Franz Grillparzer

Franz Grillparzer (Vienna, 1791-1872) was the leading Austrian playwright of the nineteenth century and one of the most important German-language writers of his time. He came of age during the Napoleonic years and wrote in the Biedermeier period, when German-speaking literature turned toward domestic life and moderation, although his formal models came from Classicism. His plays still appear regularly at the Burgtheater in Vienna, and he is often regarded as Austria's national poet.

His father, a struggling lawyer, wanted him to follow the same profession, so Grillparzer studied law at the University of Vienna. His father's death in 1809 left the family in financial trouble, and he worked as a private tutor before entering the imperial civil service in 1813. He had little taste for bureaucracy and kept the post mainly because it gave him independence. In 1832 he became director of the imperial archives, a position he held until retiring in 1856. His mother's suicide in 1819 hit him hard and interrupted work on his trilogy about Jason.

His early tragedy The Ancestress (1817) is a grim fate drama, close to the fashion set by Werner and Müllner, and it made his name almost overnight. Sappho (1818) moved toward Classical restraint, dramatising the price a poet pays for genius. The Golden Fleece trilogy, finished in 1821, follows Jason and Medea and ends in disillusion and renunciation. His historical plays, such as King Ottocar, combine an almost modern realism with a keen sense of what works on stage. He admired the Spanish Golden Age, especially Calderón, whose influence shows in several of his works. His only comedy, Woe to Him Who Lies, failed when it was first staged.

After 1840 his work nearly vanished from view. Heinrich Laube, appointed artistic director of the court theatre in 1849, revived the forgotten plays, and audiences responded with enthusiasm. By his eightieth birthday the city had turned out to honour him. He never married and kept to a small circle of friends, though those who knew him found him warm once he relaxed. He died in Vienna in 1872 and was buried with great ceremony. His legacy lies in Austrian theatre and in his conviction that drama should address spiritual values rather than surface realism.