The Father of Milwaukee's Park System was born in Pirmasenz, Bavaria, and immigrated to Milwaukee in 1846. He went to California and mined for gold, then to Australia and Peru. He returned to Milwaukee for a short time, but left to join his brother in Chicago to form the Wahl Brothers Glue Company, which became the largest glue manufacturer in the United States. He was a member of the Common Council and the Board of Education, Vice Consul in Berlin during the Franco-Prussian War. In 1886 he sold out to Phillip D. Armour, and returned to Milwaukee a wealthy man. In his retirement, he became active in local civic affairs. In 1889, Christian Wahl, Louis Auer, Moses H. Brand and Theobald Otgen, all business leaders of Milwaukee joined together to establish a park system. Mayor Thomas H. Brown appointed Wahl, Louis Auer, Calvin E. Lewis, Charles Manegold, Jr. and John Bentley to the Board of Park Commissioners. He was president of the Park Board when it made land purchases for the city's first five parks. He was in favor of many parks throughout the city, rather than just one large park. In 1890, 124 acres was purchased at North Point and called Lake Park. As president of the Park Board he was able to use his influence to select Frederick Law Olmstead as the architect for Milwaukee's Lake Park. He spent his time overseeing the progress of his favorite "Lake Park." He had spent the last years of his life dedicated to making Milwaukee beautiful. By public subscription, a bronze bust of Wahl, by Gaetano Trentanove, was placed in Lake Park and dedicated in 1903, and later moved in 1960 to Wahl Park. There is a street named to honor him, Wahl Avenue, along Lake Park. He was married to Antonia Guenther, a daughter of Dr. George Guenther, an exiled member of the first German Reichstag following the 1849 Revolution. One daughter, Agnes Elizabeth, married Lucius William Nieman, a managing editor of The Milwaukee Sentinel, and in 1882 he founded the Daily Journal, which later became The Milwaukee Journal. With the merger of the two papers in 1993/94; name was changed to The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.