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Genealogical Charts

Carl Abraham Mankell (1802-1868)

Johan and Johanna’s oldest child was Carl Abraham, also known as CA or Abraham, who was born in Christiansfeld, Denmark on April 16, 1802 and died in Stockholm (see maps) on October 27, 1868. On August 25, 1827 CA married Carolina Lundberg in Stockholm. Carolina was the daughter of Swedish painter Johann Lundberg and Maria Belitz.

CA grew up in Christiansfeld and was 12 years old when his father’s infidelity became known. The Moravian church’s goal for CA was for him to be good at his studies, but CA was not interested. He quit his studies in 1815 and the Council of Elders wrote that he would become a ‘turner’, working with wood. He was also a music teacher at a school in Christiansfeld.

He moved to Sweden in 1821 to join his father who wanted one of his children to assist him in his work as musical instrument maker. Johan was believed to be in Kalmar at this time. By August, 1823, CA was in Stockholm, owned a varnish shop and was a lacquerer by trade. He learned his trade in Christiansfeld. He wanted to return home to Christiansfeld to again be a music teacher at the school, but was not accepted. Given his father’s history in Christiansfeld, CA was also not trusted.

After the varnish shop, CA then owned a piano rental and tuning business. By 1825 Carl Abraham began his career in music and held a variety of music related jobs during the next few years. Primarily he was a cantor (music teacher) and organist. Here is a list of some of his jobs (with some dates) in Stockholm, as described in the Svenskt Biografiskt Lexikon:

• 1825: Organist at German Church and Cantor at church’s school
• January, 1826: Teacher at the Royal Academy of Music
• February, 1826: Cantor at Klarakyrka (St. Clara Church)
• 1828: Organist at Klarakyrka for many years
• 1830: Music director at the city’s high school
• 1832-1834: Music teacher at Hillska School
• 1833: Music teacher at New Elementary School
• 1834-1841: Taught elementary and church music at Royal Academy of Music
• 1851-1856: Music critic in Swedish newspapers

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In addition, CA was a composer, writer, lecturer, and founder of the Association of Church Music in the 1830s, one of the leading choir societies in Stockholm at the time, with the goal of presenting secular music concerts. CA periodically played organ concerts at Storkyrka (Stockholm Cathedral), the church where Swedish royalty were crowned. Some of his books (titles translated) include Harmony, Textbook for Music, Stories from the History of Church Music, and Glimpses into Music’s Inner Sanctity. According to the Lexicon, CA introduced his students to the world of music by sharing his “knowledge, general education and great enthusiasm, rather than with the cane.” He was a good singer and also played the French horn. He collected Swedish and foreign music, especially for multiple voices, and used this music when teaching students. According to Bo Lindbergh (a Mankell relative in Stockholm) Carl Abraham reintroduced the music of JS Bach to Stockholm more than a hundred years after the German composer’s death. Even though CA played Bach’s music, CA loved folk songs more than the music of the great European composers and that he preferred the simple structure of folk songs more than complex symphonies.

The Library of the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm maintains collections of his compositions and letters.

Carl Abraham and Carolina had four children, Julius, Edvard, Guido and Ida. CA died in 1868 and is buried in a Stockholm cemetery where many Mankells are buried; it’s known as the North Cemetery. In 1859 Ida Mankell married G. Tieodolf Berman (a school headmaster) and they had 6 children. Two children (Sven and Nils Bergman) emigrated to the US. Ida’s great grandson Ulf Hagberg (1932-) was the director of the National History Museum in Stockholm.

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