Georg Händel

Who was Georg Händel?

Georg Händel was a barber-surgeon and the father of Georg Frideric Handel. As a young man he had to stop attending grammar school when his father Valentin died and had to give up his aspirations to become a lawyer. It is very unlikely he ever succeeded in finishing a medical study and without a degree he was not allowed to call himself a physician.

In 1643, he married Anna Kathe, a widow 12 years his senior. 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. His wife died in 1682; the next year he married Dorothea Taust, the daughter of a Lutheran pastor in Giebichenstein. In 1685 George Friedrich Handel was born, followed by sisters Dorothea Sophia in 1687 and Johanna Christiana in 1690.