " Compagnon " in a renowned studio. The photographer Heinrich Friedrich Plate , who works in Hamburg , initially responded to the advertisement at Alten Jungfernstieg 6. Fielitz headed his studio in the Hanseatic city for a short time. On May 15, 1858, Carl Ferdinand Stelzner , who was also active in Hamburg and had been blinded by working with the toxic substances in his profession since 1854, informed his customers via an advertisement in the Hamburger Nachrichten that H. Oscar Fielitz was now running his studio. Fielitz's work soon found widespread recognition. Fielitz was probably planning to set up his own business in Hamburg. On May 1, 1859 - 27 days before his death - he had rented a studio from Leopold Cohen at Poststrasse 5 for three years.

On May 11, 1859, not quite a year after he had taken over the management of Stelzner's studio, Fielitz had to leave Hamburg for health reasons and returned to Braunschweig, terminally ill. There he died only a few days later, on May 28th, and, as his father stated, “under the most severe conditions” of “cerebral edema” caused by handling the toxic substances of the daguerreotypists.

literature

  • Bodo von Dewitz , Fritz Kempe : Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and images of other processes from the early days of photography. In: Documents of Photography. Volume 2, Museum of Arts and Crafts, Hamburg 1983.
  • Fritz Kempe: Daguerreotype in Germany. On the charm of early photography (= Neue Fotothek. ) Seebruck am Chiemsee, Heering 1979, ISBN 3-7763-5190-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bread Envy in Braunschweig. 'Acta generalia the daguerreotype 1851–1857.' In: Fritz Kempe: Daguerreotype in Germany. The charm of early photography. P. 194.
  2. ^ A b c Fritz Kempe: The early daguerreotypists. Poor dogs or children of happiness. In: Westermannsmonthshefte . No. 5/1979, Braunschweig 1979, p. 108.
  3. ↑ a b Braunschweig address book for the year 1857. Printing and publishing house Joh. Heinr. Meyer, Braunschweig, p. 51.
  4. ↑ a b c d Wilhelm Horn: Photographisches Journal . Volume VII, p. 40, Otto Spamer Verlag, Leipzig, 1857, Fielitz advertisement.
  5. ↑ Bodo von Dewitz, Fritz Kempe: Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and images of other processes from the early days of photography. In: Documents of Photography. Volume 2, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg 1983, p. 267.
  6. ↑ a b Fritz Kempe: Daguerreotype in Germany. The charm of early photography. P. 194.
  7. ↑ a b Wilhelm Weimar : 1. Supplement to the yearbook of the Hamburg scientific institutions. XXXII. 1914. The daguerreotype in Hamburg 1839–1860. A contribution to the history of photography. Hamburg 1915, p. 32.
  8. ↑ Braunschweig address book for the year 1857. (PDF)
  9. ^ Bread envy in Braunschweig. 'Acta generalia the daguerreotype 1851–1857.' In: Fritz Kempe: Daguerreotype in Germany. The charm of early photography. P. 192.
  10. ^ Wilhelm Weimar: 1. Supplement to the yearbook of the Hamburg scientific institutions. XXXII. 1914. The daguerreotype in Hamburg 1839–1860. A contribution to the history of photography. Hamburg 1915, p. 28.
personal data
SURNAME Fielitz, Carl Heinrich Oscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fielitz, H. Oscar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH April 9, 1824
DATE OF DEATH May 28, 1859
Place of death Braunschweig