Name Anton Adner | Died March 15, 1822 | |
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Anton Adner (1705? – 15 March 1822), also known as the Bavarian Methusalem, was a Bavarian artisan of wood, who reportedly has been one of the oldest people to live in that region of Germany.
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Life
Anton Adner was born in 1705; it is believed, either of Schonau -where his residence was-, or of Tyrol -from which Adner would have come after the birth of his child-. Adner's nickname was Danei.
Selling wooden boxes
Up until the end of his life, Adner's modest artisan activity consisted of building and selling his wooden creations. In those years, the region of Berchtesgaden had strict commerce regulations. Each wood artisan could make just one determined kind of production, so Adner specialized in making wooden boxes of many uses, basically decorative, for storing divers things of every-day usage, including foodstuff, valuables, toys, etcetera.
Berchtesgaden also imposed important fees for the production which crossed the frontier. Nonetheless, things which were carried personally by someone were exempted of this, therefore -like many other artisans- Adner decided transporting his goods afoot with a backpack far beyond Berchtesgadener Land, so reaching throughout Bavaria, and even more distantly to Austria and Switzerland. The wooden boxes were so carried by Adner, over his shoulder and even over his head. Indeed, he kept doing this even after his centenary age.
For a pastime, Anton Adner got usually engaged, knitting picturesque socks, for selling those too, with his wooden boxes.
National fame
The Bavarian royalty had spotted Anton Adner, for the inauguration of a brine device at Berchtesgaden. Then, Adner was presented in 1814, at the Frauenkirche cathedral of Munich for Maundy Thursday, as the oldest man of Bavaria. For the occasion, Adner participated in the rite of foot washing. Then, he also attended a theatre for the first time in his life.
During that event, the 110-year-old Anton Adner also managed to climb the 92-meter-high southern tower of the cathedral. A portrait, the Frauenturm, had been engraved for commemorating such deed, but it was destroyed by the World War II bombings. Nonetheless, a painter of Munich, named Kleiber, did a paint of it, which nowadays is exhibited in the museum of Berchtesgaden.
In 1817 at the alleged age of 112 Anton Adner met Emperor Maximilian I who took over for his medical care.