This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
OR, COLONISTS—PAST AND PRESENT.
153

Herr Carl Püttmann,

BORN at Cologne, Prussia, November 14, 1843. His father, poet, journalist, and art critic, was at that time engaged on the editorial staff of the Cologne Gazette (Koelnishe Zeitung). After the political troubles of 1848-9 the family removed to England, and subsequently to Australia, where, in Melbourne, Mr. Püttmann, senior, for many years took an active part in German (local) journalism, and edited, shortly before his death in 1874, a "History of the Franco-Prussian War." His third son, Carl, the subject of this notice, studied music under the best Victorian professors, and took part professionally as early as 1858 in all Philharmonic and other concerts, in company with his teachers, Strebinger, Pringle, Jacobs, C. E. Horsley (a pupil of Mendelssohn's), and others. Accepting an engagement with the Lyster Opera Company, Herr Püttmann accompanied them on their first grand tour through New Zealand and Australia, remaining in Adelaide in 1865 and establishing himself here as a teacher of the pianoforte, violin, and singing, and in this capacity he is still successfully engaged. In 1866 he married the daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Loessel, and in 1867 was elected conductor, and subsequently honorary member of the Adelaide Liedertafel, a Society which is probably the oldest in the colonies and holds an honoured place among the musical institutions of Adelaide. The first performance under his baton was a comic opera, "The Mordgrund Brack," at the Theatre Royal, and was followed by hundreds of other successful appearances in public, in many of which the most prominent artistes who have visited Adelaide—Ketten, Wilhelmj, &c, took part Among the friends and patrons of the Adelaide Liedertafel was the late eminent composer Franz Abt Herr Püttmann's eldest daughter and pupil, Miss Franziska, has gained distinction in the competitive examination for a scholarship in the Royal College of Music,