Hermann Clemens Kosel

Kosel was born on 22 November 1867 in Dunkelthal, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today Temný Důl, a part of Horní Maršov in the Czech Republic). He grew up in Braunau (Broumov) and did an apprenticeship as a bookbinder with his father.

From 1889 to 1891 he attended the Graphic Education and Research Institute, Vienna.^[1]

Kosel began his career as a photographer as studio manager for the amateur photographer, Albert von Rothschild, between 1891 and 1905 and gave lessons in photographic techniques to wealthy amateurs. In 1905, he opened a rubber printing business and promoted this process for the Austrian manufacturer Langer. His portrait studio, which he opened in 1906, employed 23 people. Kosel won over a well-off Viennese clientele and was promoted to Court Photographer in 1911.^[1] From 1905 to 1909 he was editor of the magazine Photo-Sport.^[2]

Kosel was the editor of anthologies of contemporary literature and edited the literary journals Iduna, Deutsches Böhmerland, and Blätter für deutsche Dichtung from 1892 to 1903, among others.^[3] His own poetry was set to music several times. Kosel wrote mainly biographical novels. He also illustrated his books himself and painted landscapes and portraits.^[4]

Since his son, Hermann Kosel, who had a Jewish wife, Nelly Wengraf, had to flee to Aix-en-Provence from the Nazis after the annexation of Austria in 1938, he closed the studio in 1940 and sold the inventory.^[5]

Kosel died in Vienna on 14 September 1945 and was buried at the Vienna Central Cemetery.^[4]