Christian Schnabel

Christian Leberecht Schnabel (13 May 1878, Regensburg -- 29 January 1936, Munich) was a German designer and inventor.

Biography

Born as a son of a German smith and a Russian seamstress Schnabel was at times because of his original and innovative, but often as not very suitably for everyday life classified inventions, a well known figure of the Bavarian public life. This made him, who received his education in his fathers smith near Regensburg, an ideal victim of satire - even Ludwig Thoma led in one of his fake letters of Josef Filser on him; from time to time Schnabel himself was asked to appear in smaller Cabaret-Shows and even a meeting with famous author Erich Kästner was reward for his dubious fame as a chronically fruitless inventor. Kästner was impressed by Schnabel and published after his death a poem about him in the book Dr. Erich Kästners lyrische Hausapotheke (1936).^[1]. Later Schnabel was mentioned as one example for "the funny Germans" in an anthology.^[2]. "The easy is the most difficult" is a famous word of Schnabel and it also became the principle of his life: Schnabel mostly experimented on everyday objects trying to improve them. Especially his simplistic food cutleries, which reached from a mixture between fork and knife up to a fork with only one prong became virtually legendary.^[3] Earning laughs for such inventions in his lifetime, today there are in more extensive cutlery sets not seldom found parts which are not unlike the Schnabel-Inventions around the turn of the century.

References

Literatur

• Erfinder-Rundschau . München : Erfinder-Rundschau, 1913 -1914
• Rainer Thor : Humor ins Haus . Hamburg-Poppenbüttel : Humor ins Haus Bd. 340., Erfinder sind oft grosse Kinder, 1962

References

1. ^ Die Fabel von Schnabels Gabel, in: Doktor Erich Kästners Lyrische Hausapotheke. Dtv, München 2008. (first published in 1936, Atrium Verlag, Zürich)
2. ^ Die komischen Deutschen, Haffmans Verlag bei Zweitausendeins, 2008
3. ^ Wilhelm Vossenkuhl: Vernünftiges und unvernünftiges Wissen. In: Naturwissenschaften. Nr. 79, Springer 1991, S. 97.