Franz Grillparzer

Franz Grillparzer (1791–1872) was an Austrian writer, born in Vienna and regarded as Austria's leading nineteenth-century dramatist. He studied law at the University of Vienna and, after his father's death, worked as a private tutor. From 1813 he earned his living as a civil servant, directing the Hofkammer archives from 1832 until his retirement in 1856.

His verse plays, shaped by classical drama and often staged at the Burgtheater, include Sappho, the Medea trilogy and his 1825 tragedy of the Bohemian king, König Ottokars Glück und Ende.

He wrote Beethoven's funeral oration in 1827 and Schubert's epitaph. After his only comedy was rejected by the public in 1840, he nearly passed from his contemporaries' memory.