Pohl, Karl Ferdinand

1819-1887

Learned German critic and biographer; born at Darmstadt, of a musical family. In 1841 he went to Vienna, where he studied under Sechter, and from 1849 to 1855 was organist at the Protestant Church in Gumpendorf, a suburb of Vienna. In 1862 his interesting history of the glass harmonica appeared, and in 1863 he went to London, where for three years he hunted the material used in his valuable work, Mozart and Haydn in London, which was published at Vienna in 1867. Then, at the instance of Otto Jahn, he began to collect information for a biography of Haydn, the first and second volumes of which came out in 1875 and 1882, but he died before it was completed, leaving the work to Mandyczewski to finish. On his return to Vienna he had been appointed archivist and librarian of the Society of the Friends of Music and filled the post ably until his death. He also published Die Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde und ihr Conservatorium in Wien, and was correspondent for several periodicals.