Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Anthing, was born in Gotha, Saxony, now the State of Thüringen, Germany on the 11th of November 1766 to the Garrison Pastor in Gotha, Johann Phillip Anthing and his wife Dorothea Amalia Schierschmidt. Carl was the youngest of three sons. The eldest son, Johann Friedrich Anthing, born in May of 1753, became a notable silhouette artist and later Adjutant to the Russian General Suvorov. The middle brother, Heinrich Christian Anthing, born in January 1757, remained in Gotha serving as City Senator there and military paymaster to the Duke of Saxon-Cobourg-Gotha. His daughter married the banker Johann Heinrich August Hopf, and this is how the story got passed down the Hopf line.
Tragedy struck the family on the 8th of February 1772 when the father, Johann Phillip, then serving as 2nd Deacon in Gotha, while administering to victims of a plague, contracted the disease himself and died. The family's dwindling resources from the loss of their father prevented the young Carl from receiving an advanced education. As a result, he followed the next best means of advancement in society at that time and entered the Saxon Army as a Cadet on the 19th of February 1783.
As you will find in the following posts, through his indomitable effort and genius, he was able to achieve what very few individuals were able to at that time in Europe: break beyond the barrier of his social class to become a member of the nobility through his own talents rather than by blood or birth.
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