Theatre director Abel Seyler

Literature

• Wikipedia (English): Abel Seyler

Biography

Abel Seyler was born in Switzerland and came to Northern Germany, where he established himself as a merchant in Hamburg and married the daughter of a wealthy Hanover court pharmacist. He later became the main backer of the Hamburg National Theatre and the founder of the Seyler theatrical company, one of the most famous in Europe in the late 18th century.

He was a son of Abel Seyler (Sr.) (–1767), parish priest of Spital Muntzach in Liesthal, Canton of Basel, and Anna Katharina Burckhardt (1694–1773), a member of the patrician Burckhardt family of Basel.

He was married 1) on 2 April 1754 in Hanover to Sophie Elisabeth Andreae (1730–1764), the daughter of the Hanover court pharmacist Leopold Andreae and sister of J.G.R. Andreae. Three children (including Ludwig born 1758 and Sophie born 1762, married Leisewitz) who grew up in Hanover with J.G.R. Andreae.

He was married 2) in 1772 to the actress Friederike Sophie Hensel (henceforth Seyler), who was previously (1754–1759) married to actor Johann Gottlieb Hensel.

http://de.wikisource.org/wiki/ADB:Seyler,_Abel

There is a silhouette of him in Jahrbuch des Geschichtsvereins für das Herzogtum Braunschweig, 1905. Another silhouette is owned by Basel Museum.

Possibly portrait (not yet confirmed) in Stein, Deutsche Schauspieler I, Schriften der Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte Bd. 9, Berlin 1907