---

Commentary

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. The plot of Er mengt sich in Alles
3. Er mengt sich in Alles and Centlivre’s The Busie Body
4. The premiere of Er mengt sich in Alles
5. What was played on stage?
6. The later reception of Er mengt sich in Alles
7. Summary and conclusion
————
Appendix: Johann Friedrich Jünger: a biographical sketch

Notes

Bibliography

Introduction Johann Friedrich Jünger’s Er mengt sich in Alles (roughly “He pries into everything”) is one of five plays currently known to have been published or performed during Mozart’s lifetime that contain references to him. (The others are Kotzebue’s Menschenhaß und Reue, Johann Christoph Kaffka’s Sechs Freyer und keine Braut, and two still to be posted on this site.) But Jünger’s play is the only one of these five written specifically for Vienna, and it is the only one in which music by Mozart might have been performed on stage. Er mengt sich in Alles was premiered in the Burgtheater in Vienna on 23 Aug 1791, and it was performed there five times in all while Mozart was still alive. It was also performed at least twice in Prague—on 31 Aug and 18 Sep 1791—at the theater of Count Thun during the festivities surrounding the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia. Er mengt sich in Alles went on to become one of Jünger’s most frequently performed plays and a staple of German-language theater companies for the next several decades, with performances documented at least as late as 1875. Er mengt sich in Alles was not published until 1793 (with at least three editions that year), but it seems certain that the reference to Mozart was already included in the play as it was first performed in 1791. Michael Lorenz has discovered a letter from Jünger to Johann Franz Hieronymus Brockmann (1745–1812), the director of the Burgtheater at the time, in which Jünger (the theater’s resident playwright) reports having visited Mozart several times to ask him to compose a short piano piece for the play. The letter is undated, but the content makes clear that it was written in 1791 before the premiere of the play, perhaps several months before (see our entry on the letter for a detailed discussion of the dating and its implications). Although it remains uncertain whether Mozart eventually composed something for Er mengt sich in Alles, Jünger’s letter shows that the idea of having a piece by Mozart performed on stage was already under discussion during the play’s gestation. The plot of Er mengt sich in Alles (⇧) “Der alte Herrmann” (Old Herrmann) is a rich but avaricious and miserly man of 63, who refuses to give any financial support to his son Karl. As Karl says in the opening scene, his father will not give him a single “Heller” (⅛ of a Kreuzer), so he must scrape by on his yearly salary of 400 fl, sometimes taking loans at high interest to make ends meet. His father (referred to simply as “Herrmann” throughout the play) is the guardian of Eveline, a young woman of 20 who will come into a large fortune (variously described in the play as 40,000 fl or 80,000 fl) when she turns 25—but Herrmann intends to marry her well before then. As Karl says in the opening scene:

Ob er eigentlich das Mädchen heirathen will, oder ihre vierzigtausend Gulden? das weiß ich nicht. Das letzte ist mir aber das wahrscheinlichste.

Whether he actually wants to marry the girl or her forty thousand gulden? That I don’t know. But the latter seems to me the most likely.

Herrman is also guardian of Herr von Plumper (the “Er” of the title), whose nosiness and chronic cluelessness continually disrupt the best-laid plans of his friends (“plump” in German can imply both “clumsy” and “pudgy”). Karl is in love with Charlotte Mileck, whose father is not well off and has nothing to give her. Mileck has banned Karl from their house because he knows that Karl won’t be able to support Charlotte adequately on his meagre salary. Karl and Charlotte have nevertheless continued to meet secretly whenever they can. In fact, Karl has sent his servant to try to arrange a meeting that very evening. Plumper reports back to Willburg and Karl, apologizing for his stupidity, and he delivers Eveline’s message to Willburg. Karl gives him a coded letter for Charlotte. Karl has been sent a key to the rear door of a closet that opens into Charlotte’s room, and the coded message is his response. Plumper goes to Mileck’s with the letter, but drops it and flees when he sees that Mileck is there. Mileck finds the dropped letter and asks what its mysterious symbols mean. Charlotte’s maid Hannchen claims that it is a charm for toothache.

Ob ich es wagen werde, um den von der dasigen gelehrten Gesellschaft ausgesetzten Preis zu wetteifern, weiß ich in der That nicht. Ich glaube kaum, daß es einen Schriftsteller giebt, der gegen sich selbst mißtrauischer ist, als ich! Ob ich Recht oder Unrecht dazu habe, weiß ich nicht; ich weiß nur, daß ich es bin. Vielleicht ist das eine Folge meiner ganzen Art, zu studieren, welche aus Mangel vernünftiger Rathgeber äußerst verkehrt und verworren war; vielleicht auch eine Folge meines ganzen Lebenslauf.
[Uhde 1877, 417]


Whether I will venture to compete for the prize offered by the learned society there, I don’t in fact know. I can hardly believe that there is a writer who is more mistrustful of himself than I am! Whether I’m right or wrong about this I don’t know; I know only that I am this way. Perhaps it is a consequence of my entire manner of study, which from lack of sensible advice was jumbled and confused; perhaps also a consequence of my entire life story.

Jünger then goes on to summarize his early life and education. He writes that he was apprenticed at 14 to a merchant in Chemnitz, where he remained for four years, at the end of which he realized “daß ich schlechterdings nichts von dem gelernt hatte, was ein nur mittelmäßiger Kaufmann wissen muß” (“that I simply had learned nothing from him that even a mediocre merchant must know”). From the records of Jünger’s estate (his Verlassenschaftsabhandlung, Vienna, Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Mag. ZG, A2, 238/1797), we learn that his apprenticeship was probably with his uncle, Johann Gottfried Jünger, who was, in fact, a merchant in Chemnitz. Jünger’s estate records also give the name of his mother, Johanna Christina, née Müller von Beranek. (The name of Jünger’s father remains unknown.)

Ich that es, plagte mich fast zwey Jahre mit Schulwissenschaften, hörte dann juristische Collegien, und that das aus Mangel hinlänglicher Einsicht mit der größten Unordnung, ohne allen Plan, so daß ich am Ende ein ganzes verworrenes Chaos von juristischen Bruchstücken in meinem Kopfe hatte. Es sind nun sechs Jahre, daß ich absolvirte; ich schrieb eine fünf Bogen lange juristische Disputation, welche ich öffentlich pro Candidatura vertheidigte. Weiß der Himmel, ob die Herrn Gelehrten sich mit mir foppen wollten, kurz mein Opusculum fand vor ihren Augen sehr viel Gnade, und wurde sogar von Göttingen aus gelobt. Ich fing an mich zum Examen vorzubereiten, und jetzt fand ich erst, welche ungeheure Lücken ich noch auszufüllen hätte, wenn ich ein nur erträglicher Rechtsgelehrter werden wollte. Von Stund’ an gab ich die Rechtswissenschaft auf. Voller Verzweiflung daß ich über sechs Jahre so unverantwortlich verschleudert hatte, daß ich so eine lange Zeit meiner guten Mutter zur Last gefallen war, von welcher ich, wenn ich nur das geringste feine Gefühl hatte, schlechterdings keine fernere Unterstützung annehmen durfte, weil sie ein sehr klein zugeschnittenes Vermögen besitzt, saß ich eines Abends da, und dachte meinem ferneren Schicksale nach. Dieser Abend machte mich zum Schriftsteller. Mehr, um mich zu zerstreuen, als in irgend einer anderen Absicht, warf ich die ersten Kapitel meines Wurmsaamen von Wurmfeld hin. Ein Buchhändler, den das Ohngefähr einige Tage darauf zu mir führte, und dem eben dieses Ohngefähr diese Blätter in die Hände spielte, fragte mich, ob ich das Buch nicht fortsetzen wollte? Wirklich fiel mir diese Frage auf, denn ich hatte bis jezt noch gar nicht daran gedacht, daß irgend einmal ein Buch daraus werden könnte. Er that mir indessen ein Gebot darauf, das mir so sehr einleuchtete, daß ich sogleich Hand ans Werk legte, und innerhalb einiger Monate wirklich den ersten Theil vollendete. Nun hatte ich den Weg gefunden, den ich gehen sollte! Und so bin ich bis jetzt immer darauf fortgegangen. Meine Freunde sagen mir, daß ich es mit einigem Glück gethan hätte. [Uhde 1877, 418–19]


I did so, and plagued myself with scholasticism for nearly two years, then attended lectures at the law colleges, and from lack of adequate understanding, did this in the greatest disorder, without any plan, so that in the end I had an utterly confused chaos of legal scraps in my head. I had now completed six years; I wrote a five-sheet [fünf Bogen lange] legal disputation, which I publicly defended pro candidatura [to advance to candidacy]. Heaven knows whether the Herr Scholars wanted to make a fool of me—in short, my little opus found much favor in their eyes and was even praised in Göttingen. I began to prepare myself for the exams, and discovered only then what tremendous holes I still had to fill if I wanted to become even a passable jurist. From that moment, I gave up jurisprudence. Full of despair that I had so irresponsibly squandered more than six years, and that I had long since become a burden on my good mother—from whom, if I had even the slightest fine feeling, I simply could not take any further support, because she possesses only a small estate tailored to her needs—I sat down one evening and contemplated my future destiny. This evening made me a writer. More to distract myself that with any other intention, I tossed off the first chapters of my Wurmsamen von Wurmfeld. A few days later a book dealer whom chance had brought my way, and into whose hands that same chance dealt these pages, asked me if I might not want to continue the book? This question truly got my attention, for up to that time I had no thought at all that it could ever be turned into a book. In the meantime he made me an offer that seemed so reasonable that I immediately set to work, and within a few months had actually finished the first part. Now I had found the path I should follow! And so I have continued on it up to now. My friends tell me that I have done so with some success.

Jünger did in fact write a legal disputation for Leipzig: Exercitatio Iuris Civilis de Conditione Nominis Ferendi Ultimus Voluntatibus Adscripta, dated 14 Jan 1780, which he dedicated to Weiße. In its published form it is exactly 40 pages, including the title page; a quarto folding of eight pages per sheet of paper would use exactly five full sheets, just as Jünger remembers.

Jünger, Exercitatio, title page and dedication

The book to which Jünger refers is his first novel, Huldreich Wurmsamen von Wurmfeld, the first volume of which appeared in 1781, published by Johann Gottfried Dyck in Leipzig; the second volume was published in 1783 and the third in 1787. In a postscript to the third volume, Jünger recapitulates some of the origin story of the book, specifying that it was his friend Dyck who urged him to expand the initial chapters. Jünger’s preface to the first volume is dated “im Monat May 1781,” providing yet another relatively precise date in Jünger’s early life. If Jünger was 14 when he began his apprenticeship and remained for four years, he would have been at least 18 when he left, but depending on the precise dates—when he entered the apprenticeship, when he left it, and the length of time between leaving the apprenticeship and enrolling at university—he might have been older than 18 by the time he enrolled.

Jünger’s enrollment at the university in Leipzig, 29 Oct 1774

(The “Rectore” named at the top of the left-hand page of the enrollment book is philologist and Lutheran theologian Samuel Friedrich Nathanael Morus (1736–1792), who had been professor of Greek and Latin at the university since 1771.) If Jünger was still 18 when he enrolled, then he would have been born in 1756; this may have been Roswitha Fischer’s reasoning when she gave 1756 as Jünger’s birth year in Neue Deutsche Biographie, although she does not say so. But no known contemporaneous source states that Jünger was born in 1756. On the other hand, Johann Gottlob Schulz’s Beschreibung der Stadt Leipzig, published in Leipzig in 1784 when Jünger was still living there, states that he was born in 1755. Schulz includes a short entry on Jünger in the section “Verzeichnis einiger der Zeit in Leipzig lebenden Schriftsteller” (“Catalog of some writers currently living in Leipzig”): Jünger wrote and published industriously over the next few years. His novel Der kleine Cäsar appeared in 1782; it is based on Francis Coventry’s The History of Pompey the Little: Or, the Life and Adventures of a Lap-Dog (1751). The original edition of Der kleine Cäsar contains a frontispiece (a portrait of the dog Cäsar) by Jacob Wilhelm Mechau, and four engravings by Daniel Chodowiecki.

Jacob Wilhelm Melchau, frontispiece; and Daniel Chodowiecki, engraving IV

Johann Friedrich Jünger, Der kleine Cäsar (1782), part 1, frontispiece; part 2, between pp. 130 and 131

(ÖNB)

Jünger’s first work for the stage, the two-act comedy Die Badekur, was also published in 1782; the earliest known performance—currently the earliest known performance of any play by Jünger—was given by the company of Gustav Friedrich Wilhelm Großmann in Bonn on 14 Apr 1782 (Maurer 274; Wolter 1901, Beilage 2, xv). The play was first performed in Leipzig just two days later, on 16 Apr, by the German theatrical company managed by Pasquale Bondini and directed by Johann Friedrich Reinecke (Blümner 1817, 317). Die Badekur was also performed by the Döbbelin company in Berlin in 1782 (Theater-Kalender 1782, 266), and it went on to become the first of Jünger’s plays to be performed by the court theater in Vienna, premiering in the Burgtheater on 17 Jul 1784. Although Die Badekur was dropped from the repertory in Vienna after just three performances, it is nevertheless impressive that Jünger’s very first play was mounted by at least four of the leading German-language theater companies of the time. On 4 Sep 1782, Großmann’s company performed Jünger’s five-act comedy Freundschaft und Argwohn in Frankfurt (Theater-Journal für Deutschland, xxi:51), the first known performance of that work, likewise published in 1782, and that play was also soon taken up by other companies.

                                                      Das Stück hat die
Schönheiten, aber auch die Fehler von dem Probestü=
cke des Verfassers, der Badekur: eine leicht, natür=
liche Sprache, muntern Witz, viel glückliche Einfälle,
einige wohl angelegte Situationen, verschiedene vor=
treflich geführte Scenen, gut durchgeführte Charaktere,
wenn schon keine neuen; aber auf der andern Seite
auch zu wenig individuelle Charakterzüge, keinen gut
angelegten Plan, keine Einheit der Handlung, keinen
bestimmten Zweck, und folglich kein rechtes Interesse.
[LTZ 1783, 345]


                                                      The play has the
virtues but also the failings of the author’s test
piece, Die Badekur: light and natural dialogue, lively
wit, many happy inspirations, some well-structured
situations, various excellently managed scenes, well-
developed characters, albeit none of them new; on
the other hand, too few individual character traits,
a plot that is not well structured, no unity of action,
no particular goal, and consequently no real

interest.

The reviewer then goes on at some length to suggest detailed changes that Jünger could make to address these faults. Although most of the reviewer’s points, both positive and negative, became common themes in subsequent criticism of Jünger’s work, the playwright took to heart the reviewer’s comment about individual character traits, as we have seen in the verbal idiosyncrasies that Jünger used to characterize old Herrmann in Er mengt sich in Alles.

                                                   Das Stück ist sehr
gut aufgenommen worden: es ist ein wenig roman=
haft; der Ausgang hat einige Unwahrscheinlichkeit,
und die Verwechslung bey der Entführung vielleicht
eine zu auffallende Aehnlichkeit mit der Verwechslung
in Freundschaft und Argwohn von demselben Ver=
fasser; aber der Gang der Handlung geht rasch, die
Sprache ist durchaus munter, alle komische Situatio=
nen des Plans sind glücklich benutzt: kurz das Stück
unterhält von der ersten bis zur lezten Scene. —
[LTZ 1783, 716]


                                                   The play was very
well received: it is a bit novelistic; the denouement
is somewhat improbable, and the mistaken identity
in the abduction perhaps too strongly resembles
that in Freundschaft und Argwohn by the same author;
but the tempo of the action is fast, the dialogue is
lively throughout, all of the comic situations in
the plot are felicitously used: in short, the play

entertains from the first scene to the last.

Around the end of 1783, Jünger met the young Danish writer Knud Lyne Rahbek (1760–1830), who had recently published a well-received theory of acting, Breve fra en gammel Skuespiller til hans søn (Letter from an old actor to his son, 1782) and was now on an educational tour of Germany. Rahbek probably met Jünger while visiting Leipzig, and the two became fast friends. Nearly a century ago Hans Knudsen published summaries and extended extracts from twelve letters that Jünger wrote to Rahbek in the years 1784 to 1787, and these tell us much of what we know about Jünger’s life during those years (Knudsen 1921). Jünger went to Vienna in July 1784, where he lodged with Schröder and his wife for around three months. Schröder mentions Jünger in a letter of 29 Aug 1784:

                                              Seit vier Wochen wohnt
Jünger bei mir. Heute wird zum erstenmal sein Strich
durch die Rechnung aufgeführt, in vierzehn Tagen der
offene Briefwechsel, eine Nachahmung des Barbiers
von Sevilla. Ein paar gute Stücke! [...]
[Meyer 1819, i:397]

                                             Jünger has been living

with me for four weeks. His Strich durch die Rechnung

will be given for the first time today, in two weeks

Der offene Briefwechsel, an imitation of Der Barbier

von Sevilla. A couple of good plays! [...]

Der Strich durch die Rechnung did well in Vienna, and was performed there 48 times in all through 5 Jan 1810; it was revived a few years later in revised form as Launen des Zufalls, which was given 20 times (Alth & Obzyna 1979, i:39 and 156). Jünger’s Der offene Briefwechsel was less successful: it was first performed in the Burgtheater on 18 Sep 1784, but dropped after 7 performances.

Ein Stück, das allgemein interessirt, das Situationen hat, bey welchen das ganze Haus entweder schluchtzt oder lacht, kann durchaus nicht schlecht seyn, und wenn alle Kunstrichter der Welt dagegen deklamirten. [Knudsen 1921, 71]


A play that is of general interest, that has situations at which the entire house either sobs or laughs, cannot be entirely bad, even if all the critics in the world pronounce against it.

This quote could stand as the motto for all of Jünger’s dramatic works. For him, audience reaction was paramount.

Mein Schicksal hat mich endlich hierher verschlagen. Ich arbeite hier für das Theater, bin aber nicht Theaterdichter, bekomme auch keinen Gehalt, und stehe auf keine Weise weder unter der Obersthoft[heater]direktion noch unter dem Ausschuß.
[Knudsen 1921, 226]


My fate has finally driven me here. I work here for the theater, but am not the Theater Poet [Theaterdichter], so receive no salary, and thus in no way am I subject to either the theater’s directorate or its board.

The head of the Viennese court theater at the time (Jünger’s “Obersthoftheaterdirektion”) was Count Franz Xaver Wolfgang von Orsini-Rosenberg (1723–1796); day-to-day operations of the theaters at that time were under the direction of a board (Ausschuß) selected from among the members of the company. At some point during his first two years in Vienna Jünger became acquainted with Mozart. Until the discovery of Jünger’s letter to Brockmann, only two known documents connected Jünger to Mozart, both describing the same event: on Sun, 24 Aug 1788, two Danish visitors, Joachim Daniel Preisler and Michael Rosing, recorded in their travel diaries that they had been taken by Jünger, Joseph Lange, and Dr. Karl Werner to visit Mozart at home, where the composer improvised for them on his pedal fortepiano. (Both diary entries are in Dokumente, 285–86 and 515–16; for more details, see our commentary on Jünger’s letter.) We do not know how well Jünger knew Mozart, but it seems plausible that they became acquainted through Lange, one of the most prominent actors in the ensemble of the court theater, and Mozart’s brother-in-law. (That Jünger and Lange were friends is suggested by an anecdote in Lange’s autobiography; see below.) At any rate, Jünger knew Mozart well enough to be the one to approach him in 1791 with a request to compose a piece for Er mengt sich in Alles.

mezzotint by A. O. Lállée after a painting by Johann Heinrich Ramberg

Jünger’s years as Hoftheaterdichter were the highpoint of his career. After Der Faschings-Dienstag (Shrove Tuesday), an occasional piece first performed on Tue, 8 Mar 1791 (Faschingsdienstag that year) came Er mengt sich in Alles, premiered in the Burgtheater on 23 Aug 1791, another success. Die Geschwister vom Lande, first performed just a little over a later, on 27 Sep 1791, was given only five times before being permanently dropped. But Maske für Maske (adapted from Marivaux’s Le Jeu de l’amour et du hazard), first performed on 25 May 1792, was yet another success, remaining in the repertory until 1840 (Alth & Obzyna 1979, i:59). Brockmann was relieved of his position as theater director in Nov 1792, but Jünger retained his position, at least for the time being. His early play Freundschaft und Argwohn was finally given in the Burgtheater on 15 Apr 1793, but it did not do particularly well, receiving only 6 performances before being dropped. However, his Komödie aus dem Stegreif, first performed on 6 Jun 1794, was a hit, remaining in the repertory of the Burgtheater until 1848 (Alth & Obzyna 1979, i:65). During these years Jünger also published his Ehestandsgemälde (1790) and a translation of the complete plays of Jean-Claude Gorgy (1793–1794) in two volumes. He also added four more volumes to his collection of comic stories, Vetter Jakob.

Karl Hofer, Verzeichniß der in der k. k. Haupt= und Residnzstadt Wien, samt den dazu gehörigen 

[177]

Theils zur Erheiterung meiner Frau, theils

um selbst meine, von Gram, Kummer und

angestrengter Arbeit erschöpften Kräfte wieder

zu erholen, beschloß ich eine romantische Ge=

birgsreise nach dem Lande ob der Enns zu

unternehmen. Außer meiner Frau gesellten sich

mir der rechtschaffene, so eben von einer Krank=

heit wieder genesene Lustspieldichter Jünger, der

Hofschauspieler Sanens, und mein Freund,

der Landschaftzeichner und Kupferstecher Skotti,

dessen Andenken mir immer schätzbar und theuer

seyn wird. Skotti sollte die paradiesischen Ge=

[178]

genden dieses glücklichen Landes zeichnen, und

sodann stechen, Jünger sie mit dichterischem

Feuer beschreiben und besingen. Man genießt

die Natur doppelt, und fühlt sich doppelt er=

hoben, wenn man sie an der Seite so em=

pfänglicher Menschen genießt. Ich zähle den

Verlauf dieser Reise unter die glücklichsten Ta=

ge meines Lebens. [...]

[Lange 1808, 177–78]

[translation:]


[177]

Partly to cheer up my wife and partly

to recover my own powers, which had been

exhausted by grief, sorrow and intense

work, I decided to undertake a romantic

trip to the mountains in the country above

the Enns. In addition to my wife, I was

joined by the honorable comedy writer

Jünger, who was just recovering from an

illness, the court theater actor Sannens,

and my friend, the landscape-draftsman

and engraver Scotti, whose memory

will always be cherished and dear to me.

[178]

Scotti was to draw these paradisal regions,

and then engrave them, Jünger to describe

and extol them with poetic fire. One enjoys

nature twice as much and feels doubly exalted

when one enjoys it in the company of such

sensitive people. I count the course of this

journey among the happiest days of my life. [...]

Lange goes on to give a vivid proto-Romantic account of their awe at the sublimity of the natural surroundings: towering waterfalls, a fierce storm on the “Gmundner=See” (the Traunsee); and an overnight stay on a moonlit night in an old mill surrounded by mountains. Whether Jünger left written descriptions of this trip remains to be determined, but at least one engraving by Scotti is documented that might be related to it: Ansicht der Cascade in Eisenau (View of the Waterfall in Eisenau), which is said to be dedicated to “H. Lange” (no. 10 in the list of Scotti’s engravings in Nagler 1846, xvi:181).

[179]

[...]

                                             Diese Reise hin=

terließ mir doch eine traurige Erinnerung. Man

hatte Jünger Abwesenheit dazu benüzt, um

ihn der neuen Direction als unfähig zu seinem

Geschäfte darzustellen. Seine Stelle als Thea=

ter=Secretär erhielt ein anderer, was der oh=

nehin kränkliche Mann tief empfand. Ich mach=

te mir, da ich ihn zu dieser Reise vermochte,

die bittersten Vorwürfe, um so mehr, als er

bald darauf starb. [...]

[Lange 1808, 179]

[179]

[...]

                                            This journey

left me, however, with one unhappy memory.

Jünger’s absence was used by the new

directorate to paint him as incapable of

his duties. His position as Theater-Secretary

was obtained by someone else, which deeply

affected the otherwise sickly man. Because

I am the one who brought him along on this

journey, I reproached myself most bitterly,

all the more because he died soon

afterwards. [...]

Lange may be slightly misremembering here; Jünger’s position was Hoftheaterdichter, not “Secretär.” According to an obituary of Jünger published in the Intelligenzblatt der Allgemeinen Literatur-Zeitung, von Braun did away with Jünger’s position of Hoftheaterdichter, and installed the writer Johann Baptist von Alxinger (1755–1797) in the position of “secretary” (Sekretär) of the German Schauspiel (spoken theater):

[...]                                        Als Freyherr Peter von
Braun Vicedirector des k. k. Nationaltheaters, mit der
Vollmacht die Glieder desselben anzustellen und abzu-
danken, ward, zog er die Stelle eines Theaterdichters
ganz ein, ernannte den bald nach Jünger verstorbenen
berühmten Dichter Joh. Bapt. von Alxinger zum Theater-
secretär, und Jünger erhielt den 4 Oct. 1794 ein Ent-
lassungsdecret, das in den schmeichelhaftesten Ausdrücken
abgefasst war, und worin sich der Vicedirector ver-
sprach, mehrere Stücke von seiner Arbeit zu erhalten. [...]
[Intelligenzblatt der Allgemeinen Literatur-Zeitung,
no. 17, Sat, 27 Jan 1798, col. 131]


[...]                                        When Baron Peter von

Braun became Vicedirector of the k. k. Nationaltheater,
with authority to hire and fire its members, he did away
entirely with the position of Theaterdichter, and named
the famous writer Joh. Bapt. von Alxinger, who died
soon after Jünger, to the position of theater secretary,
and Jünger received his dismissal decree on 4 Oct
1794, which was couched in the most flattering terms,
and in which the Vicedirector promised to take up

several of his [Jünger’s] plays. [...]

However, following the premiere of Jünger’s Komödie aus dem Stegreif on 4 Jun 1794, no other new play by Jünger was mounted by the Burgtheater during his lifetime. Thus von Braun was pushing out a writer with a proven record of success, and installing Alxinger, who at the time of his appointment had never had a play produced by the Viennese court theater; his only previous appearance as a writer for that theater had been as the author of a German adaptation of Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, first performed in Vienna on 23 Oct 1781. During Alxinger’s tenure with the court theater, only two of his scripts were produced: the comedy Freunde auf der Probe, adapted from the French, first given on 21 Sep 1795 and dropped after just three performances; and the singspiel Die gute Mutter, with music by Paul Wranitzky, first given on 11 May 1795, and dropped permanently from the repertory after eight performances. Ironically, Alxinger, who was more or less Jünger’s exact contemporary, died on 1 May 1797, a little over two months after Jünger.

The house still exists, still with its “red apple” sign (probably the original one); the address today is Landstraßer Hauptstraße 70.

[...]                                                                                   Ich

sehe so wenig Leute, komme so wenig aus, daß man sogar,

wie ich höre, schon anfängt, mein immer zu Hauße seÿn mit

Bemerkungen zu begleiten. Um allen Weschereÿen auszuweichen,

gehe ich absichtlich selten oder nie an öffentliche Örter, die einzi=

ge Basteÿ ausgenommen, und auch dieser weiche ich aus wenn

das Glacis gangbar ist. Mehr kann man doch wohl nicht thun

um Ruhe zu haben? Fängt mich nun ja einer von den wenigen

bekannten die ich etwa habe, deren Zahl aber äußerst gering ist,

auf, und fragt mich, je nun, so antworte ich wie ich ge=

fragt werde. [...]

[Wienbibliothek, H.I.N 1207; see the facsimile and

complete transcription of the letter here]

[...]                                                                                 I see

so few people, come out so seldom, that my being always at home

has, I’m told, begun to occasion comment. In order to avoid all

empty chatter, I on purpose seldom or never go to public places,

the one Bastei excepted, and I also avoid this when the Glacis is

accessible. One really can’t do more than that to have peace,

can one? If one of my few actual acquaintances—the number

of which is, however, extremely small—should catch me and

ask me whatever, I answer as I was asked. [...]

After losing his position as Hoftheaterdichter and moving to Landstraße, Jünger seems to have become even more reclusive, falling victim, it is said, to melancholy and hypochondria. Even so, he continued to be highly productive as a writer, publishing three novels: Der Melancholische (1795–1796, vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3); Wilhelmine oder Alles ist nicht Gold was glänzt (2 parts, 1795–1796); and Fritz, ein komischer Roman (4 parts, 1796–1797; two additional parts were published after his death). Previously unpublished works continued to appear after his death, suggesting that he had written a great deal more than he had published during the last years of his life. A satirical novel in one volume was published in 1799, Prinz Amaranth mit der großen Nase; eine moralische Erzählung aus den Jahrbüchern der Regierung König Dideltapp des Großen und dessen Gemahlin, Kikelkakel der Weisen; Nebst historischen Nachrichten von der Königin Carunkel, dem Prinzen Hämpeditschen und dem Zauberer Talpatsch (Prince Amaranth with the Big Nose: A Morality Tale from the Annals of the Government of King Dideltapp the Great and his Wife, Kikelkakel the Wise; along with Historical Reports on Queen Carunkel, Prince Hämpeditsch, and the Magician Talpatsch). Ten previously unpublished plays appeared in two volumes in 1803 and 1804, under the collective title J. F. Jüngers Theatralischer Nachlaß. Eight of these plays had been produced by the court theater by the time of their publication, suggesting that Jünger found advocates in the Burgtheater after his death that he had lacked during the last two and a half years of his life. Among Jünger’s posthumously performed and published plays were his adaptation from Beaumarchais, Der Tolle Tag, oder Die Hochzeit des Figaro, first performed in the Burgtheater on 14 Sep 1802 (the first performance of any spoken version of Figaro by the court theater in Vienna); and Jünger’s biggest posthumous hit, Die beyden Figaro, (an adaptation of Les Deux Figaro by Honoré-Antoine Richaud-Martelly), first performed in the Burgtheater on 17 Sep 1799, which which went on to receive 76 performances there through 1842 (Alth & Obzyna 1979, i:81). One of Jünger’s posthumous plays not performed by the court theater is Selim, Prinz von Algier, his only known attempt at tragedy. In the years 1803 to 1805, an edition of Jünger’s complete plays in 13 volumes was issued by Johann Baptist Wallisshauser in Vienna, and Jünger’s miscellaneous poetry was gathered into a volume edited by Johann Georg Eck, published in 1821. A notice of Jünger’s death appeared in Wieland’s Der neue deutsche Merkur in the issue for April 1797; the notice includes an extract from a letter submitted by an unnamed friend who had visited Jünger the day before he died:

[398]

               IX.

        Nekrologie.

[...]

[399]

[...]

    Ueber Jüngers Tod schreibt ein anderer Freund

aus Wien unter dem ersten März folgendes:

    “Es hat mich selten etwas so erschüttert, als Jün=

gers Tod. Den Tag zuvor war ich bey ihm gewesen.

[400]

Wir hatten kaum erfahren, daß er krank sey. Er wohn=

te in einem entlegenen Theile der Stadt. Das Uebel

kam unerwartet und nahm plötzlich über Hand. Als ich

ihn sah, zeigte sich ein Anschein von Besserung. Ich

machte Anstalt ihn den Händen der Aeskulape zu ent=

reißen, die sich seiner bemächtigt hatten. Es war zu

spät. Den andern Morgen war er todt, oder getöd=

tet, wenn ich meinen ganzen Unmuth in einem Worte

ausschütten soll. Auf eine solche Weise so in der Blü=

the geknickt und gebrochen zu werden!”

   
    Er litt in den letzten Jahren viel von Hypochondrie,

deren Ausbrüche zuweilen sehr sonderbar waren. Allein

man hat dieß auswärts zu sehr vergrößert und über=

trieben.

    Auch sein Verlust ist für die teutsche Bühne unersetz=

lich. Auch er hatte die richtigern Begriffe von dem was

unserm Theater noth sey, und es war nicht seine Schuld,

wenn die Theater, die ihm am nächsten waren, so sehr

verwilderten.

    Wer dichtet nun noch ein wahres Lustspiel in

Teutschland!

    Frange leves calamos, et scinde, Thalia, ca-

                                                                    pillos!

[Der neue deutsche Merkur, 4. Stück, Apr 1797, 398–400]

[translation:]


[398]

               IX.

        Necrology.

[...]

[399]

[...]

    Of Jünger’s death another friend in Vienna

writes the following, dated 1 March:

    “Seldom has anything shaken me as much

as Jünger’s death. I was with him the day before.

[400]

We had scarcely known he was ill. He lived in an

outlying part of the city. The sickness came

unexpectedly and suddenly gained the upper hand.

When I saw him, he showed signs of improvement.

I made preparations to wrest him away from the

Asclepius who had taken possession of him. It was

too late. The next morning, he was dead—or

murdered, if I am to express my vexation in a single

word. To be bent and broken in this way in his prime!”

    He suffered much in recent years from hypochondria,

the outbreaks of which sometimes were very peculiar.

But these have been overly magnified and exaggerated

elsewhere.

    And his loss is irreplaceable for the German stage.

He too had the proper concept of what our theater

needed, and it was not his fault if the theater nearest

to him had gone so far to seed.

     Who now will yet write a true comedy in Germany!

    Frange leves calamos, et scinde, Thalia, ca-

                                                                    pillos!

[...]                                    Seinen vertraute Freunden wird er

eben so unvergesslich durch sein Herz als durch seinen

Geist bleiben. Er besass das edelste Gemüth, war ge-

nügsam, ohne die geringste Prätension, munter und ge-

fällig im Umgange, kurz, er vereinigte in sich alle

Gaben, die ihn zum liebenswürdigsten Menschen im

Leben, und selbst nach dem Tode noch allen, die ihn

kannten, sein Andenken theuer machen. Wiederholte

Male hatte er Anfälle von tiefer Melancholie, die zu-

nächst an stillen Wahnsinn grenzte, welche von seinem

unausgesetzten literarischen Fleisse, womit er sich sein

Brod kümmerlich verdienen musste, und von seiner

durchaus einsiedlerischen Lebensart herrühren mochte.

Er fühlte sich schon einige Wochen vor seinem Tode

kränklich. Das Übel nahm plötzlich zu, besonders, da

er nicht aufmerksam genug auf sich selbst war, und sich

anfänglich einem Salbader anvertraute, dessen schlimme

Cur nachher sein ordentlicher Arzt nicht mehr zu ver-

bessern vermochte, und die ihn nach einem sehr kurzen

Krankenlager ins Grab stürzte. [...]

[...]                                    To his close friends he will remain

just as unforgettable for his heart as for his spirit. He

possessed the noblest disposition, was modest, without

the least pretension, cheerful and obliging in his dealings:

in short, he united in himself all the gifts that made him

the most amiable man in life, and even in death make

his memory dear to all those who knew him. He repeatedly

had attacks of deep melancholy, initially bordering on

silent madness, which may have arisen from his incessant

literary labor, by which he had to eke out his living.

He already felt sickly some weeks before his death. The

sickness worsened suddenly, especially because he did

not take sufficient care of himself, and he initially put himself

under the care of a charlatan [Salbader], whose poor

care his regular doctor could no longer remedy, and which

brought him to the grave after a very brief sickbed. [...]

Jünger left a will dated 5 Dec 1792 (Vienna, Stadt- und Landesarchiv, Mag. ZG, A10, 118/1797). From it we learn that by then his only surviving close relative was his niece Caroline, daughter of his late sister. Because Caroline’s father was sufficiently well off to provide for her needs, Jünger wrote, he was instead naming as his sole heir Elisabeth von Stirn in Vienna. Little is known of Elisabeth and we do not know the nature of Jünger’s relationship to her or her family. She was the daughter of Baron Johann Baptist von Stirn and his wife Antonia, née Baroness Titz, from Moravia, who had married on 9 Jun 1777 (Vienna, St. Stephan, Trauungsbuch 2-71, 242r–242v). The couple lived in the Josephstadt, no. 51 in Josephsgasse, “bey dem goldenen Anckern.” We have so far been unable to locate a record of Elisabeth’s birth or baptism, but the record of her marriage on 7 Jul 1801 to Joseph Hilmer gives her age as 24 (Vienna, St. Peter, Trauungsbuch 2-1, 528), and the same age is given in the record of her death from tuberculosis just a few months later, on 2 Jan 1802 (Vienna, St. Peter, Sterbebuch 3-1, 423). If these records are correct, then she was born no later than 7 Jul 1777, implying that she was conceived well before her parents’ marriage. Assuming that Elisabeth was born in the first half of 1777, she would have been no more than 15 when Jünger wrote his will at the end of 1792. In the Hof- und Staats-Schematismus for 1781, Elisabeth’s father Johann Baptist von Stirn is listed as a member of the “Akademierath” for the Akademie der vereinigten bildenden Künste (Hof- und Staats-Schematismus 1781, 1); he died on 27 May 1783 at age 56 (Vienna, Maria Treu, Sterbebuch 3-3, 145). Elisabeth’s mother Antonia von Stirn was roughly 20 years younger than her husband; she died on 14 Sep 1806 at age 58 (Vienna, St. Augustin, Sterbebuch 3-4/5, 24), outliving her daughter by more than four years. The only other reference to Elisabeth that we have been able to find so far is an intriguing one: she is listed in Ignaz de Luca’s 1794 Topographie von Wien as one of the leading amateur pianists in Vienna, where she is named in the distinguished company of Baroness Krufft (probably Maria Anna von Krufft, mother of the composer Nikolaus von Krufft), Maria Theresia von Paradis, and Caroline von Greiner (de Luca 1794, i:388). Elisabeth would have been no more than 17 at the time de Luca’s book was published. This is, however, the only known reference to Elisabeth’s skills as a pianist. Her name does not occur in connection with any known public or private concert in Vienna (see Morrow 1989 and Edge 1992), and she is not among the “Virtuosen und Dilettanten von Wien” listed in Schönfeld’s Jahrbuch der Tonkunst von Wien und Prag, published in 1796, which does include entries for Krufft, Paradis, and Greiner, along with a great many other amateur and professional instrumentalists in Vienna at that time. Jünger was not wealthy at the time of his death, but neither was he destitute; the net value of his estate after tax was 926 fl 6 kr. His wardrobe shows that he was well-dressed: his estate included 38 shirts, 12 pairs of trousers, and 38 pairs of socks, which fetched 136 fl 25 kr at auction, suggesting that they were of high quality.

Die Aufführung deines Lustspiels: die
Entführung, lieber Jünger, hat
mir so viel Vergnügen gemacht, daß ich
Dir öffentlich dafür danken muß. Ich
erkenne darin die alte Jovialität wieder,
die mich so oft in deinen Schriften anzog,
und in deinem Umgang zu Wien, mir so
manche fröhliche Stunde machte.


The performance of your comedy Die
Entführung, dear Jünger, gave me so
much pleasure that I have to thank
you publicly for it. I recognize again in it
the old joviality that so often drew
me to your writings and gave me so
many happy hours in your company

in Vienna.

After praising the Hamburg production and its actors (which included Schröder and his wife), Schink continues:

    Nimm diesen dritten Band meiner
dramaturgischen Monate, als ein Zeichen
meiner Lieb’ und Freundschaft, von mir an.
Du hast auf meine dramaturgischen Kennt=
nisse immer etwas gehalten, und, so denk’
ich, soll Dir meine Zueignung Vergnügen
machen. Fahre fort, durch Deine heitre
Laune zum frohen Genuß des Lebens etwas
beizutragen, und bleibe mein Freund.
Gruß und Kuß jedem, der in Wien den
Nahmen Schink lieb hat, es sey Mann
oder Weib! Unveränderlich
                                   der
                                        Deine
                                              Schink.
[Schink, Dramturgische Monate, vol. 3, preface]


    Accept this third volume of my
Dramaturgische Monate as a token
of my love and friendship. You have
always set store by my dramaturgical
knowledge, and so I think that my
dedication will give you pleasure.
Continue on, through your cheerful whimsy,
contributing to the happy enjoyment of
life, and remain my friend. Greet and
kiss those in Vienna who are fond of
the name Schink, be it man or woman!
                  Unchangingly,
                                        Your
                                              Schink.

Apart from his acquaintance with Mozart and his reference to Mozart in Er mengt sich in Alles, little is known about Jünger’s relationship to music. So far as we know, he did not play an instrument. But there are several hints that Jünger may have had a stronger interest in music than might at first appear. As we have seen, he expressed wonder at the great musical gifts of his Leipzig friend Friedrich Andreas Gallisch, and we have seen that he named as his sole heir a young woman, Elisabeth von Stirn, who was (according to Ignaz de Luca) one of the leading pianists in Vienna. In a letter to his Leipzig contemporary Christian Gottfried Körner in 1794 (Wienbibliothek, H. I. N. 41734), Jünger writes that he is sending Körner and his wife Minna (sister of the artist Dora Stock) the song Abendempfindung an Laura (K. 523), which he calls “die schönste Mozartsche Cantate” (the most beautiful Mozart cantata). Later that same year, in a letter to his publisher Göschen in Leipzig, Jünger asks Göschen to send him the music (he writes “Musikalien”, thus scores, not merely libretti) for Schuster’s Das Lob der Musik, as well as Georg Benda’s Der Dorfjahrmarkt, Romeo und Julia, and (if available) Der Walder (Holtei 1872, i/2:73–74). Jünger also wrote at least one singspiel libretto, Der blinde Ehemann (his role in a second libretto, Der Gutsherr, set by Dittersdorf as Der Schiffspatron, is less clear). Jünger was a highly successful comic playwright for the German-language stage in an era lacking in noteworthy comic playwrights in German. His long popularity suggests that Jünger’s oeuvre is overdue for reassessment. For now, we can leave the last word to Christian Gotthilf Salzmann, who in 1802, five years after Jünger’s death, gave the following appraisal:

Frisches Colorit, leichte, gefällige Erzählung machen sei=
ne Romane zu einer unterhaltenden und erheiternden
Lectüre, ungeachtet sie einer gewissen höhern Vollkom=
menheit ermanglen. Noch größer sind seine Verdien=
ste um die Teutsche Bühne, auf welcher seine vielen
Lustspiele Vergnügen verbreiten, und, wiewohl er
nicht eigentlich Erfinder ist, sondern sich mit glückli=
cher Leichtigkeit ausländische und einheimische Erfin=
dungen aneignet und durch seine Bearbeitung in sein
Eigenthum verwandelt: so berechtigt doch sein echter
komischer Witz, das Lustige seiner Intriguen, sein
leichter, natürlicher Dialog, seine Sprache der Con=
versation, ihn unter die vorzüglichsten Teutschen Lieb=
linge Thaliens zu setzen, durch dessen Tod das Lust=
spiel, das nur zu sehr durch unsern Hang zum
Trauerspiele, zum Schauspiele und zu Opern ver=
drängt wird, einen großen Verlust erlitten hat.
Hätte Jünger zu glücklichen Naturgaben noch mehr
Studium gebracht und sich nicht bald durch ökonomi=
sche Umstände, bald durch die Leichtigkeit, womit er
arbeitete, zum Schnellschreiben verführen lassen: er
wäre unsrer Bewunderung werth.
[Salzmann 1802, 595–96]


Fresh atmosphere, light and pleasing narrative
make his novels an entertaining and exhilarating read,
despite lacking a certain higher perfection. Still
greater are his services to the German stage, on
which his many comedies bring much pleasure; and
even though he is not really an innovator, but instead
appropriates, with happy facility, foreign and domestic
creations, and through his adaptations makes them
his own: thus his genuine comic wit, the humor of his
intrigues, his easy, natural dialogue, and conversational
speech, justify placing him among the greatest of Thalia’s
favorites in Germany, through whose death comedy—
which has been far too overshadowed by our inclination
to tragedy, drama, and opera—has suffered a great loss.
If Jünger had brought even more study to his fortunate
natural gifts and if economic circumstances and the ease
with which he worked had not seduced him into 

writing too quickly, he would be worthy of our veneration.

The reference to Mozart in Er mengt sich in Alles was discovered by DE, and the reference to Mozart in Jünger’s undated letter to Brockmann in 1791 was discovered by Michael Lorenz. Commentaries and translations here are by DE, incorporating archival research by Lorenz. At the beginning of the theatrical season 1789/90, the start of Brockmann’s tenure as sole director, the court theater in Vienna discontinued its prior policy of printing at the theater’s expense all new plays premiered by the company (Hadamowsky 1994, 276). For that reason, Jünger’s Er mengt sich in Alles was not immediately published following its premiere in Vienna on 23 Aug 1791. The earliest editions of the play date from 1793. At least three editions appeared that year: from Georg Joachim Göschen in Leipzig, Jünger’s regular publisher at that time; from Jahn in Vienna, in vol. 40 of the series Theatralische Sammlung; and in vol. 54 of the series Deutsche Schaubühne, published in Augsburg. Göschen’s edition of Er mengt sich in Alles appeared in two issues printed from the same formes: as a separate play, and as the first of two plays in the second volume of Jünger’s Comisches Theater. The editions and issues are: (1a)   Individual printing with full title page, Leipzig: Göschen, 1793.

[title page:]

Er mengt sich in Alles. / Ein Lustspiel / in fünf Aufzügen. / Frey nach Mistreß

Centlive. [sic] / J. F. Jünger. / Leipzig, / bey Georg Joachim Göschen, / 1793.

134 pages.

Color scan of the exemplar in:

Hamburg, Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Carl von Ossietzky, A/50158

[Volume title:]

Comisches Theater. / – Sed habet comoedia tanto / Plus oneris, quanto veniae minus. / Hor. Ep. 1. II. I. / Von / 

J. F. Jünger. / K. K. Hoftheaterdichter. / Zweyter Band. / Leipzig, / bey Georg Joachim Göschen, / 1793.

[Part title:]

Er mengt sich in Alles. / Ein Lustspiel in fünf Aufzügen. / Frey nach Mistreß Centlive [sic].

Er mengt sich in Alles is the first of two plays in the volume, on pp. 1–134. It is followed by Die unvermuthete Wendung, on pp. 135–310. The epigraph from Horace translates as “but in truth [comedy] carries a heavier burden, as the indulgence allowed is less.”

Color scan of the exemplar in:

ÖNB, *43.H.11.(Vol.2)

Black & white scan (same exemplar, Google Books)

    

                                                                          volume title                                                    part title

(2)     In vol. 40 of Theatralische Sammlung, Vienna: Jahn, 1793.

[Volume title:]

Theatralische Sammlung. / 1.) Er mengt sich in Alles. / 2.) Natur und Liebe im Streit. / 3.) Vergeltung. / Vierzigster Band. / Wien, / verlegt, und zu finden bei Joh. Jos. Jahn, im / Gundelhofe Nro. 534. / 1793.

[Part title:]

Er mengt sich in Alles. / Ein / Lustspiel / in / fünf Aufzügen. / Frey nach Mistreß Centlive [sic] / Von /
J. F. Jünger. / 1793.

Er mengt sich in Alles is the first of three plays in the volume. The others are:

(2) Natur und Liebe im Streit, by Bernhard Christoph d’Arien

(3) Vergeltung, by Matthias Georg Lambrecht

The date on the part title for Natur und Liebe im Streit is 1781, and the date on the part title for Vergeltung is 1789. Natur und Liebe im Streit was first performed in the Burgtheater on 14 Oct 1780, and it was given 15 times in all through 4 Sep 1788. Vergeltung was never performed by the court theater in Vienna.

The Mozart scene is on p. 80 of this edition.

Exemplar in ÖNB, Theatermuseum, 698427-A.40 (not digitized)

(3)     In vol. 54 of Deutsche Schaubühne, Augsburg, 1793.

[Volume title:]

Deutsche / Schaubühne / Fünften Jahrgangs / Sechster Band. / Nach der Ordnung 54ster Band. / Augsburg. / 1793.

[Part title:]

Er mengt sich in Alles. / Ein Lustspiel / in fünf Aufzügen / Frey nach Mistreß Cenlive. [sic] / Von /
J. F. Jünger. / 1793.

Er mengt sich in Alles is the second of five plays in the volume. The others are:

(1) Die Fürstinn, by Ottokar Sturm

(3) Krok, by Johann Nepomuk Kromareck

(4) Noch gut, daß es so kam! oder hoffe man nur auf Verwandte, by Andrä K. G. Rauffer

(5) Die Rache, by Alois Friedrich Graf von Brühl

The plays are separately paginated. Er mengt sich in Alles occupies 96 pages in this edition.

Color scan of exemplar in:

BSB, 6505298 P.o.germ. 1257-54

Black & white scan (same exemplar, Google Books)

The two Göschen issues from 1793 are identical except for their title pages, and appear to be printed from the same formes. The identity can be seen in certain telltale details that appear in both editions; an example is the unusual curve of the 9th line on page 12, “durch’s Feuer. Er hat gerne seine Hand überall”, which appears in both Göschen issues:

Because the same formes were used, these should be regarded as a single edition, in two issues: one as an individual play and one as the first play in the second volume of Jünger’s Comisches Theater. Only the title pages differ. The Mozart scene is found on p. 80 of Jahn’s edition. The content of the scene is identical to Göschen’s edition, except that the stage directions are set in slightly smaller type and placed within parentheses, and Charlotte’s name is abbreviated to “Charl.” There is one minor spelling variant in the scene: “welche meynen sie denn” (Jahn) vs. “welche meinen sie denn” (Göschen). Neither edition matches the variants in the prompter’s copy, which was probably not the model for either of them. On the current evidence we cannot say for certain whether Göschen’s or Jahn’s edition appeared first, but Göschen was Jünger’s regular publisher at this time, and his edition should probably be regarded as authorized.
Note that Centlivre is misspelled “Centlive” on the title pages of all editions from 1793 that include her name, and this error is repeated on the title pages of many later editions. In addition to the items cited in the commentary above, other early sources for Jünger’s biography include Meusel (1806), which gives the earliest complete list of Jünger’s works (and gives Jünger’s date of birth as 1755); and Jordens (1807), which cribs extensively from earlier sources, including Meusel and others cited here. We have not yet been able to see Wedekind’s full dissertation on Jünger, only the abstract in Wedekind (1921). So far as we know, Schulz (1784) has not previously been cited in the secondary literature as a source for Jünger’s birth year. An extended review of the second Leipzig performance by the Bondini company of Jünger’s Der Strich durch die Rechnung on 12 Oct 1783 is in Johann Friedrich Ernst von Brawe, Raisonnirendes Theaterjurnal [sic] von der Leipziger Michaelmesse 1783, 110–24; for more on Brawe and the Raisonnirendes Theaterjurnal, which is the primary source for the date of the Leipzig premiere of Die Entführung aus dem Serail, see our entry for 4 Oct 1783. This same performance of Der Strich durch die Rechnung is also reviewed in LTZ, xlix, 6 Dec 1783, 770–73. Modern references (Hadamowsky; Alth & Obzya i:39) state that the first performance of Der Strich durch die Rechnung in the Burgtheater in Vienna took place on 28 Aug 1784; however, Schröder’s letter (quoted above from Meyer 1819, i:397) states that the play was about to be given for the first time on the date of the letter, 29 Aug 1784. The modern references are based on surviving theater posters, and are likely to be correct. ADB, NDB, Hadamowsky, Portheim, Wurzbach

Alth, Minna von, and Gertrude Obzyna. [1979]. Burgtheater 1776–1976. Aufführungen und Besetzungen von zweihundert Jahren. 2 vol. Vienna: Ueberreuter.

Aumont, Arthur, and Edgar Collin. 1897. Det Danske Nationaltheater, 1748–1889. Vol. 1. Copenhagen: J. Jorgensen & Co.

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Credit: DE & Michael Lorenz