Josef Alois Gleich (also Joseph Alois Gleich; pseudonyms Adolph Blum, Ludwig Dellarosa, Heinrich Walden; 14 September 1772 – 10 February 1841)"Gleich, Familie"
''Oesterreiches Musiklexikon Online''. Retrieved 9 March 2021. was an Austrian civil servant, and a prolific dramatist and novelist.

Life

Gleich was born in Vienna in 1772, son of a clerk. At the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

he studied philosophy, languages and public accounting, and entered the civil service. From 1790 to 1831 he was employed in provincial accounting of

Lower Austria Lower Austria ( , , abbreviated LA or NÖ) is one of the nine states of Austria, located in the northeastern corner of the country. Major cities are Amstetten, Lower Austria, Amstetten, Krems an der Donau, Wiener Neustadt and Sankt Pölten, which ...

."Gleich, Josef Alois; Ps. Adolph Blum, Ludwig Dellarosa, H. Walden (1772-1841), Schriftsteller"
''Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon''. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
''

Neue Deutsche Biographie (''NDB''; Literal translation, literally ''New German Biography'') is a Biography, biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 27 volumes published thus far co ...

'' (1964) in ''

Deutsche Biographie () is a German-language online biographical dictionary. It published thus far information about more than 730,000 individuals and families (2016).Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften''Jahresbericht 2016'' p 7 ...

''. Retrieved 9 March 2021.

Plays

From 1791 he was active in Vienna as a writer. He was a dramatist, and wrote about 220 plays from 1804 to 1833; they were staged at the

Theater in der Josefstadt The Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna in the eighth district of Josefstadt. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna. It is often referred to colloquially as simply ''Die Josefstadt''. Following ...

, where he was assistant director from 1814 to 1816, and at the

Theater in der Leopoldstadt The Theater in der Leopoldstadt (also: Leopoldstädter Theater) was an opera house in the Leopoldstadt district of Vienna, founded in 1781 by Karl von Marinelli, following the ''Schauspielfreiheit'' (ending of the court's monopoly on entertainment) ...

. Like his contemporaries Karl Meisl and

Adolf Bäuerle Adolf Bäuerle (real name Johann Andreas Bäuerle (9 or 10 April 1786 – 20 September 1859) was an Austrian writer, publisher and main representative of the . Life Born in Vienna, 1802 Bäuerle made his debut with the novel ''Sigmund der Stä ...

, his plays developed the tradition of . The actor and dramatist

Ferdinand Raimund Ferdinand Raimund (born Ferdinand Jakob Raimann; 1 June 1790 – 5 September 1836, Pottenstein, Austria, Pottenstein, Lower Austria) was an Austrian actor and playwright. Life and work Raimund was born in Vienna as a son of Bohemian woodturn ...

's first acting success was in Gleich's play ''Die Musikanten am Hohen Markt'', and Gleich wrote further plays for him. Raimund, who became Gleich's son-in-law, continued the development of Viennese folk theatre.

Novels and periodical

Gleich also wrote about 100 popular novels about knights, robbers and ghosts, modelled on the stories of

Christian Heinrich Spiess Christian Heinrich Spiess (4 April 1755 – 17 August 1799) was a German writer of romances and later pulp fiction, horror stories. Life He was born in Freiberg in Saxony. For a time an actor, he was appointed in 1788 controller on the estate of ...

. In 1832 he founded a periodical for popular consumption, the "Comic letters of Hansjörgel von Gumpoldskirchen to his brother-in-law Maxel in Feselau with his accounts of daily events in Vienna". They were in the style of the ' of . He continued to produce it until his death in 1841.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gleich, Josef Alois 1772 births 1841 deaths Dramatists and playwrights from the Austrian Empire Civil servants from the Austrian Empire Austrian male dramatists and playwrights Writers from Vienna 19th-century Austrian male writers 19th-century Austrian novelists