Carl Jonas Pfeiffer

Carl Jonas Pfeiffer (7 February 1779 – 3 May 1836) was a German merchant, banker, and amateur malacologist.

Early life and business ventures

Pfeiffer, called Jonas as a child, was born in the Oberneustadt parsonage on Karlsplatz in Cassel, where his father, Johann Jakob Pfeiffer, was the preacher. Shortly after his birth, the family relocated to Marburg, where his father accepted a position as a professor in the Department of Theology at the university there. His mother died before he was 5 years old, but his father's second wife cared for all of their children, especially after Johann Jakob's early death in 1791. Pfeiffer attended the gymnasium of Marburg until the age of 14, at which point he relocated to Cassel to apprentice as a cloth merchant. At the completion of his apprenticeship, he spent time as a traveling salesman in Frankfurt am Main, but soon found himself back in Marburg, where, despite not attending the University, as had his father and brothers, he spent time learning French, Hungarian and Spanish. He also attended lectures by some of the academic luminaries of the time, such as Michael Conrad Curtius on history and statistics, Johannes Bering on logic, Johann Heinrich Jung on occupation science, and Carl Wilhelm Justi on aesthetics.

By 1803, Carl Pfeiffer and his brother Georg were living in Hanau, where they had take over running a snuff factory owned by their uncle Simon Rüppell and his partner Wilhelm von Harnier, prominent bankers in Frankfurt. Drawing on his experience as a traveling salesman, as well as his knowledge of languages, Carl undertook many journeys throughout central Europe in the interest of increasing tobacco sales. He travelled on horseback through Germany, Austria, Hungary and Switzerland, and often claimed that there was not a single town in Bavaria that he had not visited, no matter how remote. Pfeiffer's curiosity eventually settled on conchology, a field in which his nephew Louis Pfeiffer would eventually achieve renown. His particular specialty was land snails. This union produced three children: Georg Ludwig (18 July 1809 – 1892) Marie Sophie Christiane (14 December 1810 – 22 March 1850) Carl Wilhelm Theodor (19 May 1816 – after 1886) Louise Pfeiffer had spent much of her late life in delicate health, and Carl had purchased her a garden plot on the Akazienallee in Cassel, where he built her a small summer home. Despite his best efforts, she died on August 31, 1827, at the age of 39.