Anton Lehár

Early life Lehár was born in Ödenburg (now Sopron), Austria-Hungary, as the younger son of a bandmaster in the Infantry Regiment No. 50 of the Austro-Hungarian Army. He attended schools in Preßburg (Pozsony, today Bratislava), Prague and Vienna. He entered cadet school in Vienna to become a professional officer, finishing in 1893 top of his class. Following a posting to his father's regiment, he was promoted Leutnant in 1894 and Oberleutnant in 1898. Between 1897 and 1899 Lehár attended the Kriegsschule (war college) in Vienna, after which he was attached to the general staff and served in a number of training positions until World War I.

World War I Following the outbreak of World War I, Lehár, now with the rank of Major, was put in command of the 2nd battalion of the Honvéd-Landsturm Infantry Regiment No. 13, which he led in September 1914 during battles at Chodel south of Lublin. His battalion was part of the Army group "Kummer" and served next to the unit of General Viktor Dankl. For his conduct there, Lehár would later be decorated with the Knight's Cross of the Military Order of Maria Theresa (see below). While still fighting near Lublin, Lehár was severely wounded.

After leaving hospital he was reassigned to the War ministry in Vienna and in September 1915 he served in the Tyrolean Defence Command. While the former monarch was transported into exile, Lehár escaped from Hungary and fled through Czechoslovakia to Germany where he hid with friends of his brother.

Life as a businessman When the political turmoil had calmed down, Anton's brother Franz Lehár organized for the former general a job as director of the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers in Berlin in 1926. With the rise of the National Socialist Party, Freiherr von Lehár was, as a dedicated Austrian-Hungarian monarchist, soon considered suspect. When the National Socialists assumed power in 1933 (Machtergreifung), he had to leave Berlin.

Back in Vienna, Lehár founded the Chodel Music Publishing Company, but after it did not prosper, he decided to hand over the business to his brother in 1935. He then moved to the countryside, becoming a farmer in Theresienfeld near Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria. When Germany occupied Austria in March 1938 (Anschluss), Lehár was ordered to move to Vienna, where the Gestapo could keep a closer eye on him and his wife for much of World War II. After Franz Lehár's death in October 1948, the former general became the administrator of his estate and spent the rest of his life guarding the rights and promoting the popularity of his brother's music.

Anton Freiherr von Lehár died in Vienna in 1962, aged 86.