Compars Herrmann's Grave Update

photo courtesy of Heinz König

Compars Herrmann was a victorian era magician from Europe. He was the older brother of Alexander Herrmann who would become very well known in America as Herrmann The Great. Compars developed his interest in magic through his father Samuel who was also an amateur magician. At some point in time, the younger brother Alexander became part of the Herrmann show. Alexander took the look of his brother, dressing the same with the same physical appearance and facial hair.

Compars performed mainly in Europe although he did venture to the United States. On January 27th, 1862, Compars, who was also known as Carl appeared with his younger brother Alexander before President Abraham Lincoln, Mrs. Lincoln and his cabinet at The White House in Washington D.C.. One of the feature effects he performed was the Inexhaustible Bottle. This was an effect where any drink called for would come out of the bottle. Mrs. Lincoln requested tea, which Compars gladly poured from the bottle. Members of the audience asked for other drinks and Compars poured each drink called for from the bottle. This was a popular effect of the time and many magicians used it successfully.

Compars was friends with Johann Hofzinser another great Viennese Conjurer. It's said that a number of Herrmann's routines were adaptations of things he learned from Hofzinser. One in particular was the "Cone, Vase, Beans, Hat and Orange Trick" (quite the name huh), was originally called "Der Grosspapa" by Hofzinser. 

Compars is buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery, in Vienna Austria. There are three magicians buried in this cemetery and I will eventually post all three. The image above is how the grave looks today. Compare it to the image below  from the Sphinx Magazine 1906, a monthly magic periodical, and you'll notice that the decorative metal work on the grave is now missing.

Compars Herrmann -Born Jan 23, 1816 Died June 8, 1887

Wiener Zentralfriedhof (Vienna Central Cemetery)

: XI. Simmeringer Hauptstrasse 234, Vienna Austria

Section: T1 Group: 6 Row: 29 Grave: 38

The Hofzinser Grave

photo courtesy of Magic Christian www.honzinser.com

This is the grave of Johann Nepomuk Hofzinser (born June 19,1806, died March 11th 1875)  he was a great Viennese Magician. He has been referred to as the most important card conjurer of all times. He was also one of the early Salon performers and as I suspected after so much of my research on Robert-Houdin, he was probably just as influential in Austria as R-H was in Paris. Both of their contributions to magic are still felt today!

Hofzinser was a cousin of Ludwig Dobler. Dai Vernon held  Hofzinser in high regard. He even gave one of his sons the middle name of Nepamuk. Hofzinser’s card work lives on today in many ways. His effects are still popular as are his sleights and even a number of his gimmicks. In fact, even I use one of his forces and spread cull. The charming ‘Everywhere and Nowhere’ card routine is Hofzinser’s and I’m wondering if it wasn’t first called “To Think and Forget”. One famous piece of magical apparatus that I am familiar with was called ‘The Rose Mirror’. I have seen the Rose Mirror in person as it is in the collection of Ken Klosterman. There are a number of Hofzinser’s apparatus pieces in the collection as a matter of fact. His ‘ink to goldfish’ is there as well.

As I continue down the road researching Victorian magic, I look forward to learning more about Johann Hofzinser. By the way, the photo above and much of the biographical information here is courtesy of Magic Christian who gave me permission to use the above photo. Please visit his website at www.hofzinser.com to learn more about this wonderful Viennese magician. Ottokar Fischer wrote two books on Hofzinser which were translated into english by S.H. Sharpe which is no doubt how much of his card magic survived. Magic Christian has also written a couple books on the card magic of Hofzinser. For those that might not have these books, try ‘Greater Magic’ as there are several references to Hofzinser in the pages of that book.

He died March 11, 1875

The grave is located at the Vienna Central Cemetery, Group 4, Row 2, Tomb 16

J.N.Hofzinser's grave is in the same cemetery that Compars Herrmann is buried in.

(most of this is a reprint from a previous blog post I did at www.artistofmystery.com)