Hubbry Logo
Angelo SolimanAngelo SolimanMain
Open search
Angelo Soliman
Community hub
Angelo Soliman
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Angelo Soliman
Angelo Soliman
Angelo Soliman
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Angelo Soliman, born Mmadi Make, (c. 1721 – 21 November 1796) was an African-born Austrian Freemason and courtier. He achieved prominence in Viennese society and Freemasonry.

Key Information

Life

[edit]

His original name, Mmadi Make,[1] is linked to a princely class[citation needed] of the Bornu Empire (centred in Borno State, modern-day Nigeria). He was taken captive as a child and arrived in Marseille as a slave. He was sold into the household of a Messinan marchioness, who oversaw his education. Out of affection for another servant in the household, Angelina, he adopted the name 'Angelo', and he chose to recognize September 11, his baptismal day, as his birthday. After repeated requests, he was given as a gift in 1734 to Prince Georg Christian, Prince von Lobkowitz, the imperial governor of Sicily. He became the Prince's valet and traveling companion, accompanying him on military campaigns throughout Europe and reportedly saving his life on one occasion, a pivotal event responsible for his social ascension. After the death of Prince Lobkowitz, Soliman was taken into the Vienna household of Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein, eventually rising to chief servant. Later, he became royal tutor of the heir to the Prince, Aloys I.[2][3] On 6 February 1768, he married the noblewoman Magdalena Christiani, a young widow and sister of the French general François Christophe de Kellermann, Duke of Valmy, a marshal of Napoleon Bonaparte.[4]

A cultured man, Soliman was highly respected in the intellectual circles of Vienna and counted as a valued friend by Austrian Emperor Joseph II and Count Franz Moritz von Lacy as well as Prince Gian Gastone de' Medici. Soliman attended the wedding of Emperor Joseph II and Princess Isabella of Parma as a guest of the Emperor.[5] Aside from his native Kanuri, he spoke six languages fluently: Latin, English, French, German, Italian and Czech.[6]

Portrait of Angelo Soliman holding an oboe, by an unknown contemporary German painter

In 1783, he joined the Masonic lodge "True Concord" (Zur Wahren Eintracht), whose membership included many of Vienna's influential artists and scholars of the time, among them the musicians Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn as well the Hungarian poet Ferenc Kazinczy. Lodge records indicate that Soliman and Mozart met on several occasions. Eventually becoming the Grand Master of that lodge, Soliman helped change its ritual to include scholarly elements. This new Masonic direction rapidly influenced Freemasonic practice throughout Europe.[7] Soliman is still celebrated in Masonic rites as "Father of Pure Masonic Thought", with his name usually transliterated as "Angelus Solimanus".[8]

During his lifetime Soliman was regarded as a model to the "potential for assimilation" of Africans in Europe, but after his death his image was subject to defamation and vulgarization through scientific racism, and his body was physically rendered into a specimen, as if an animal or for experimentation. Wigger and Klein distinguish four aspects of Soliman – the "royal Moor", the "noble Moor", the "physiognomic Moor" and the "mummified Moor".[9] The first two designations refer to the years prior to his death. The term "royal Moor" designates Soliman in the context of enslaved Moors at European courts, where their skin color marked their inferiority and they figured as status symbols betokening the power and wealth of their owners. Bereft of his ancestry and original culture, Soliman was degraded to an "exotic-oriental sign of his lord's standing" who was not allowed to live a self-determined existence. The designation "noble Moor" describes Soliman as a former court Moor whose ascent up the social ladder due to his marriage with an aristocratic woman made his emancipation possible. During this time Soliman became a member of the Freemasons and as lodge Grand Master was certainly considered equal to his fellow Masons even though he continued to face a thicket of race and class prejudices.

At the end of his life, after the death of his European wife, the old man led an austere life that resembled very closely that of a practicing Muslim: “He no longer invited friends to dine with him. He never drank anything except water.” Angelo Solimann, his youth notwithstanding, had rebelled against conversion but then likely found it easier to accept with seeming sincerity, out of commodity or gratitude. Nevertheless, he seems to have gone back to his original faith in his old age.[10]

Mummification after death

[edit]
painting on canvas

Beneath the surface appearance of integration lurked Soliman's remarkable destiny. Though he moved smoothly in high society, the exotic quality ascribed to him was never lost and over the course of his lifetime was transformed into a racial characteristic. The qualities used to categorize Soliman as a "physiognomic Moor" were set forth by pioneering Viennese ethnologists during his lifetime, framed by theories and assumptions concerning the "African race". He could not escape the taxonomic view that focused on typical racial characteristics, i.e., skin color, hair texture, lip size and nose shape.[citation needed]

Instead of receiving a Christian burial, Soliman was – at the request of the director of the Imperial Natural History Collection – skinned, stuffed and made into an exhibit within their cabinet of curiosities.[11][12] Decked out in ostrich feathers and glass beads, this mummy was on display until 1806 alongside stuffed animals, transformed from a reputable member of intellectual Viennese society into an exotic specimen. By stripping Soliman of the insignia of his lifetime achievements, ethnologists instrumentalized him as what they imagined to be an exemplary African "savage". Soliman's daughter Josefine sought to have his remains returned to the family, but her petitions were in vain. During the October revolution of 1848, the mummy burned. A plaster cast of Soliman's head made shortly after his death of a stroke in 1796 is still on display in the Rollett Museum in Baden bei Wien. His grandson was the Austrian writer Eduard von Feuchtersleben.[13]

[edit]

In 2023, Orville Breeveld, a Dutch-Surinamese filmmaker and composer, working as a programmer at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and also active as an arts consultant, made a documentary about Angelo Soliman as part of the NTR docuseries Nieuwe Blik Terug. In this episode, Breeveld highlights Soliman’s extraordinary life as an African-born man who became a notable figure in 18th-century Vienna, while also addressing the racialised ways in which his legacy was later treated in European history.https://npo.nl/start/afspelen/angelo-soliman-vrijmetselaar-in-wenen

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

Angelo Soliman

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
Angelo Soliman (c. 1721 – 21 November 1796) was an African-born man of probable Kanuri ethnicity who, after enslavement and transport to as a child, achieved notable social ascent in 18th-century as a chamberlain, tutor to , and reformist Freemason. Born Mmadi Make in a region spanning present-day northeastern and northern , he was captured around age eight, sold through to , and acquired in 1734 by Austrian Prince Georg Christian von Lobkowitz, entering service as attendant and confidant. By 1753, Soliman had relocated to Vienna, serving Prince Joseph Wenzel I of Liechtenstein as chamberlain and educator to his children, while cultivating a reputation for erudition through fluency in Italian, Latin, German, French, English, and Czech, alongside mastery in chess. His marriage in 1768 to Magdalena Christiani (also known as Kellermann), a woman of lower nobility, enabled independent residence in Vienna's suburbs and integration into enlightened intellectual circles, including friendships with Emperor Joseph II, Count Franz Moritz von Lacy, Mozart, and Haydn. Father to a daughter, Josepha, Soliman navigated Habsburg court life amid at least 40 other Africans in Vienna, embodying both emancipation and the era's racial curiosities. Soliman's most enduring achievements centered on Freemasonry, joining the lodge "Zur Wahren Eintracht" (True Harmony) in 1783 alongside luminaries like and Haydn, rapidly ascending to Grand Master under the symbolic name Massinissa. He authored ritual reforms emphasizing scholarly discourse over mere ceremonialism, innovations that propagated across European lodges and earned him recognition as the "Father of Pure Masonic Thought." Following his death, Soliman's legacy confronted a stark controversy: despite his expressed wishes and daughter Josepha's protests, Emperor Francis II ordered his body preserved, stuffed, and exhibited in the Imperial-Royal Court as an exotic "Moorish" figure adorned with feathers and African regalia, reducing the once-elite freeman to a racial specimen until the remains perished in the 1848 revolution's fires. This desecration underscored underlying Enlightenment-era racial hierarchies, contrasting sharply with Soliman's lifetime accomplishments in a society that valued his intellect yet commodified his origin.

Early Life

African Origins and Enslavement

Angelo Soliman was born circa 1721 as Mmadi Make among the in the region of present-day northeastern , particularly around the historical Kanem-Bornu Empire centered in . The , a major ethnic group in the area, were known for their involvement in networks and periodic intertribal conflicts that frequently resulted in captives being taken for enslavement. As a young child, Soliman was captured during such regional raids or warfare, common among where defeated or non-combatants from rival groups were enslaved as a matter of customary practice. Tribal accounts suggest possible origins in a or noble class, though primary evidence is limited to oral traditions preserved among Kanuri descendants, which describe him as taken from a prominent amid the era's endemic slave-raiding economies. He was subsequently sold within intra-African networks, where local rulers and traders exchanged captives for goods, before entering broader Mediterranean slave routes that funneled individuals northward. This enslavement occurred in a context of pre-colonial African slavery systems, distinct from later transatlantic volumes but integral to the continent's internal power dynamics, with an estimated tens of thousands annually traded across Saharan paths by the early . Soliman's trajectory exemplifies how such captures supplied both merchants and, indirectly, European demands, without evidence of direct European involvement in his initial seizure.

Arrival in Europe

Angelo Soliman, born circa 1721 in , was enslaved as a and transported to through slave-trade routes involving and the Mediterranean, arriving in around 1734. He was gifted to the Imperial Governor of upon arrival, initiating his servitude within a European administrative and aristocratic setting. In , a key Mediterranean under Habsburg influence at the time, Soliman served in an initial capacity as a page or . During this period, he began acquiring European languages, starting with Italian, which facilitated his adaptation to servitude in Italian-speaking environments. He was subsequently sold or transferred to the service of Austrian Prince Franz Josef von Lobkowic, establishing the chain of ownership that connected his Sicilian origins to Habsburg . This acquisition positioned Soliman within the orbit of Central European courts, though his physical relocation to occurred later, around 1753 after Lobkowic's death.

Career in Vienna

Service to the Liechtenstein Court

In 1753, following the death of his previous employer, Prince Lobkowitz, Angelo Soliman entered the household of Prince Joseph Wenzel I of in , initially serving as a chamberlain and . His duties included personal attendance to the prince, leveraging Soliman's multilingual proficiency in languages such as German, French, Italian, and Latin, as well as his reputed skill in chess. Soliman's role expanded to the prince's children, where he instructed them in languages and drew upon his expertise as a master swordsman for lessons, reflecting a merit-based progression from menial service to positions of trust earned through demonstrated intellectual and physical abilities. Archival records from the court indicate he was expensively attired and participated in official travels, such as accompanying the prince to in 1760 to escort Isabella of Parma for her marriage to Joseph II, underscoring his status as a valued . Through consistent loyalty and skill, Soliman secured his in the mid-18th century, transitioning to independent status within the household while retaining courtly privileges, including attendance at aristocratic gatherings where he was treated with respect befitting his elevated responsibilities. This advancement highlighted a pragmatic recognition of capability over origin, as evidenced by his for petitioners and integration into the princely routine.

Professional Roles and Achievements

Soliman entered the service of in 1753 as a and , eventually rising to chamberlain. In this capacity, he tutored the prince's children and accompanied him on travels, including military campaigns across . His reliability and intellect positioned him as a trusted advisor within the household, reflecting self-education and personal merit amid his initial status as an enslaved individual. Demonstrating remarkable linguistic aptitude, Soliman achieved fluency in Italian, French, and German, alongside passable knowledge of Latin, Czech, and English. This proficiency facilitated his engagement in Viennese intellectual circles, where his eloquence and deportment garnered acclaim from Emperor Joseph II, who regarded him as a highly cultured conversational partner. In 1760, Soliman served as the emperor's proxy, escorting Isabella of Parma from to for her marriage to Joseph II, an honor documented in contemporary paintings of the bridal entry. These accomplishments underscored his integration into elite society through demonstrated abilities, embodying aspects of Enlightenment meritocracy in Habsburg , though constrained by prevailing exoticized perceptions of his African origins.

Freemasonry Involvement

Initiation and Rise in the Lodge

In September 1781, Soliman joined the elite Viennese lodge Zur wahren Eintracht (To True Concord), becoming one of the first documented Africans initiated into European Freemasonry. His ascent within the lodge was swift, reflecting its emphasis on merit over social origin; by March 1782, Ignaz von Born appointed him "preparing brother," and in March 1784, members elected him deputy master of ceremonies, tasked with organizing proceedings. Accounts from lodge histories describe him attaining the role of Grand Master by the mid-1780s, a position he held for several years amid his brief but influential Masonic tenure of about five years. This progress stemmed from Soliman's demonstrated intellectual prowess, including fluency in six languages such as Italian, French, German, Latin, Bohemian, and English, which enabled effective engagement in diverse lodge deliberations, alongside his recognized oratorical talents that impressed contemporaries in intellectual settings. Masonic affiliations further connected him to and , fellow lodge members whose paths crossed with Soliman's during meetings in the , exemplifying the order's potential for transcending racial barriers through common commitment to Enlightenment rationality and brotherhood.

Reforms and Broader Impact

Soliman, as Worshipful Master of the lodge Zum wahren Einklang (True Harmony), introduced reforms that incorporated scholarly and philosophical elements into Masonic rituals, emphasizing intellectual discourse over mere ceremonial elements. These changes, implemented in the 1780s under the broader influence of lodge leader Ignaz von Born, transformed the lodge into an academy-like forum for rational inquiry, aligning Masonic practice with Enlightenment-era priorities of reason and . His innovations extended the influence of Viennese by promoting a "pure" form of Masonic thought, which spread rituals refined through scholarly rigor across , earning Soliman posthumous recognition as Angelus Solimanus, the "Father of Pure Masonic Thought" in Masonic tradition. This shift countered tendencies toward in some Masonic branches by prioritizing evidence-based ethical discussions, fostering a model that prioritized universal brotherhood grounded in demonstrable competence rather than unexamined tradition. Soliman's elevation to Grand Master as an African-born former slave exemplified leadership capability within , implicitly challenging contemporaneous European prejudices rooted in pseudo-scientific racial hierarchies by succeeding in roles demanding intellectual authority amid a context of against non-Europeans. His demonstrated proficiency in reforming rituals for a diverse Viennese , including figures like and Joseph II, underscored that merit transcended racial origins, influencing Masonic inclusivity debates without direct advocacy but through lived example.

Personal Life

Family and Marriage

Soliman married Magdalena Christiani von Kellermann in 1768, the widow of a secretary linked to the influential Harrach family and sister to a French general. The union marked his transition to an independent domestic life outside princely service, as released him from court duties upon learning of the marriage. The couple had one daughter, Josephine (also known as Josepha), born on December 18, 1772. Soliman acquired a modest house in Vienna's , establishing a household that embodied bourgeois stability amid his prior transient roles in noble courts. This setup underscored his , supported by ongoing noble . Josephine married Karl Friedrich von Feuchtersleben, a court official, thereby ascending to noble status; their son, Eduard, later became a noted Austrian and physician. The family maintained respectability without reliance on proximity, highlighting Soliman's achieved autonomy.

Intellectual and Social Circles

Soliman forged connections in Vienna's Enlightenment-era networks through intellectual merit, earning recognition beyond his courtly roles. He was on friendly terms with Emperor Joseph II (r. 1765–1790), valued as a cultured conversational partner whose insights informed discussions on societal matters. Around 1768, the emperor walked arm-in-arm with Soliman in the gardens, where Joseph learned of Soliman's clandestine marriage. In , Joseph II tasked Soliman with a diplomatic errand as temporary commissioner, entrusting him to deliver an ecclesiastical appointment to Michael Leopold Brigido in . Soliman also engaged with prominent Viennese thinkers, including Joseph Friedrich von Retzer, a leading intellectual who acted as his proxy in associational duties. These ties positioned him within the city's progressive social spheres, where his multilingual proficiency and broad erudition facilitated merit-driven interactions unburdened by factional or ethnic partisanship.

Death and Aftermath

Final Years

In the 1790s, Soliman continued his leadership within Viennese , serving as master of the lodge Zur wahren Eintracht amid growing political tensions across Europe, including the French Revolution's influence on secret societies, which prompted increased regulatory scrutiny in the Habsburg Empire. His reforms to Masonic rituals and literature, initiated earlier, persisted in shaping lodge practices despite these external pressures. Financially secure through a pension from his long service to the family, where he had tutored princely heirs, Soliman resided in a modestly furnished house in a , maintaining independence after retiring from active court duties around 1781. This stability allowed him to focus on intellectual pursuits and social engagements within enlightened circles, free from employment obligations. Soliman died on November 21, 1796, at approximately age 75, from a suffered while walking in Vienna's streets; as a baptized Catholic, he had sought a conventional in accordance with his expressed preferences.

Mummification and Destruction

Following Soliman's death from a on January 26, 1796, his body was denied a at the request of officials associated with Vienna's Imperial Collection, who instead arranged for it to be anatomically dissected, skinned, and taxidermied for preservation and display. The prepared corpse was adorned with feathers and ethnic ornaments to depict him as an "exotic" African specimen or "," overriding objections from his daughter, Nanette, who petitioned unsuccessfully for a dignified interment. The stuffed remains were exhibited alongside other preserved African bodies in the collection's cabinet of curiosities, prioritizing scientific curiosity and racial typology over personal dignity or familial claims, a practice reflective of contemporaneous ethnographic interests in Vienna's scholarly institutions. This treatment contrasted sharply with Soliman's lifetime integration into elite European society, underscoring persistent racial hierarchies that reduced even an accomplished individual to an object of study in death. Soliman's preserved body remained on public view in the for over half a century until it was consumed in a fire that ravaged the imperial palace during the , destroying the specimen along with much of the collection. No physical remnants survived, precluding later or further analysis, though the episode has been cited in historical accounts as emblematic of Enlightenment-era contradictions between professed and underlying ethnological objectification.

Legacy and Reception

Historical Assessments

Angelo Soliman's trajectory from enslaved African origins to a position of intellectual and social prominence in eighteenth-century exemplifies individual agency enabled by education, personal merit, and strategic networks within nobility and fraternal orders. Captured around 1721 in the Cameroon-Nigeria border region and transported to , Soliman entered service under Prince Joseph von by 1736, rapidly acquiring literacy in multiple languages—including German in seventeen days—and skills in , dancing, and , which facilitated his integration into elite circles. By the 1760s, having secured financial independence, he hosted salons attended by figures like and , demonstrating how verifiable personal accomplishments could override origins of bondage in a meritocratic subset of Habsburg society. In Freemasonry, Soliman's contributions advanced a rationalist orientation, prioritizing philosophical discourse and empirical scrutiny over esoteric mysticism, thereby influencing lodge practices continent-wide. Initiated around 1767 into the lodge "Zur wahren Eintracht," he ascended to Grand Master by 1783 and authored ritual reforms that emphasized intellectual rigor, such as integrating scholarly debates into proceedings, which diminished reliance on symbolic rituals and promoted Enlightenment-compatible principles of brotherhood and reason. These changes, disseminated through Viennese networks, contributed to a broader de-esoterization of Masonry in German-speaking regions, aligning it with emerging secular rationalism while preserving fraternal universality. Posthumous treatment of Soliman's remains, however, underscores inconsistencies in European perceptions of racial otherness, revealing incomplete assimilation of rational into racial realism. Following his on November 21, 1796, against his documented wishes for , imperial physicians skinned and mummified the body, adorning it with feathers and "Moorish" attire for display in Vienna's Natural History Cabinet until its destruction by fire in 1848. This act, endorsed by Masonic brethren and Emperor Francis II, reflected not entrenched systemic exclusion—given Soliman's lifetime elevations—but ambivalence, where lifetime respect coexisted with a curatorial impulse to exoticize the deceased as artifact, betraying limits in applying universalist ideals to persistent phenotypic distinctions.

Cultural Depictions

Eighteenth-century portraits, including one by Johann Nepomuk Steiner circa 1760, present Soliman as a dignified half-length figure seated in contemplative elegance, reflecting his status in Viennese court circles. A presumed portrait attributed to Johann Martin Usteri, produced in Augsburg, similarly captures his poised demeanor among patrician subjects. In literature, Robert Musil's unfinished novel (serialized 1930–1943) features a character modeled on Soliman as a disgraced African servant boy in a white household, contrasting with documented evidence of his intellectual prominence and Masonic leadership during life. This fictionalization, drawing partial inspiration from Soliman's biography, shifts focus toward servitude and disgrace rather than his reforms in Freemasonic rituals. Modern artistic and scholarly depictions often center Soliman's post-mortem mummification—wherein his body was skinned, stuffed with straw, and displayed in Native American attire at Vienna's Natural History Museum—as emblematic of latent Enlightenment-era racial hierarchies, prioritizing this desecration over his living contributions to Viennese Enlightenment circles. The 2018 biographical film Angelo, directed by Markus Schleinzer, portrays his life trajectory as illustrative of concealed prejudices in aristocratic patronage, framing his role as both a token of benevolence and subjugation. Freemasonic commemorations, by contrast, honor Soliman as an innovator who integrated scholarly elements into lodge practices, influencing European rituals and earning recognition in certain rites as a foundational figure of intellectual reform within the fraternity. These tributes emphasize his agency in reshaping Masonic thought, diverging from narratives that reduce his legacy to posthumous objectification.

References

  1. https://www.freimaurer-wiki.de/index.php/En:_Angelo_Soliman
  2. https://blackcentraleurope.com/sources/1750-1850/angelo-soliman-ca-1750/
  3. https://www.wienmuseum.at/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/Angelo_Soliman/Pressinformation_Angelo_Soliman.pdf
  4. https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/angelo-soliman
  5. https://talkafricana.com/the-untold-story-of-angelo-soliman-the-enslaved-african-who-was-gifted-to-the-imperial-governor-of-sicily-in-1734/
  6. https://www.pulse.ng/articles/angelo-soliman-the-18th-century-nigerian-freemason-who-was-friends-with-mozart-2024080202593533990
  7. https://ghosttownmonday.wordpress.com/2025/09/08/angelo-soliman-from-kanem-bornu-to-the-court-of-vienna/
  8. https://historum.com/t/angelo-soliman-the-nigerian-moor.67776/
  9. https://atlantablackstar.com/2014/10/05/distinguished-africans-early-northern-central-europe-part-2-series-great-african-men-european-history/
  10. https://zebregsroell.com/product/portrait-angelo-soliman
  11. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.6325873
  12. https://epubs.ac.za/index.php/jasas/article/download/1539/1094
  13. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0306396820942470
  14. https://www.wienmuseum.at/angelo_soliman_en
  15. https://www.1723constitutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Oscar-Alleyne-Alexandria-Paper.pdf
  16. https://spargelandfraise.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/soliman/
  17. https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3126&context=utk_gradthes
  18. https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/889216
  19. https://kentakepage.com/angelo-soliman-father-of-pure-masonic-thought/
  20. https://www.masonrytoday.com/index.php?new_month=11&new_day=21&new_year=2021
  21. https://voiceoftheancestors.substack.com/p/the-father-of-masonic-thought
  22. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/03/black-box-race-slavery-american-history/677765/
  23. https://blackcentraleurope.com/sources/1750-1850/josephine-soliman-fights-to-bury-her-father-angelo-1797/
  24. https://www.geni.com/people/Josephine-von-Feuchtersleben/6000000079341186930
  25. https://www.jstor.org/stable/271283
  26. https://masonicfootnotes.com/stuffed-barbarian/
  27. https://www.economist.com/prospero/2011/11/23/an-exceptional-life-an-ignominious-death
  28. https://face2faceafrica.com/article/from-celebrated-afro-austrian-noble-to-mummified-savage-on-display-the-heartbreaking-story-of-angelo-soliman
  29. https://www.academia.edu/71598537/Taxidermy_s_Literary_Biographies
  30. https://thefilmstage.com/nd-nf-review-angelo-conveys-prejudices-often-made-invisible-within-the-art-world/
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.