Teacher, organ composer, publisher, * 06/03/1809 Teicha near Halle/Saale, † 01/03/1865 Erfurt. (Lutheran)
Teacher training seminar in Erfurt, where he was a student of →Johann Immanuel Müller and →Ludwig Ernst Gebhardi, among others. In 1837 he founded a musical lending institution in Halle and a year later a book and music publishing house in Erfurt. In keeping with his interests and his education, K. was especially committed to organ music, seeking to give it new impetus and to elevate musical education. He initially turned to the cantors' and teachers' seminaries. Study works, collections of preludes and postludes, fugues and free pieces, collective works of older and newer masters, mostly arranged according to degrees of difficulty, provided organists with carefully selected material suitable for practical use. The best-known large collection "Der Orgel-Freund", still usable today, is exemplary. New editions of the organ works of J. S. Bach, D. Buxtehude, J. L. Krebs', J. Pachelbel, F. W. Zachau and others supported the effort to broaden the knowledge of the music of the past. It also made it a model for the contemporary organ work, to which K. always felt obliged despite all his preference for the old masters.
The music publishing house was taken over by C. F. Peters in 1886. His collection "Der praktische Organist" (The Practical Organist), published in the 1950s, was still being reedited by K. Straube and P. Claußnitzer in 1952.