Kastner, Léonie |
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BORN 8 Jul 1820, Paris - DIED 17 Jan 1888, Kehl, Baden-Württemberg BIRTH NAME Boursault, Léonie Amable Alberte GRAVE LOCATION Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin: Saint-Gall cimetière, 6 avenue du Cimetière (division 07, ligne 05, numéro 14) |
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Leónie Boursault was the youngest daughter of the actor and theatre manager Jean-François Boursault and his second wife Rose Alberte Bocquillon. She married the composer Jean-Georges Kastner (1810-1867) on 16 May 1837. He had been her music teacher and they had two sons. One of them, Friedrich Eugen Kastner (1852-1882), invented the musical instrument the pyrophon. Léonie helped him to put it on the market and even asked her close friend Henri Dunant to market the instrument, which he failed to do. She was already widowed (her husband died in 1867) when she met Dunant in 1872. She helped him out of several awkward situations after he was exiled to Paris following his bankruptcy in Switzerland. Their relationship was probably platonic but it caused rumours at the time because she was his companion for many years and they travelled together in Italy for a long time. She died in Kehl near Strasbourg in 1888. Related persons • was a friend of Dunant, Henry • was a friend of Napoleon III Bonaparte |
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 The grave of Léonie Kastner at Saint-Gall cimetière, Strasbourg. Picture by Androom (15 Aug 2003) |
