Background
As a young man he had to stop attending grammar school when his father Valentin died (1636) and had to give up his aspirations to become a lawyer
As a young man he had to stop attending grammar school when his father Valentin died (1636) and had to give up his aspirations to become a lawyer
lieutenant is very unlikely he ever succeeded in finishing a medical study and without a degree he was not allowed to call himself a physician. They had 6 children: Dorothea Elisabet, Gottfried, Christoph, Anna Barbara, Karl, and Sophia Rosina. The couple lived in a village called Neumarkt, south of Saalkreis.
Around 1657 he was appointed by August, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels as his surgeon.
In 1666 he bought a tavern The Yellow Deer. In 1672 he was given a license to serve wine, and also owned a vineyard outside the city walls.
In 1685 George Friedrich Handel was born, followed by sisters Dorothea Sophia in 1687 and Johanna Christiana in 1690 (she died in 1709). According to John Mainwaring, Handel"s first biographer, "Handel had discovered such a strong propensity to Music, that his father who always intended him for the study of the Civil Law, had reason to be alarmed.
He strictly forbade him to meddle with any musical instrument but Handel found means to get a little clavichord privately convey"d to a room at the top of the house.
To this room he constantly stole when the family was asleep". At his urging, Handel"s father permitted him to take lessons in musical composition and keyboard technique from Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow, the organist of the Lutheran Marienkirche.