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Josef Christian von  Zedlitz Biography

Josef Christian von  Zedlitz Image

ZEDLITZ, Josef Christian, Baron (1790-1862). An Austrian poet. He was born at Johannisberg, in Austrian Silesia, and was educated at the Gymnasium of Breslau. He served with distinction in the army, but resigned in 1809 and devoted himself to literary pursuits. In 1837 he received a position in a department of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs at Vienna, and after 1851 he was in the Austrian diplomatic service. He was one of the leaders of the Romantic movement in Austria. His dramas, such as Der Stern von Sevilla (1830), and Kerker and Krone (1834), a dramatic continuation of Goethe's Tasso, are not of great value, but his lyrics and ballads, especially Nächtliche Heerschau (1829), are characterized by much originality and grace. His most famous work is Todtenkränze (1827), a collection of elegies, but many of his best poems are contained in other volumes, such as Gedichte (1832) and Soldatenbüchlein (1848). He translated Byron's Childe Harold (1836).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 846.