Ansel Wendl

Ansel Wendl was a ministry clerk who served as Second Clerk of the Sealed Archive at the Ministry of Chronology from 1855 to 1896, a tenure of forty-one years spent almost entirely among the ministry's closed files. He is remembered, so far as the record permits, for the cataloguing work he performed on the sealed archive rather than for any public act, and no portrait of him survives.

Early life

Wendl was born on 14 January 1831 at Vellmar, in The Capital District. The record is silent on his parentage, his schooling and the circumstances by which he came to the ministry's attention. He entered the Ministry of Chronology's service at some point before 1855, the year in which his appointment as Second Clerk of the Sealed Archive is first recorded.

Career

Wendl held the office of Second Clerk of the Sealed Archive at the Ministry of Chronology from 1 March 1855 to 31 December 1896. In this capacity he was responsible for the cataloguing of the sealed archive, a body of material whose contents the ministry does not disclose beyond the fact of their existence. The register describes his appearance in terms consistent with the office: a clerk's round shoulders, a manner said to have been neat and forgettable. No incident, promotion or reprimand attaches to his name in the public record during the whole of his service, which ran to forty-one years, one of the longest single tenures recorded at the ministry.

The register carries no further entries under his name for the period of his employment. He appears to have retired from the ministry at the close of 1896, at the age of sixty-five, after which the record is again silent as to his occupation or residence.

Family

Wendl was the father of Bertil Wendl, born 1 February 1858 and died 5 April 1890, who worked as a farmer. No other family connections are recorded. The register notes, without further particulars, that his descendants keep turning up in the archive.

Legacy

Wendl left no writings, no public honours and no recorded utterance. His significance in the archive rests entirely on the office he held and the length of time he held it: forty-one years as Second Clerk of the Sealed Archive is among the longer terms of service recorded at the Ministry of Chronology, and his cataloguing work is understood to underlie much of the ministry's later ordering of its closed material. Beyond this, and beyond the recurring appearance of his descendants in the record, nothing further is known of him.