1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Anzengruber, Ludwig

ANZENGRUBER, LUDWIG (1839–1889), Austrian dramatist and novelist, was born at Vienna on the 29th of November 1839. He was educated at the Realschule of his native town, and then entered a bookseller’s shop; from 1860 to 1867 he was an actor, without, however, displaying any marked talent, although his stage experience later stood him in good stead. In 1869 he became a clerk in the Viennese police department, but having in the following year made a success with his anti-clerical drama, Der Pfarrer von Kirchfeld, he gave up his appointment and devoted himself entirely to literature. He died at Vienna on the 10th of December 1889. Anzengruber was exceedingly fertile in ideas, and wrote a great many plays. They are mostly of Austrian peasant life, and although somewhat melancholy in tone are interspersed with bright and witty scenes. Among the best known are Der Meineidbauer (1871), Die Kreuzelschreiber (1872), Der G’wissenswurm (1874), Hand und Herz (1875), Doppelselbstmord (1875), Das vierte Gebot (1877), and Der Fleck auf der Ehr’ (1889). Anzengruber also published a novel of considerable merit, Der Schandfleck (1876; remodelled 1884); and various short stories and tales of village life collected under the title Wolken und Sunn’schein (1888).

Anzengruber’s collected works, with a biography, were published in 10 vols. in 1890 (3rd ed. 1897); his correspondence has been edited by A. Bettelheim (1902). See A. Bettelheim, L. Anzengruber (1890); L. Rosner, Erinnerungen an L. Anzengruber (1890): H. Sittenberger, Studien zur Dramaturgie der Gegenwart (1899); S. Friedmann, L. Anzengruber (1902).