Banker (Seyler & Tillemann) and theatre principal (Hamburg National Theatre and Seyler Theatre Company)
Spouses
Sophie Elisabeth Andreae
Friederike Sophie Seyler
Children
Abel Seyler the Younger
L.E. Seyler
Sophie Leisewitz
Signature
Abel Seyler (23 August 1730, Liestal – 25 April 1800, Rellingen) was a Swiss-born theatre director and former merchant banker, who was regarded as one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe. He played a pivotal role in the development of German theatre and was considered "the leading patron of German theatre" in his lifetime.[1] He 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. Working with some of Germany's foremost actors and playwrights of his era, he is credited with pioneering a new more realist style of acting,[2] 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 serious German opera, becoming the "primary agent for change in the German opera scene" in the late 18th century.[3] Already in his lifetime, he was described as "one of German art's most meritorious men."[4]
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. During the Seven Years' War and its immediate aftermath his bank Seyler & Tillemann engaged in an ever-increasing and complex, "malicious" speculation with financial instruments and went spectacularly bankrupt with enormous debts in the wake of the Amsterdam banking crisis of 1763, resulting in a decade of expansive litigation.[5] Although they were wealthy bankers, Seyler and his business partner were "in no way representatives of the Hamburg bourgeoisie."[6] A flamboyant bon vivant who was regarded with suspicion in Hamburg, Seyler symbolized a new and more aggressive form of capitalism.
Seyler's admiration for the tragic actress Sophie Hensel (Seyler), who later became his second wife, led him to devote himself entirely to theatre from 1767 onwards. He 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. His theatre employed Lessing as the world's first dramaturg, culminating in the work Hamburg Dramaturgy that defined the field and gave it its name. In 1769, Seyler founded the travelling Seyler Theatre Company, which became one of the most famous theatre companies of Europe during the period 1769–79 and regarded as "the best theatre company in Germany at that time."[7] The company was to a large degree centered around his would-be wife and his close collaborator Konrad Ekhof, Germany's most famous actress and actor at the time, respectively. He initially held the Hanoverian privilege as theatre director and his company later stayed for three years at the court of Duchess Anna Amalia in Weimar and for a year at the ducal court in Gotha. From 1779 to 1781 he was the founding artistic director of the Mannheim National Theatre. He commissioned works such as Sturm und Drang by Klinger (which gave its name to the era), Ariadne auf Naxos by Benda and Alceste by Schweitzer, considered "the first serious German opera."[8] Seyler mostly focused on the artistic, economic and administrative management of his theatrical company; his own lack of a background as an actor 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. His wife's 1789 SingspielHuon and Amanda (or Oberon) was a major influence on The Magic Flute.
^Wilhelm Kosch, "Seyler, Abel", in Dictionary of German Biography, eds. Walther Killy and Rudolf Vierhaus, Vol. 9, Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3110966298, p. 308
^Bettine Menke, Wolfgang Struck (2022), Theatermaschinen – Maschinentheater: Von Mechaniken, Machinationen und Spektakeln (pp. 96–97), transcript Verlag
^Anna Albrektson, Fiona Macintosh (2023), Mapping Medea: Revolutions and Transfers 1750-1800 (p. 27), Oxford University Press
^Reichard, Heinrich Aug. Ottok., ed. (1794). Theater-Calender auf das Jahr 1794. Gotha. p. 241.
^Cite error: The named reference Lindemann was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference Rüppel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^"Herzogin Anna Amalie von Weimar und ihr Theater," in Robert Keil (ed.), Goethe's Tagebuch aus den Jahren 1776–1782, Veit, 1875, p. 69
^Francien Markx, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Cosmopolitanism, and the Struggle for German Opera, p. 32, BRILL, 2015, ISBN 9004309578
AbelSeyler (23 August 1730, Liestal – 25 April 1800, Rellingen) was a Swiss-born theatre director and former merchant banker, who was regarded as one...
Hamburg branch descended from the banker and renowned theatre director AbelSeyler became by marriage a part of the Berenberg banking dynasty, co-owners...
Maximilian Klinger's play of the same name, which was first performed by AbelSeyler's famed theatrical company in 1777. The philosopher Johann Georg Hamann...
Abel Jacob Gerhard Seyler (1756–1805), also known as AbelSeyler the Younger, was a German scholar, pharmacist, freemason and a member of the original...
sometimes Seylersche Truppe), was a theatrical company founded in 1769 by AbelSeyler, a Hamburg businessman originally from Switzerland who became "the leading...
that existed 1767–1769 at the Gänsemarkt square, and that was led by AbelSeyler. It was the first attempt to establish a national theatre in Germany...
Seyler is a surname, and may refer to: Seyler family, a Swiss-German family of artists and bankers, including AbelSeyler (1730–1801), Swiss theatre director...
considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg in his role at AbelSeyler's Hamburg National Theatre. Lessing was born in Kamenz, a small town in...
city-state's main political bodies. Ludwig Seyler was a son of the Swiss-born theatre director AbelSeyler and a son-in-law of the bankers Johann Hinrich...
From the 1760s the theatre director AbelSeyler—the leader of the Hamburg National Theatre and subsequently the Seyler Theatre Company—established Hamburg...
and also of the Sturm und Drang poets, was AbelSeyler, the owner of the Hamburgische Entreprise and the Seyler Theatre Company. Through the 19th century...
Frankfurt regained its wealth. In the late 1770s the theater principal AbelSeyler was based in Frankfurt, and established the city's theatrical life. Frankfurt...
Dr.theol. AbelSeyler (1684–1767), parish priest in Liestal. Friedrich Seyler was the grandfather of the renowned theatre director AbelSeyler. Friedrich...
director AbelSeyler, whom she married in 1772, as the leading actress of the Hamburg National Theatre and later of the Seyler Theatre Company. With Seyler she...
Henriette Gossler, was married to Ludwig Erdwin Seyler, a son of the famous theatre director AbelSeyler. In 1788, Johann Hinrich Gossler took on his son-in-law...
partner in her own right from 1790 to 1800. L.E. Seyler, a son of the famous theatre director AbelSeyler, was one of Hamburg's foremost merchants in his...
Keiser, did try to challenge Italian dominance, and the theatre principal AbelSeyler became an eager promoter of German opera in the 1770s, but it was only...
Seyler was a son of the court pharmacist AbelSeyler the Younger and Caroline Klügel, and was a grandson of the famous theatre principal AbelSeyler and...
the Hamburgische Entreprise, also known as Lessing's Dramaturgie, with AbelSeyler as its main backer. The dramaturgie was home to famous founders of German...
the theatre principal AbelSeyler in the 1760s and 1770s, first at the Hamburg National Theatre and then at the travelling Seyler Theatre Company. In 1739...
Dalberg—to establish a new theatre in Mannheim. At first Dalberg contracted AbelSeyler's theatre company with performing in Mannheim on an occasional basis from...
Italian counterpart in musical sophistication. The theatre company of AbelSeyler pioneered serious German-language opera in the 1770s, marking a break...
(1628–1717) and envoy to the French court Abel Socin (1632–1695). The latter was a grand-grandfather of AbelSeyler, one of the preeminent theatre principals...
January 1782 at Mannheim. She worked under the direction of F.S. Seyler's husband AbelSeyler at the Mannheim National Theatre until 1781, when a quarrel between...
Lessing, written between 1767 and 1769 when he worked as a dramaturg for AbelSeyler's Hamburg National Theatre. It was not originally conceived as a unified...
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