41 Facts About Abel Seyler

Abel Seyler was a Swiss-born theatre director and former merchant banker, who was regarded as one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe.

Abel Seyler played a pivotal role in the development of German theatre and opera, and was considered "the leading patron of German theatre" in his lifetime.

Abel Seyler supported the development of new works and experimental productions, helping to establish Hamburg as a center of theatrical innovation and to establish a publicly funded theater system in Germany.

The son of a Basel Reformed priest, Seyler moved to London and then to Hamburg as a young adult, and established himself as a merchant banker in the 1750s.

Abel Seyler used his remaining funds to become the main shareholder, benefactor and effective leader of the idealistic Hamburg National Theatre, that became a leading cultural institution in Germany.

Abel Seyler's theatre employed Lessing as the world's first dramaturg, culminating in the work Hamburg Dramaturgy that defined the field and gave it its name.

The principal founder of biochemistry and molecular biology, Felix Hoppe-Abel Seyler, was an adopted son of his grandson.

Abel Seyler was born in 1730 in Liestal outside Basel in Switzerland.

Abel Seyler was the son of the Reformed clergyman, Dr theol.

Abel Seyler , who was parish priest of Frenkendorf-Munzach in Liestal from 1714 to 1763, and Anna Katharina Burckhardt.

Abel Seyler grew up in a learned and pious Reformed family and was descended from or closely related to all of the most prominent patrician families of Basel on both his parents' sides.

Abel Seyler's mother belonged to the noted Burckhardt family, that was considered the most powerful family in the canton of Basel during the 17th and early 18th century.

Abel Seyler was a paternal grandson of the theologian Friedrich Seyler and Elisabeth Socin, a member of an Italian-origined noble family, and he was named for his great-grandfather, the Basel judge and envoy to the French court Abel Socin.

Abel Seyler was descended from the Merian and Faesch families.

Abel Seyler was a matrilineal descendant of Justina Froben, daughter of the humanist Johann Froben; he thus belonged to the same matriline as Anna Catharina Bischoff.

Abel Seyler had a sister, Elisabeth Seiler, married to parish priest Daniel Merian.

Abel Seyler was distantly related to Cardinal Joseph Fesch, Napoleon's uncle; they were both descended from the Basel silk merchant, politician and diplomat Johann Rudolf Faesch, who was Burgomaster of Basel and led the city's pro-French faction.

Abel Seyler's father failed in his attempt to have the church restored.

In strictly Lutheran Hamburg, Calvinists such as Abel Seyler were viewed with as much suspicion as Catholics at the time.

Abel Seyler was regarded as "a very fine actress, as Lessing admitted, but she was a troublesome and tempestuous character," always at the centre of intrigue.

The new Abel Seyler regime suited Ekhof well, and he became a lifelong friend and collaborator of Abel Seyler.

The theatre had to close after two years after Abel Seyler had spent the rest of his fortune on it.

In 1769 Abel Seyler founded the National Theatre's effective successor, the Abel Seyler Theatre Company, together with Konrad Ekhof, Sophie Hensel and some other actors.

For most of its existence, the Abel Seyler Company comprised around 60 members, and included an orchestra, a ballet, house dramatists and set designers.

Abel Seyler was one of the first theatre companies to maintain a permanent orchestra.

The Abel Seyler Company remained for one year at the ducal court in Gotha, where Abel Seyler and other of the troupe's members involved themselves in the broader cultural and social life, and in freemasonry.

In Gotha Abel Seyler met the Bohemian composer Georg Anton Benda and commissioned him to write several successful operas, including Ariadne auf Naxos, Medea and Pygmalion.

In 1775 Abel Seyler received the Electoral Saxon privilege as theatre director and performed in Leipzig and Dresden, and in 1776 he opened a newly built summer theatre in Dresden.

In 1776 Abel Seyler employed Goethe's close friend Friedrich Maximilian Klinger as a playwright and secretary, and he remained with the company for two years.

In 1777 Abel Seyler relinquished the Electoral Saxon privilege and his company took to the road again.

Abel Seyler is nevertheless regarded as the founder of a serious theater tradition in Frankfurt.

At Mannheim Abel Seyler directed several Shakespeare productions, and left a lasting legacy.

From 1781 to 1783 Abel Seyler was artistic director of the Schleswig Court Theatre, which performed in Flensburg, Husum and Kiel.

In 1792 Abel Seyler retired with a pension from Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel, the royal governor of the twin duchies of Schleswig-Holstein.

Abel Seyler was interred in Rellingen on 1 May 1800.

Abel Seyler is widely regarded as one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe and has been described as "the leading patron of German theatre" in his lifetime.

Abel Seyler is credited with introducing Shakespeare to a German language audience, and with promoting the concept of a national theatre in the tradition of Ludvig Holberg, the Sturm und Drang playwrights, and the development of a serious German opera tradition.

Abel Seyler mostly focused on the artistic, economic and administrative management of his theatrical company; his own lack of a background as an actor, his patrician family and his former profession as a merchant banker, made him stand out among the theatre principals of his era, in a profession that was just starting to gain respectability.

Abel Seyler was married in his first marriage from 1754 to Sophie Elisabeth Andreae, the daughter of the wealthy Hanoverian court pharmacist Leopold Andreae and Katharina Elisabeth Rosenhagen.

In 1772 Abel Seyler married the actress Friederike Sophie Seyler.

The principal founder of biochemistry and molecular biology, Felix Hoppe-Abel Seyler, was an adopted son of his grandson.