Abel Seyler
Abel Seyler | |
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Sophie Leisewitz | |
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Abel Seyler (23 August 1730,
The son of a
Seyler's admiration for the tragic actress
Background and childhood
Abel Seyler was born in 1730 in
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Seyler as a merchant banker
As a young man, Seyler left Basel first for
Mary Lindemann notes, quoting from the 1765–1773 Imperial Cameral Tribunal proceedings and the memoirs of John Parish:
- [An] important case against several business partners reached the Imperial Cameral Tribunal (Reichskammergericht) in 1765. It offers an excellent perspective on "deceitful schemes" and especially on the bill-jobbing of two companies: Müller & Seyler and Seyler & Tillemann. Although the voices presented here are those of their creditors, the documents nonetheless reveal how contemporaries viewed the business practices of "malicious bankrupts" and how these practices assumed particularly baleful shapes in their minds. The creditors’ lawyers laid out the background to the case in considerable detail. Müller and Seyler were new men; Edwin Müller had come from Hanover several years before and Abel Seyler had been born in one of the Swiss cantons. Both had, however, "learned their business" and married in Hamburg.[note 1] "If one could trust their books," their actual starting capital amounted to no more than thirty-eight thousand Mk. Bco., "of which, however, well over half had been frittered away through the acquisition of furniture for two households, [for the purchase of] clothes, jewels, silver plate, and other needs for themselves, their wives, and their children, [and also for] carriages, horses, and so on." Their business was undercapitalized from the beginning. In the 1750s, this seemed a minor problem because credit was easy to obtain. When the cash flow failed, they tried to acquire money quickly through bill-jobbing. Because their ready funds could not cover their expenses and debts, theirs became "the most audacious [form of] Windhandel." As their business increased—as they took on ever more commissions in goods for import and export, invested in a sugar refinery, and lent money to several people—they simultaneously pursued their bill-jobbing and expanded it markedly.
- In 1757, they acquired a new partner, named Tillemann, who, however, contributed "not one Creutzer" to their capital, but that did not stop them from vigorously extending their business. Although their enterprises seemed to prosper in the late 1750s, they did so only "at the expense of others [...] because they always lacked adequate funds.” Bill-jobbing was a dangerous game “in which even the most careful [practitioner] usually loses about 10% and sometimes even 12–14%.” The partners then conjured up a fictive company under Erwin Müller’s signature “and informed the world that he had thus established his own firm.” Certainly, commented the lawyer drily, “that was a fine business that honored its inventor, which, however, no one who values truth and honesty could condone!”
- They were effectively bankrupt by August 1762, long before the “great crash” of 1763. Yet they did not stop, but plunged forward (as Parish wrote), cooking more deals as the kitchen got hotter. Seyler & Tillemann continued their trade in worthless paper and bought up large quantities of silver and coin on commission. Müller, by now separated from the firm, was up to his ears in this “windy-business” (“he had strewn into the world some one-and-a-half million Mk. Bco. in bills”). He was brought to such “despair” that Seyler & Tillemann, as well as several other local and foreign banks and businesses (principally in Braunschweig and Amsterdam), all of which were mutually involved in bill-jobbing and bill-discounting, had to come to his rescue. For their own preservation, they simply could not afford to let him fall. Still, by late 1762 they, too, were “completely insolvent.”
- When the Amsterdam house of De Neufville collapsed, so, too, tumbled Seyler & Tillemann. The common cause of the bankruptcies, from the giant De Neufville to less-famed partnerships like Seyler & Tillemann, lay, it was argued, in “an exaggerated trade in bills of exchange, in bill-jobbing, and—particularly—in the criminal “‘windy trade’ that [such like] Seyler & Tillemann had engaged in.” The “wind trade” of these years—and the bankruptcies that resulted—shook the major commercial centers to the core, “and many a capitalist who sought to profit from the high discount rate and who changed his money into paper, was plucked bare.”[5]
Seyler was described as "a handsome bon vivant."
Seyler as a theatre principal
Hamburg National Theatre (1767–1769)
After the bankruptcy of his bank, Seyler devoted himself to theatre and became the main shareholder, benefactor and effective leader of the
Karl Mantzius noted:
- Seyler's admiration for the fine actress was easily transferred to the theatre in general, the theatre, that is, which formed a frame round his favourite. Thus a coalition of commerce, letters, and art was formed in which each party had his own personal interests, but which outwardly was working towards the sublime goal of abolishing the business-like leadership that was detrimental to true art.[18]
Nominally Johann Friedrich Löwen served as theatre director, but he had little influence, as Seyler as main shareholder and head of a three-member "administrative committee" (Verwaltungsausschuß) took all managerial decisions while Ekhof in practice assumed the artistic leadership. The new Seyler regime suited Ekhof well, and he became a lifelong friend and collaborator of Seyler.
The Hamburg National Theatre was immortalized by Lessing's influential book Hamburg Dramaturgy, a collection of essays that reflected on the Hamburg National Theatre's efforts, and which defined the field of dramaturgy and gave it its name. The idea of a journal with Lessing as a dramatic critic was conceived by Löwen, and Seyler, "the power behind the throne," at first reluctantly agreed, but was eventually won over by the journal's success.[19][20] The theatre had to close after two years after Seyler had spent the rest of his fortune on it.
Seyler Theatre Company (1769–1779)
In 1769 Seyler founded the National Theatre's effective successor, the Seyler Theatre Company, together with Konrad Ekhof, Sophie Hensel and some other actors. The Seyler Company became one of the most famous theatre companies of Europe during the period 1769–79 and was regarded as "the best theatre company in Germany at that time."[7] While the National Theatre had avoided musical theatre, Seyler appointed Anton Schweitzer as music director, charged with adding opera to the spoken repertory, and the Seyler Company came to play a major role both in the development of a German opera tradition and in the promotion and popularisation of the Sturm und Drang dramas.
For most of its existence, the Seyler Company comprised around 60 members, and included an orchestra, a ballet, house dramatists and set designers. The company was one of the first theatre companies to maintain a permanent orchestra. Over the next ten years the company travelled extensively, and stayed for longer periods at several courts of Europe. Theatre companies of the era, especially travelling ones, thought of themselves as extended "families."
Hanover years (1769–1771)
At the court of Duchess Anna Amalia (1771–1774)
In 1771 the Seyler Company was invited to the ducal court in Weimar by Duchess Anna Amalia, the composer and noted patron of the arts, and Seyler again became the company's principal. They were warmly welcomed by Anna Amalia and her court in October 1771, and were generously paid; the company performed three times a week for select guests at the Weimar ducal court. In 1771 Anna Amalia was a 32-year old widow who reigned as regent on behalf of her young son. The Seyler Company's arrival in Weimar coincided with the infancy of the cultural era known as the Weimar Classicism, when the Duchess invited many of the most eminent men in Germany to her court in Weimar, including Herder, Goethe and Schiller.
Adam Shoaff notes,
- While in Weimar, the Seyler troupe established a reputation as one of the most formidable companies in Germany, thanks to its composer, Anton Schweitzer (1735–87); their leading soprano, Franziska Koch; [...] and two other talented singers, Josepha and Friedrich Hellmuth. Its production of Schweitzer’s Alceste (1773), with a libretto by Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813), marked a significant moment in German opera history: Alceste was the first full-length serious opera in German.[21]
In 1772 he reunited with his love interest Friederike Sophie Hensel, who had stayed at the Vienna Burgtheater for the past year, and they finally married in November 1772 in Oßmannstedt just outside Weimar.
At the Gotha court (1774–1775)
After the palace fire in Weimar in May 1774, Anna Amalia was forced to dismiss the Seyler Company, and they left with a quarter year's wages and a letter of recommendation to
Leipzig and Dresden (1775–1777)
In 1775 Seyler received the
On the road again (1777–1779)
In 1777 Seyler relinquished the Electoral Saxon privilege and his company took to the road again. Over the next two years the Seyler Company was primarily based in Frankfurt and Mainz and travelled extensively to Cologne, Hanau, Mannheim, Heidelberg and Bonn. On 17 June 1777 Seyler became director of the electoral Komödienhaus at Große Bleiche in Mainz; his ensemble then consisted of around 200 members, including his wife Sophie.[22] He is regarded as the father of theatrical life in Frankfurt.[23][24]
Mannheim National Theatre (1779–1781)
When
At Mannheim Seyler directed several
In 1778 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart visited the Mannheim theatre, where Dalberg asked him to write a duodrama for the Seyler company. Mozart wrote enthusiastically to his father Leopold Mozart:
I may be able to earn 40 louis d'or here, though I'd have to remain here for 6 weeks, or 2 months at the most. The Seyler company is here—I expect you already know them by reputation
Abel Seyler was forced to leave his position as director of the Mannheim National Theatre in 1781, "after his wife's jealousy had provoked an unfortunate incident;"[16] during a quarrel with his wife's "scheming"[29] student, the 20-year old actress Elisabeth Toscani, the usually level-headed Seyler lost his temper and gave her a slap in the face in response to repeated insolent remarks during theatre rehearsals. A report commissioned by Dalberg noted that Toscani belonged to "the weaker sex" and that Seyler was the director of a theatre company and should be held to a higher standard. In order to "restore the peace" of the theatre Dalberg decided to retire Seyler with a pension.[30]
The first performance of Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers—itself inspired by the play Julius of Taranto by Seyler's son-in-law Johann Anton Leisewitz—took place at the Mannheim National Theatre the year after Seyler left as director.
Final years (1781–1800)
From 1781 to 1783 Seyler was artistic director of the Schleswig Court Theatre, which also performed in Flensburg, Husum and Kiel. In 1783 he established his own troupe based in Altona near Hamburg. From 1 September 1783 to Easter 1784 he was again director of the Comödienhaus theatre in Hamburg; he continued to live in Hamburg until 1787 and was at times a prompter at the theatre, where his wife performed under the direction of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder. From 1787 to 1792 he was again artistic director of the Schleswig Court Theatre.
His wife Sophie Seyler died in 1789. Earlier in that year she had published the romantic Singspiel or opera Huon and Amanda (or Oberon), inspired by a poem by their friend and collaborator Christoph Martin Wieland. The play, with original music by Carl Hanke, became a success in Hamburg; Hanke had been recruited by Abel Seyler as music director at the Comödienhaus in Hamburg in 1783. A lightly adapted version of Seyler's opera[31] with new music by Paul Wranitzky became the first opera performed by Emanuel Schikaneder's troupe at the Theater auf der Wieden, and established a tradition within Schikaneder's company of fairy-tale operas that was to culminate two years later in Mozart's and Schikaneder's opera The Magic Flute; Sophie Seyler's Oberon is regarded as one of the primary influences on the plot and characters of The Magic Flute.[32] Musicologist Thomas Bauman describes Oberon as "an important impulse for the creation of a generation of popular spectacles trading in magic and the exotic. Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute] in particular shares many features with Oberon, musical as well as textual."[33]
In 1792 Abel Seyler retired with a pension from Prince Charles of Hesse-Kassel, the royal governor of the twin duchies of Schleswig-Holstein. From 1798 he lived as a guest on the estate of the actor, his long-time friend and fellow prominent freemason Friedrich Ludwig Schröder in Rellingen in the Duchy of Holstein, where he died on 25 April 1800 at the age of 69. He was interred in Rellingen on 1 May 1800.[34][35]
Legacy
Seyler is widely regarded as one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe and has been described as "the leading patron of German theatre" in his lifetime.[1] He is credited with introducing Shakespeare to a German language audience, and with promoting the concept of a national theatre in the tradition of Ludvig Holberg, the Sturm und Drang playwrights, and the development of a serious German opera tradition.[36] Already in his lifetime, he was described as "one of German art's most meritorious men."[4] Ludwig Wollrabe called him "a man who made an immortal contribution to Germany's theater and its improvement."[37] He was lauded by contemporaries such as Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Christoph Martin Wieland, who described him as a "man of perception and insight."[38] After his death his daughter Sophie Leisewitz, the wife of the poet Johann Anton Leisewitz, wrote: "It was my happy fortune, out of childish duty, to worship the man whom thousands can only admire."[39]
Seyler mostly focused on the artistic, economic and administrative management of his theatrical company; his own lack of a background as an actor, his patrician family and his former profession as a merchant banker, made him stand out among the theatre principals of his era, in a profession that was just starting to gain respectability. John Warrack noted that:
- The success of Abel Seyler's company in the post-war years was rooted in his business acumen, coupled with a flair for attracting talent, but he would not have flourished without the greater respect beginning to be accorded the travelling theatre companies in the new climate of interest in drama and hence in dramatic music.[40]
The Danish critic Knud Lyne Rahbek highlighted the fact that while he had never been an actor himself, he demonstrated a great enthusiasm for and refined knowledge of the arts.[41] The actor August Wilhelm Iffland who worked under Seyler's direction said:
- His experience, his knowledge guided and shaped many artists. We learned much from his directing, his fine, conscientious, honest but never bitter criticism. Unwavering was his place between the coulisse. It was praise, encouragement, reward seeing him there, a warning censure when he pocketed his lorgnette, a punishment when he left his place.[42]
His theatrical legacy eventually overshadowed the dubious reputation he had earned as a banker in his younger years.
Freemasonry
Like many of his collaborators, Seyler was a
Abel Seyler and
Personal life
Abel Seyler was married in his first marriage from 1754 to Sophie Elisabeth Andreae (1730–1764), the daughter of the wealthy Hanoverian court pharmacist Leopold Andreae (1686–1730) and Katharina Elisabeth Rosenhagen (died 1752). Her parents were already deceased and her only close relative was her older brother and only sibling, the court pharmacist J.G.R. Andreae, who became a noted Enlightenment natural scientist. The wedding took place in Hanover and Abel and Sophie Elisabeth had two sons and a daughter: Abel Seyler (the Younger), who became court pharmacist in Celle and who was a member of the Illuminati; L.E. Seyler, a prominent Hamburg banker and politician; and Sophie Seyler, who married the Sturm und Drang poet Johann Anton Leisewitz, the author of Julius of Taranto.
After the death of his first wife in 1764, their children were raised in Hanover by their maternal uncle. By several accounts J.G.R. Andreae was a highly erudite, generous and kind man who became a loving father figure to his sister's children; he had no children of his own. The children since had limited or no contact with their father, and all lived more conventional lives than him. They inherited the Andreae pharmacy from their uncle on his death in 1793.
In 1772 Abel Seyler married the actress Friederike Sophie Seyler (formerly married Hensel). They had no children.
The principal founder of biochemistry and molecular biology, Felix Hoppe-Seyler, was an adopted son of his grandson.[45] Seyler was a godfather of Jacob Herzfeld (born 1763),[46] known as the first Jewish stage actor in Germany,[47] when the latter converted to Christianity in 1796.
Notes
References
- ^ ISBN 3110966298, p. 308
- ^ Bettine Menke, Wolfgang Struck (2022), Theatermaschinen – Maschinentheater: Von Mechaniken, Machinationen und Spektakeln (pp. 96–97), transcript Verlag
- ^ Anna Albrektson, Fiona Macintosh (2023), Mapping Medea: Revolutions and Transfers 1750-1800 (p. 27), Oxford University Press
- ^ a b Reichard, Heinrich Aug. Ottok., ed. (1794). Theater-Calender auf das Jahr 1794. Gotha. p. 241.
- ^ a b c Mary Lindemann, "The Anxious Merchant, the Bold Speculator, and the Malicious Bankrupt: Doing Business in Eighteenth-Century Hamburg," in Margaret C. Jacob and Catherine Secretan (eds.), The Self-Perception of Early Modern Capitalists, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009
- ^ a b Michael Rüppel, "Nur zwei Jahre Theater, und alles ist zerrüttet": Bremer Theatergeschichte von den Anfängen bis zum Ende des 18. Jahrhunderts, p. 127, C. Winter, 1996
- ^ a b "Herzogin Anna Amalie von Weimar und ihr Theater," in Robert Keil (ed.), Goethe's Tagebuch aus den Jahren 1776–1782, Veit, 1875, p. 69
- ISBN 9004309578
- ^ Johann Jakob Brodbeck, Geschichte der Stadt Liestal, A. Brodbeck, 1865
- ^ Auszug Stamm Seiler in / aus Liestal, 2014
- ^ Schneider, Konrad (1983). "Zum Geldhandel in Hamburg während des Siebenjährigen Krieges". Zeitschrift des Vereins für Hamburgische Geschichte. 69: 61–82.
- ^ Robert Prölss, Kurzgefasste Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst: von den Anfängen bis 1850 nach den Ergebnissen der heutigen Forschung, p. 194, F. A. Berger, 1900
- ^ Karl Mantzius, A History of Theatrical Art in Ancient and Modern Times: The great actors of the eighteenth century, P. Smith, 1970, p. 112
- ISBN 0826411673
- ^ George Freedley, John A. Reeves, A history of the theatre, p. 243, Crown Publishers, 1968
- ^ a b "Abel Seyler," in Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 17, p. 209, 1980
- ^ Susanne Kord: "Friederike Sophie Seyler. In Ein Blick hinter die Kulissen: Deutschsprachige Dramatikerinnen im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert (p. 312ff). Springer-Verlag, 2016
- ^ Karl Mantzius, A History of Theatrical Art in Ancient and Modern Times: The great actors of the eighteenth century, p. 112, P. Smith, 1970
- ^ George Freedley, John A. Reeves, A history of the theatre, Crown Publishers, 1968, p. 243
- OCLC 833404656.
- ^ Shoaff, Adam (2016), "Opera in Leipzig: From Strungk to Seyler," in The Aesthetic Foundations of German Opera in Leipzig, 1766–1775, pp. 15–33, PhD dissertation in Musicology, University of Cincinnati
- Sophie Seyler, Abel Seyler, Epilog bey Eröfnung des Herrschaftlichen Theaters in Mainz, gesprochen von Madame Seyler, den 17ten Junius 1777
- ^ Mohr, Albert Richard (1967). "Abel Seyler und seine Verdienste um das Frankfurter Theaterleben". Frankfurter Theater von der Wandertruppe zum Komödienhaus: ein Beitrag zur Theatergeschichte des 18. Jahrhunderts. Frankfurt am Main: Kramer. pp. 66–81.
- ^ Heinrich Leopold Wagner, Briefe die Seylerische Schauspielergesellschaft und Ihre Vorstellungen zu Frankfurt am Mayn betreffend, 1777
- ^ Jahrbuch der deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, vol. 9 (1874), pp. 296–297
- ^ Lesley Sharpe, A National Repertoire: Schiller, Iffland and the German Stage, p. 50ff, Peter Lang, 2007
- ^ Schiller: A Birmingham Symposium, p. 37, 2006
- ^ Hermann Abert, W.A. Mozart, p. 529. Translated by Stewart Spencer.
- ^ Alfried Wieczorek, Hansjörg Probst, Wieland Koenig, Lebenslust und Frömmigkeit, p. 407, Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 1999
- ^ Wilhelm Koffka, "Der Seyler-Toscani'sche Streit (1781)," in Iffland und Dalberg: Geschichte der classischen Theaterzeit Mannheims, p. 538ff, Weber 1865
- ^ Peter Branscombe, W. A. Mozart: Die Zauberflöte, Cambridge University Press, 1991, p. 28
- ISBN 0-226-07810-8.
- ^ Bauman, Thomas. "Oberon, König der Elfen." The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Friedrich Ludwig Wilhelm Meyer, Friedrich Ludwig Schröder: Beitrag zur Kunde des Menschen und des Künstlers, vol. 2, p. 215, Hoffmann und Campe, 1819
- ^ Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Kieler Stadtgeschichte, Issues 33–34, Die Gesellschaft, 1926, p. 78
- ^ Bircher, Martin; Straumann, Heinrich (1971). "Abel Seyler". Shakespeare und die deutsche Schweiz bis zum Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts: eine Bibliographie raisonnée. Bern, München: Kramer. p. 162.
- ^ Ludwig Wollrabe's Chronologie sämmtlicher Hamburger Bühnen (p. 58)
- ^ Der Teutsche Merkur, 1773, I, p. 269.
- ^ Paul Schlenther: "Abel Seyler." In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Vol. 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 778–782.
- ISBN 0521235324
- ^ Klaus Ulrich Ebmeyer, Theater in der empfindsamen Zeit: Leben und Reisen des Knud Lyne Rahbek; ein Beitrag zur Schauspielkunst des 18. Jahrhunderts (p. 35), Christian-Verlag, 1958
- ^ Blum, R[obert]; Herlofssohn, K[arl]; Marggraff, H[ermann], eds. (1841). "Mannheim". Allgemeines Theater-Lexikon, oder, Encyklopädie alles Wissenswerthen für Bühnenkünstler, Dilettanten und Theater-Freunde. Vol. 5. Altenburg and Leipzig: H.A. Pierer and C. Heymann. p. 215.
Von Director Seyler sagt Iffland in seiner thetralischen Laufbahn: Seine Erfahrung, seine Kentnisse berichtigten und bildeten manchen bedeutenden Künstler. Seiner Zurechtweisung, seiner feinen, gründlichen, nicht schonenden, aber nie bittern Kritik lernten wir vieles verdanken. Unverwandt beobachtend war sein Platz zwischen dem Proscenium und der 1. Coulisse. Es war Lob, Anfeuerung, Belohnung, wenn man ihn da ausdauern sah, ein warnender Tadel, wenn er seine Lorgnette einsteckte, eine Bestrafung, wenn er seinen Platz verließ.
- ^ Weiblichkeitsentwürfe und Frauen im Werk Lessings: Aufklärung und Gegenaufklärung bis 1800 : 35. und 36. Kamenzer Lessing-Tage 1996 und 1997, Lessing-Museum, 1997
- ^ Manfred Steffens, Freimaurer in Deutschland: Bilanz eines Vierteljahrtausends, p. 582, C. Wolff, 1964
- ISBN 978-3-662-62001-4.
- ^ Paul Schlenther: Abel Seyler. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Band 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 778–782.
- ^ "All About Jewish Theatre - European Jewish Theatre: From 1600 to the 20th Century". Archived from the original on 2014-01-03. Retrieved 2014-01-03.
Literature
- Paul Schlenther: "Abel Seyler." In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Vol. 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 778–782.
- Andrea Heinz: "Seyler, Abel." In: ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0, p. 300.
- ISBN 0810853159
- Wilhelm Kosch, "Seyler, Abel", in Dictionary of German Biography, eds. Walther Killy and Rudolf Vierhaus, Vol. 9, Walter de Gruyter, 2005, ISBN 3110966298, p. 308
- "Abel Seyler," in Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 17, p. 209, 1980
- Dirk Böttcher, Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon: Von den Anfängen bis in die Gegenwart
- Thomas Bauman, "New directions: the Seyler Company" (pp. 91–131), in North German Opera in the Age of Goethe, Cambridge University Press, 1985
- Thomas Bauman, Music and Drama in Germany: A Traveling Company and Its Repertory, 1767–1781, PhD dissertation on the Seyler Theatre Company, University of California, Berkeley, 1977
- Magazin zur Geschichte des deutschen Theaters, 1773, VI, p. 264–276
- Rudolf Schlösser: Vom Hamburger Nationaltheater zur Gothaer Hofbühne. Nendeln/Liechtenstein: Kraus, 1978. Originally published in Hamburg, 1895.
- Adrian Kuhl: "Abel Seyler." In ISBN 978-3-476-02394-0
- Frost, Reinhard (1994). "Seyler, Abel". Frankfurter Personenlexikon.
- "Abel Seyler". Brockhaus Enzyklopädie. 2022.
External links
- Literature by and about Abel Seyler in the German National Library catalogue
- Abel Seyler in the Weber Gesamtausgabe