August Schmidt (journalist)

Born in Vienna, August Schmidt, son of the musician as well as civil servant Adam August Schmidt (1777-1847), took the school-leaving examination at the Viennese Bundesgymnasium Wien 8 in 1824. Schmidt, who had already received violin lessons from his father at the age of five, was subsequently trained as a singer by Johann Baptist Henneberg and Ludwig Schwarzböck. In 1828 he began his military service, and in 1834 he was transferred to the national debt register in the position of a cash officer. After he had been promoted there, he retired in 1870.

The active musician and composer of Liedern, Waltzs and concert pieces for violin made a name for himself as a music writer, journalist and organiser of associations. August Schmidt played a leading role in the founding of the Vienna Philharmonic. (1842), of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (1843) and the mixed choir association Wiener Singakademie (1858). Schmidt, who had been publishing poems, stories and travelogues in newspapers and magazines since 1836, founded the "Allgemeine Wiener Musikzeitung" in 1841, which was influential in the development of Viennese musical life, and he was its publisher and editor until 1847. Afterwards he was correspondent of the Süddeutsche Musik-Zeitung from 1852 to 1854 and from 1856 to 1872 music advisor of the Wanderer.

Schmidt published, among other things, his music biographical compilation Denksteine in 1848, Geschichte des Wiener Männergesang-Vereins in 1860 and Monographie des Madrigals in 1890.

His grave is located at the Vienna Central Cemetery.

August Schmidt's grave site