Del.icio.usCarl Herman Unthan
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Carl Herman Unthan was born in Prussia in 1848 to the family of a teacher. Despite of his deformities, he did not end up as a victim of infanticide but his family allowed him to learn to use his bare feet to manipulate objects. That included a violin he later told he found in a family attic.
When Unthan was sixteen, he was sent to an observatory and graduated couple of years later.
By the age of 20, Unthan was a famous violinist who performed to full concert halls in Vienna with classical orchestras. He begun by personal concerts and later added additional tricks to his repertoire - changing a broken string in a middle of a concert, lighting cigarettes, pouring drinks and making card tricks. Later he married Antonie Neschta he had toured with for a time. He moved to USA and eventually gained a citizenship.
In 1925 Unthan published an autobiography Das Pediscript (instead of manuscript because he had typed it with his feet, pedally, as opposed to manually). It was published in English 1935 with a name The Armless Fiddler.