John James Heidegger

Who was John James Heidegger?

John James Heidegger was a Swiss count and leading impresario of masquerades in the early part of the 18th century.

The son of Zürich clergyman Johann Heinrich Heidegger, Johann Jacob Heidegger came to England in 1708 as a Swiss negotiator. He failed in his undertaking, and was involved in difficulties. So he entered as a private in the Guards, and afterwards became influential in the management of the opera. In 1709 he made five hundred guineas by furnishing the spectacle for Motteux's opera Tomyris, Queen of Scythia.

From 1710 on, as part of a new commercial public entertainment, he promoted masquerade balls at the Haymarket Theatre. The fashionable world of London was enthusiastic about it and called Heidegger 'the Swiss Count'. Though moralists protested and clergymen preached against such activities, the carnivalesque phenomenon became a trend throughout 18th-century London. In 1724, William Hogarth published a satire on Heidegger in his print, Masquerades and Operas. By that time, masquerades were equally reputed for their great popularity and immoral influences. Indeed, much of the occasion's popularity resulted from the aura of sexual danger and mystery, as women of pleasure were also constantly present.