Karl Wilhelm Daßdorf

Karl Wilhelm Daßdorf (occasionally also Dassdorf ) (born February 2, 1750 in Stauchitz , † February 28, 1812 in Dresden ) was a German librarian , poet and publicist .

biography

Born the son of a postmaster , Karl Wilhelm Daßdorf attended the Princely School St. Afra in Meißen until he was 18 and then studied theology at the University of Leipzig from 1768 . During his student days he became one of Christian Fürchtegott Gellert's favorite students . In 1772 he obtained his master's degree and was accepted into the college of preachers.

Contrary to Gellert's recommendation to Daßdorf to work for the editor of the magazine “Der Kinderfreund”, Christian Felix Weisse , as a teacher for his children, in 1773 he took up a position as court master in the house of Privy Councilor Friedrich Wilhelm von Ferber (1731–1800 ) in Dresden.

At the intercession of Ferbers, Daßdorf, who had already joined the Philobiblical Society in 1772, was given the post of third librarian at the electoral library in Dresden in 1775 . After Karl Christian Canzler's death, he was promoted to second librarian in 1786. Twenty years later, in 1806, after the death of Johann Christoph Adelung , he was finally appointed First Librarian.

In this way, Karl Wilhelm Daßdorf played a key role in the relocation of the electoral library in 1786 from the Zwinger pavilions to the Japanese Palace . In 1788 the library was opened to the public under the name Bibliotheca Electoralis Publica and finally renamed the Royal Public Library in the year of his appointment .

Contemporaries praise Daßdorf's user-friendly attitude, his "unshakable honesty and rare goodness of heart".

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing encouraged him during a visit to Dresden to write a description of the most excellent peculiarities of the electoral residence city of Dresden and some of the surrounding areas . Daßdorf followed this suggestion and under this title the work was published in 1782. Among his works, the letters by Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1777/80), edited by him at the suggestion of Christian Ludwig von Hagedorn, should be emphasized.

Karl Wilhelm Daßdorf died in Dresden at the age of 62.

In 1791, Daßdorf's wife inherited the Hofmannsberg winery in Oberlößnitz at the gates of Dresden.

Works

as editor: Johann Joachim Winckelmann: Letters to his friends , 2 vols., Dresden 1777/80
Description of the most excellent peculiarities of the electoral residence city of Dresden and some of the surrounding areas , Dresden 1782 (Reprint: Kessinger Pub Co, 2009, 364 p., Paperback), digitized
Numismatic-historical guide to the overview of Saxon history , Dresden / Leipzig 1801 (reprint Berlin 1971).

Web links

Katrin Nitzschke: Dassdorf, Karl Wilhelm . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography . (also source for the article).
Literature by and about Karl Wilhelm Daßdorf in the Saxon Bibliography
Daßdorf as the soul of the library and of "Dresden's literary life and weaving at the end of the 18th century" in sheets for literary entertainment. No. 152-155, June 1833, pp. 625 ff

Individual evidence

^ Paul Dittrich: Between Hofmühle and Heidenschanze. History of the Dresden suburbs Plauen and Coschütz . 2nd revised edition, Verlag Adolf Urban, Dresden, 1941, p. 90, fn. 115, there also the reference to Hagedorn. Not to be found at Nitzschke.

personal data
SURNAME	Dasdorf, Karl Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Dassdorf, Karl Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German librarian, poet and publicist
DATE OF BIRTH	February 2, 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH	Stauchitz
DATE OF DEATH	February 28, 1812
Place of death	Dresden

[1] Paul Dittrich: Between Hofmühle and Heidenschanze. History of the Dresden suburbs Plauen and Coschütz . 2nd revised edition, Verlag Adolf Urban, Dresden, 1941, p. 90, fn. 115, there also the reference to Hagedorn. Not to be found at Nitzschke.