Karl Anton, born Karl Konrad Anton on June 2, 1887, in Worms am Rhein, Germany, was a German Lutheran pastor, philosophy professor, violist, singer, and church music academic. He graduated from the University of Halle in 1912 with a doctorate of Philosophy. He started as the pastor at the Evangelical/Protestant Church in Baden at the Old City Church in Weinheim in 1912, but took a break to preach to German troops on the front lines during World War I, which was sponsored by the German Red Cross. He became a pastor at many other churches throughout his life, while simultaneously producing and performing renditions of church oratorios from famous German composers such as Carl Loewe, Johann Sebastian Bach, and others. He became a professor at the University of Music in Mannheim, and in 1923 he took a position at the University of Heidelberg to be a Professor of Psychology. In 1933 he left this position because of his disagreement with the anti-Semitic views of the National Socialist Party, led by Adolf Hitler. Throughout World War I, Anton constantly attempted to comfort his Protestant congregation and provide safety and protection to his community. He produced dozens of published works as well as unpublished manuscripts which are mostly focused on the importance and function of church music as well as the histories of those who composed it. Karl Anton died in 1956. He was survived by his second wife, Johanna Anton, and his two children (Luise Kotter Anton and Walther Anton) whom he had with his first wife, Anna Bleidorn Anton, who left Anton and their children for another musician in 1920.

Dale A. Jorgenson began collecting documents for his book The Life of Karl Anton, 1887—1956 (2001) in the mid-1990s. The research brought him into contact with many archivists, historical societies, and schools throughout Germany and the United States. It is unclear from the documents how Jorgenson became interested in the life of Karl Anton, but he did likely visit Germany, specifically the regions in which Anton lived, in the early 1990s, where he might have become acquainted with the figure. As a former Professor of Music at Truman State University, Jorgenson may have been interested in Anton’s opinions on the works of composers such as Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Handel.