Johann Luzius Isler
Johann Luzius Isler alias Ivan Ivanovič Izler (Russian Иван Иванович Излер) (born August 4, 1810 in Davos Platz ; † September 20, 1877 in St. Petersburg ) was a Grisons confectioner who established a large gastronomy empire in St. Petersburg in the middle of the 19th century Petersburg.
Live and act
Childhood and emigration to Russia
As a child, Johann emigrated to St. Petersburg with his family during the famine years of 1816/1817 . His father, a confectioner from Graubünden , died in 1818. His mother, who did not return to Switzerland after the death of her husband , married the Fideris confectioner Hans Ulrich Auer in 1825 . Johann Luzius learned the confectionery trade from his stepfather.
In 1832 Isler married Johanna Dorothea Ritz à Porta, whose father also ran a café-restaurant in St. Petersburg.
Catering entrepreneur
At the beginning of the 1830s, Johann Lucius Isler worked as head waiter for Andreas Ambühl in his café on Newski Prospect No. 40. After he returned to Davos as a wealthy man in 1836, Isler bought the business and expanded it. A few years later, he opened another upscale café based on the example of his father-in-law.
Amusement entrepreneur
In 1843 he started as an entertainment entrepreneur: Isler, who called himself "Ivan Ivanovič Izler" in Russia, opened Tivoli Park in Poljustrovo (today a district of St. Petersburg). Only five years later the Isler'schen Mineralwasser-Anstalt opened in Novaya Derewnja, a park in the northwest of the city. This amusement park, which also included a pool, could hold up to 10,000 visitors. A contemporary source reports on the park:
“This establishment should be placed alongside Kroll's entertainment venues in Thiergarten near Berlin and the Parisian Prè-Catalan, but for the high admission price of 1 or even 1 ½ rubles, it also grants the public more varied amusements and amusements than those abroad. In addition to the garden concert of an excellent orchestra under the direction of a capable conductor, there are also particularly graceful stands for the best Tyrolean singers, the famous Moscow gypsy troupe, which performs the most popular Russian folk songs and romances, and stages for the world's first acrobats and gymnasts, so like last year Blondin also produced his rope skills here. In the large theater with boxes and hundreds of armchairs, French, Russian and German actors and ballet dancers perform dramatic scenes, small comedies and ballet dances. In the garden itself, however, with its flower-wreathed verandas and walkways, a brilliant, magical illumination shines as soon as it gets dark. "
On the occasion of the summer soirées in 1850 as part of the Nuits de Venice , the orchestras of the Hungarian-German violinist, composer and conductor Johann Gungl and the Danish conductor and composer Hans Christian Lumbye alternated . Shortly before, Lumbye had a permanent role at Tivoli in Copenhagen for several years .
Tsar Nicholas I of Russia was one of the guests of the noble "Izlera Garden" . Isler became a well-known St. Petersburg personality. Due to the many visitors to the city in the middle of the 19th century, it was mentioned not only in Russian, but also in foreign travel reports . Fyodor Dostoyevsky also noticed the many reports and advertisements promoting the events in Isler's parks . In his novel, Guilt and Atonement , published in 1866, this describes how his protagonist Rodion Raskolnikow searches the newspapers for a specific item:
“The old newspapers and tea were brought. Raskolnikov sat down and began to look: 'Isler - Isler - Aztecs - Aztecs - Isler - Bartola - Massimo - Aztecs - Isler ... thunder! Well, finally the local news: a woman fell off the stairs - a petty bourgeois became bankrupt as a result of drunkenness - fire on the Peski - fire in Peterburgskaja - again fire in Peterburgskaja - again fire in Peterburgskaja - Isler - Isler - Isler - Isler - Massimo ... Ah, there it is ... "
Economic ruin and death
As a result of several fires and a bad economy, Isler's gastronomy and entertainment empire collapsed. Isler died impoverished in St. Petersburg in 1877.
Works
- Polnyj konditer . 1853 (German: the perfect confectioner; only published in Russian)
literature
- Roman Bühler: Bündner in the Russian Empire. 18th century - First World War. Desertina, Disentis / Mustér 1991, ISBN 3-85637-201-6 .
Web links
- Roman Bühler: Isler, Johann Luzius. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
Individual evidence
- ^ Roman Bühler: Bündner im Russischen Reich , p. 266, see literature.
- ^ Roman Bühler: Bündner in the Russian Empire. P. 268, see literature.
- ^ Adolph Banda: Russian conditions in the year 1850. Hamburg 1851, pp. 261–263.
- ↑ TheLib.Ru electronic library: Исторические районы Петербурга от А до Я , accessed on October 3, 2014.
- ^ Roman Bühler: Bündner in the Russian Empire. P. 265, see literature.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Isler, Johann Luzius |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Izler, Ivan Ivanovič |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Bündner confectioner |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th August 1810 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Davos place |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 20, 1877 |
| Place of death | St. Petersburg |