Karl Ludwig Giesecke

Carl Ludwig Giesecke, born Johann Georg Metzler (* April 6, 1761 in Augsburg, † March 5, 1833 in Dublin ) was a German dancer, actor, lawyer, polar explorer and mineralogist. After studying the rights and mineralogy in Göttingen from 1781 to 1784 he took the stage name Carl Ludwig Giesecke.

On Midsummer Day 1788 Giesecke was a member of the Federation of Freemasons, he was like Mozart member of the Vienna lodge to newly crowned hope. From 1789 he worked as an actor and playwright on Freihaustheater at Wieden in Vienna under the direction of Emanuel Schikaneder. In the premiere of The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, he was the first slaves. According to Julius Cornet Giesecke claimed in 1818 to be the actual author of the libretto of The Magic Flute. This information has been until now neither refuted nor confirmed by the Mozart research. Giesecke translated the Mozart opera Le nozze di Figaro (1793 ), and Così fan tutte (1794 ) into German.

Between 1789 and 1800 Giesecke wrote at least 15 opera librettos, which were set to music by various composers in Vienna and came to different Viennese stages to the performance.

1800 Giesecke was mineral dealers. 1806 Giesecke traveled on behalf of the Royal Danish Trade Directorate as mineralogist to Greenland. Due to the outbreak of the Napoleonic wars he remained for several years - until 1813 - there. About this stay he wrote later, the geological- mineralogical standard work Mineralogiske rejse i Grenland.

In 1814 he became Professor of Mineralogy at the University of Dublin. A part of his Greenland collections he appropriated the Austrian State. Today it is part of the collection of the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna.

Besides stones Giesecke also described some of the mosses growing on it and got the botanical author abbreviation " Giesecke ".

When Sir Charles Lewis Giesecke he died on 5 March 1833 in Dublin.