Acta Musealia

Vilém Sonntag – Founder of a Prominent Family of Kroměříž Photographers

The study follows chronologically the events in the life of Kroměříž photographer Vilém

Sonntag. He was born in Berlin to a Jewish family and he came to Moravia via Warsaw,

where he had converted to Catholicism. He worked in Velehrad and in Uherské Hradiště

and in the year 1863 or 1864 he settled permanently in Kroměříž, where, in 1865, he married

Albertina Zannerová, a daughter of a book printer Anton Zanner from Uherské Hradiště. At

the beginning of the year 1866 he became a member of a prestigious Photographic Society

in Vienna, which incorporates photographers from all over the world and has been

active since 1861 until today. On 20th January 1867 a son, Hugo Carl Sonntag, was born to

Albertina and Vilém; he later followed in his father’s footsteps and his photographic work. In

his photographs, Vilém Sonntag documented above all the town of Kroměříž, its prominent

personalities and notable events. Among his more important commissions were, for instance,

five photographs for a representative album given to Apostle Nuncius Marian Falcinelli Antoniacci

in 1864, or documentation of the celebration of blessing of the banner of the Moravan

Choir, which took place in the Big Square in Kroměříž on 20th August 1865. Vilém Sonntag

had, of course, also to be present at the most important social event in Kroměříž in the year

1885 – the meeting of the Emperor Franz Josef I and the Czar Alexander III, which occurred

on 24th to 26th August. We have portrait photographs of Vilém Sonntag and his wife Albertina,

neé Zannerová, still in existence in an album given by the members of Kroměříž societies

Moravan, Vlastimila and Sokol to Kroměříž advocate Dr Jan Kozánek on his 60th birthday on

21st June 1879. Unfortunately it is not known until when his age and health allowed Vilém to

pursue photography and when he completely handed over his photographic trade to his

son, as the studio continued in existence under the same name even under the management

of Vilém’s son, Hugo Carl Sonntag.

Keywords: Kroměříž, Jánská Street, photographic studio, album, tableau, Hugo Carl Sonntag, Berta Sonntagová (Opravilová)