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Ferdinand Raimund

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FERDINAND RAIMUND (1790-1836), Austrian actor and dramatist, was born on the 1st of June 1790, in Vienna. In 1814 he acted at the Josefstadter Theater, and in 1817 at the Leopoldstadter Theater. In 1823 he produced his first play, Der Barometermacher auf der Zauberinsel, which was followed by Der Diamant des Geisterkonigs (1824) and the still popular Bauer als Millionth'. The last-mentioned play, which appeared in 1826, Der Alpenkonig and der Menschenfeind (1828) and Der Verschwender (1833) are Raimund's masterpieces. He committed suicide on the 5th of September 1836, owing to the fear that he had been bitten by a mad dog. Raimund was a master of the Viennese Posse or farce; his rich humour is seen to best advantage in his realistic portraits of his fellow-citizens.

Raimund's Sdmtliche Werke (with biography by J. N. Vogl) appeared in 4 vols. (1837); they have been also edited by K. Glossy and A. Sauer (4 vols., 1881; 2nd ed., 1891), and a selection by E. Castle (1903). See E. Schmidt in Charakteristiken, vol. i. (1886); A. Farinelli, Grillparzer and Raimund (1897); L. A. Fra.nkl, Zur Biographie F. Raimunds (1884); and especially A. Sauer's article in the Allgem. Deutsche Biographie.