Felix mendelssohn bartholdy biography sample

The Favorite of Gods

In 1812, Felix’ seven-year-old sister writes to her friends in Hamburg about her three-year-old brother: “Felix has a strong voice and sings all day.” A year before, in 1811, the family had moved from the city where Fanny and Felix had been born to return to Berlin, the Mendelssohn’s old hometown.

Here, Felix, the eldest son of Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn, attends Dr. Messow’s Elementarschule near Gendarmenmarkt Square. His education continues with a comprehensive home-tutoring program based on the classical canon but also includes drawing, physical education, piano and violin lessons, as well as the study of composition under the director of the Sing-Akademie.

After the family relocates to grandmother Bella Salomon’s house on Hackescher Markt, this new home becomes a venue for r