Friedrich Bessel
Karl Rudolph Koening was born on 26 November 1832, a descendant of a prominent Königsberg family. Koenig was raised along with his three sisters by his mother: Mathilde (Preuss) Koenig, who came from a craftsman and musical family background, and his father Johann Friedrich Koenig, a professor of mathematics and physics who had studied under the famous Friedrich Bessel. In 1851, Koenig moved to Paris, living in an apartment along the Île Saint-Louis. He lived alone and was never married.