Habel, Christian Friedrich

Court Chamber Councillor

born: 02.11.1747 in Wallrabenstein

died: 20.02.1814 in Schierstein

Habel studied law, finance and cameral science in Giessen and Strasbourg. In 1775 he entered the Nassau-Ussingian civil service. In 1776 he became chamber secretary, in 1778 chamber assessor and in 1780 court chamber councillor. In 1794 he acquired the Kießlingschen Freihof in Schierstein, which he managed from 1800.

Habel was interested in antiquities and was committed to researching the Limes. He published numerous essays on mineralogy and mining as well as on prehistory and Roman times in Nassau. As a collector, he owned a considerable "natural history cabinet", which Goethe visited during his spa and bathing stay in Wiesbaden in 1814. In 1811/12, Habel was the initiator and co-founder of the Association for Nassau Antiquities and Historical Research together with pastor Johann Christian Reinhard Luja and the Frankfurt scholar and art collector Johann Isaac von Gerning. Habel's rich written legacy can be found today in the Hessian Main State Archive in Wiesbaden.