AustLit

Johannes Theodor Carl Trödel served an apprenticeship with his father, Carl Auguste Trödel, a lithographer. In 1860 he accepted a job at A. W. Schuhkrafft's printing firm in Melbourne, arriving in the colony in February that year. Anglicising his name to Charles Troedel, he collaborated with François Cogné and Robert Wendel in the production of a highly popular series of lithographic prints known as the Melbourne Album. The success of the Melbourne Album enabled Troedel to begin his own lithographic printing firm.

Troedel enjoyed a long and successful career as a leading printer in Melbourne. He became an active member of the Master Printers' Association, and of the wages' boards for the printing trades. He was also known for his patronage of the performing arts and musical societies. His obituary in The Argus described him as 'a genial and courteous gentleman, for forty-five years recognised as the principal exponent of the lithographic branch of the printing trade' (1 November 1906).