Constant von Wurzbach

Constantin Wurzbach Ritter von Tannenberg (11 April 1818 – 17 August 1893) was an Austrian biographer, lexicographer and author.

Biography He was born in Laibach, Carniola (present-day Ljubljana, Slovenia).He later went on to complete a course in philosophy and published poetry in local periodicals, inspired by the work of Nikolaus Lenau and Anastasius Grün.

At the request of his father, he began studying jurisprudence at Graz, which he, however, abandoned after two years. Instead, he joined the Austrian army and served in a Galician infantry regiment at Cracow from 1837. As a cadet, he continued to publish poems under the pseudonym W. Constant. In 1841 he was promoted to the rank of second lieutenant (Unterleutnant) and transferred to Lemberg (Lviv). At the same time, he studied philosophy at the Lemberg University and in 1843 became the first active officer in the Austrian army to obtain a doctorate.

By the end of the year, Wurzbach left the army and took up an appointment at the Lemberg University library. In 1849 he was appointed librarian in the Ministry of the Interior at Vienna, and subsequently secretary in the Ministry of State.

Wurzbach died in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria. He was the father of Alfred von Wurzbach, an art critic.

Works He is best known for: Bibliographisch-statistische Uebersicht der Litteratur des österreichischen Kaiserstaates (Bibliographic-statistical overview of the literature of the Austrian Empire, 1856) A unique publication on a gigantic scale, sixty volumes published 1856–91, containing about 25,000 critical biographies of notable personages in every walk of life and from all parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. The work was reprinted in 1966 by Johnson Reprint.

His other writings include: Die Volkslieder der Polen und Ruthenen (Folk songs of Poland and the Eastern Slavs, 1846)

Feldmarschall Erzherzog Karl (Fieldmarshal Archduke Karl, 1880)