Editing George Frideric Handel (section)

=== Family ===
[[File:George Frideric Handel baptismal register.jpg|thumb|Handel's baptismal registration ([[Marienbibliothek, Halle (Saale)|Marienbibliothek]] in [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]])]]

Handel was born in 1685 (the same year as [[Johann Sebastian Bach]] and [[Domenico Scarlatti]]) in [[Halle (Saale)|Halle]], in the [[Duchy of Magdeburg]], then part of Brandenburg-Prussia. His parents were [[Georg Händel]], aged 63, and Dorothea Taust, daughter of priest Georg Taust.<ref>{{harvnb|Deutsch|1955|p=1}}</ref> His father was an eminent [[Barber surgeon|barber-surgeon]] who served the court of [[Saxe-Weissenfels]] and the [[Margraviate of Brandenburg]].{{sfn|Adams|Hofestädt|2005|pp=144–146}}{{efn|Georg Händel (senior) was the son of a [[coppersmith]], Valentin Händel (1582–1636), who had emigrated from [[Eisleben]] in 1608 with his first wife Anna Belching, the daughter of a master coppersmith. They were Protestants and chose reliably Protestant Saxony over [[Silesia]], a [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg]] possession, as religious tensions mounted in the years before the [[Thirty Years' War]].{{sfn|Adams|Hofestädt|2005|p=144}} }}

Halle was a relatively prosperous city, home of a salt-mining industry, a centre of trade, and a member of the [[Hanseatic League]].<ref>{{harvnb|Adams|Hofestädt|2005|p=144}}; {{harvnb|Burrows|1994|p=1}}.</ref> The Margrave of Brandenburg became the administrator of the archepiscopal territories of [[Mainz]], including [[Archbishopric of Magdeburg|Magdeburg]] when they converted, and by the early 17th century held his court in Halle, which attracted renowned musicians.{{efn|Among the court musicians of Halle were [[Samuel Scheidt]] (who also was organist at the Moritzkirche), [[William Brade]] and [[Michael Praetorius]].{{sfn|Burrows|1994|p=1}}}} Even the smaller churches all had "able organists and fair choirs",{{efn|Halle also was noted for the quality of its organ-builders. In 1712, [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]] was intrigued by the organ at Marktkirche, and applied for the position that Zachow, Handel's teacher, vacated. He decided on [[Weimar]], however.{{sfn|Lang|1966|p=20}}}} and humanities and the letters thrived (Shakespeare was performed in the theatres early in the 17th century).{{sfn|Lang|1966|p=20}} The Thirty Years' War brought extensive destruction to Halle, and by the 1680s it was impoverished.{{sfn|Adams|Hofestädt|2005|p=144}} However, since the middle of the war the city had been under the administration of the [[Augustus, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels|Duke of Saxony]], and soon after the end of the war he would bring musicians trained in [[Dresden]] to his court in [[Weißenfels|Weissenfels]].{{sfn|Burrows|1994|pp=1–2}}

[[File:Halle Händelhaus 2012.jpg|thumb|left|[[Handel House]], birthplace of Handel]]
The arts and music, however, flourished only among the higher strata (not only in Halle but throughout Germany),{{sfn|Lang|1966|pp=25–26}} of which Handel's family was not a part. Georg Händel (senior) was born at the beginning of the war and was apprenticed to a barber in Halle at the age of 14 after his father died.{{efn|This barber, Andreas Berger, happened to be the son-in-law of English ''émigré'' William Brade, court musician to Augustus in Weissenfels.{{sfn|Adams|Hofestädt|2005|p=144}}}} When he was 20, he married the widow of the official barber-surgeon of a suburb of Halle, inheriting his practice. With this, Georg determinedly began the process of becoming self-made; by dint of his "conservative, steady, thrifty, unadventurous" lifestyle,{{sfn|Lang|1966|p=10}} he guided the five children he had with Anna who reached adulthood into the medical profession (except his youngest daughter, who married a government official).{{sfn|Adams|Hofestädt|2005|pp=144–145}} Anna died in 1682. Within a year Georg married again, this time to the daughter of a Lutheran minister, Pastor Georg Taust of the Church of St. Bartholomew in Giebichenstein,{{sfn|Landon|1984|p=9}} who himself came from a long line of Lutheran pastors.{{sfn|Lang|1966|p=10}} George Frideric was the second child of this marriage; the first son was [[Stillbirth|stillborn]].{{sfn|Deutsch|1955|p=6}} Two younger sisters arrived afterwards: Dorthea Sophia, born on 6 October 1687, and Johanna Christiana, born on 10 January 1690.<ref>{{harvnb|Deutsch|1955|p=2}}; {{harvnb|Landon|1984|p=9}}.</ref>