Duchy of Prussia Herzogtum Preußen (de) Prusy Książęce (pl) Prūsijos Kunigaikštystė (lt)
Fief of the Kingdom of Poland
← 1525–1618 →
Flag Coat of arms
The Duchy of Prussia (yellow)
Capital	Königsberg
Language(s)	German, Lithuanian, Polish, Prussian
Religion	Lutheranism
Government	Feudal monarchy
Duke of Prussia
- 1525 — 1568	Albert
- 1568 — 1618	Albert Frederick
Historical era	Early modern period
- Secularisation	April 10, 1525
- Personal Union (with Brandenburg)	August 27, 1618
- Independence	September 19, 1657
Today part of	Russia  Lithuania  Poland

The Duchy of Prussia or Ducal Prussia (German: Herzogtum Preußen; Latin: Ducatus Prussiae; Polish: Prusy Książęce; Lithuanian: Prūsijos kunigaikštystė; Old Prussian: Ercōgista Prūsija^{[citation needed]}) was a duchy in the eastern part of Prussia from 1525–1701. It was the first Protestant (Lutheran) duchy with a dominant German-speaking population, as well as Polish and Lithuanian minorities. In old texts and in Latin, the term Prut(h)enia refers alike to Ducal Prussia, its western neighbor Royal Prussia, and their common predecessor, Teutonic Prussia. The adjectival form of the name was "Prut(h)enic".

In 1525 during the Protestant Reformation, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights, Albert, secularized the order's Prussian territory, becoming Albert, Duke of Prussia. His duchy, which had its capital in Königsberg (Polish: Królewiec), was established as fief of the Crown of Poland. It was inherited by the Hohenzollern prince-electors of Brandenburg in 1618; this personal union is referred to as Brandenburg-Prussia. Frederick William, the "Great Elector" of Brandenburg, achieved full sovereignty over the territory in the 1657 Treaty of Wehlau, which was confirmed in the 1660 Treaty of Oliva. The Duchy of Prussia was elevated to the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701.

History[link]

Background[link]

As Protestantism spread among the laity of the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia, dissent began to develop against the Roman Catholic rule of the Teutonic Knights, whose Grand Master, Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a member of a cadet branch of the House of Hohenzollern, lacked the military resources to assert the order's authority.

After losing a war against the Kingdom of Poland, and with his personal bishop, Georg von Polenz of Pomesania and of Samland, who had converted to Lutheranism in 1523,^[1] and a number of his commanders already supporting Protestant ideas, Albert began to consider a radical solution.

At Wittenberg in 1522 and at Nuremberg in 1524, Martin Luther encouraged him to convert the order's territory into a secular principality under his personal rule, as the anachronistic Teutonic Knights would not be able to survive the Protestant Reformation.^[2]

Establishment[link]

Duchy of Prussia (striped) in the second half of the 16th century.

On April 10, 1525 Albert resigned his position, became a Protestant, and in the Prussian Homage was granted the title "Duke of Prussia" by his new feudal overlord, King Sigismund I the Old of Poland, who was also his uncle. In a deal partially brokered by Luther, Ducal Prussia became the first Protestant state, anticipating the dispensations of the Peace of Augsburg of 1555. The "S" on the duchy's coat of arms represented Albert's sovereign, Sigismund. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Pope Clement VII objected to the Prussian Homage, which was derided as the Krakauer Kuhhandel ("Cracow horse-trading").

The Prussian Homage (by Jan Matejko, 1882, National Museum, Kraków): Albert receives eastern Prussia as a fief from King Sigismund I of Poland in 1525.

When Albert returned to Königsberg (Polish: Królewiec, Lithuanian: Karaliaučius), he publicly declared his conversion and announced to a quorum of Teutonic Knights his new ducal status. The knights who disapproved of the decision were pressured into acceptance by Albert's supporters and the burghers of Königsberg, and only Eric of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, Komtur of Memel, opposed the new duke. On 10 December 1525, at their session in Königsberg, the Prussian estates established the Lutheran Church in Ducal Prussia by deciding the Church Order.^[1]

By the end of Albert's rule, the offices of Großkomtur and Ordensmarschall had deliberately been left vacant and the order had only 55 knights in Prussia. Some of the knights converted to Lutheranism in order to retain their property and then married into the Prussian nobility, while others returned to the Holy Roman Empire and remained Catholic.^[3] These remaining Teutonic Knights, led by the next Grand Master, Walter von Cronberg, continued to unsuccessfully claim Prussia, but retained much of the estates in the Teutonic bailiwicks outside of Prussia.

On 1 March 1526 Albert married Princess Dorothea, daughter of King Frederick I of Denmark, thereby establishing political ties between Lutheranism and Scandinavia. Despite his Protestant creed, Albert was greatly aided by his elder brother George, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, who had already earlier established Protestant religion in his territories of Franconia and Upper Silesia. Albert also found himself reliant on support from his Jagiellonian uncle Sigismund I of Catholic Poland, as the Holy Roman Empire and the Roman Catholic Church had banned him for his Protestantism.

Outline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth with its major subdivisions after the 1618 Truce of Deulino, superimposed on present-day national borders.

  Crown of the Kingdom of Poland

  Grand Duchy of Lithuania

  Duchy of Livonia

  Duchy of Prussia, Polish fief

  Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, Commonwealth fief

History of Brandenburg and Prussia
Northern March pre-12th century		Old Prussians pre-13th century
Margraviate of Brandenburg 1157–1618 (1806)		Ordensstaat 1224–1525
		Duchy of Prussia 1525–1618	Royal (Polish) Prussia 1466–1772
Brandenburg-Prussia 1618–1701
Kingdom in Prussia 1701–1772
Kingdom of Prussia 1772–1918
Free State of Prussia 1918–1947			Klaipėda Region (Lithuania) 1920-39 / 1945-present
Brandenburg (Germany) 1947–1952 / 1990–present	Recovered Territories (Poland) 1918/45-present	Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia) 1945-present

The Teutonic Order had rather superficially missioned the rural population of native descent within the state territory and thus only erected few churches.^[1] There was little longing for Roman Catholicism, Baltic Prussian and Prussian Lithuanian peasants continued to practice pagan customs in some areas, for example adhering to beliefs in Perkūnas (Perkunos), symbolised by the goat buck, Potrimpos, and Pikullos (Patollu) while "consuming the roasted flesh of a goat".^[4] Bishop George of Polentz had forbidden the widespread forms of pagan worship in 1524, and repeated the ban in 1540.^[1]

Already on 18 January 1524 Bishop George had ordered to only use native languages at baptisms, which improved the access towards the people.^[1] There was little active resistance to the new creed, although the fact that the Teutonic Knights had brought Catholicism and Protestantism made the transition easier.^[5]

The Church Order of 1525 provided for visitations of the parishioners and pastors, first carried out by Bishop George in 1538.^[1] Because Ducal Prussia was ostensibly a Lutheran land, authorities travelled throughout the duchy ensuring that Lutheran teachings were being followed and imposing penalties on pagans and dissidents. The rural population of native descent was only thoroughly Christianised starting with the Reformation in Prussia.^[1]

A peasant rebellion broke out in Sambia (German: Samland) in 1525. The combination of taxation by the nobility, the furor of the Protestant Reformation, and the abrupt secularization of the Teutonic Order's remaining Prussian lands exacerbated peasant unrest. The relatively well-to-do rebel leaders, including a miller from Kaimen and an innkeeper from Schaaken in Prussia, were supported by sympathizers in Königsberg. The rebels demanded the elimination of newer taxes by the nobility and a return to an older tax of two marks for every Hufe (the Prussian hide measuring approximately forty acres).

They claimed to be rebelling against the harsh nobility, not against Duke Albert, who was away in the Holy Roman Empire, but they would only swear allegiance to him in person. Upon Albert's return from the Empire, he called for a meeting of the peasants in a field, whereupon he surrounded them with loyal troops and had them arrested without incident; the leaders of the rebellion were subsequently executed.^[4] Although there were no more large-scale rebellions, Ducal Prussia became known as a land of Protestant dissent and sectarianism.^[5]

In 1544 Duke Albert founded the Albertina University in Königsberg, which became the principal educational establishment for Lutheran pastors and theologians of Prussia.^[1] The usage of the native languages in service made him appoint exiled Protestant Lithuanian pastors as professors (e.g. Stanislovas Rapolionis and Abraomas Kulvietis), making the Albertina also a centre of Lithuanian language and literature.^[6]

While the composition of the nobility changed little in the transition from monastic state to duchy, the hold of the nobility over the dependent peasantry increased. Prussia's free peasants, called Kölmer (holders of free estates according to Culm law), held with about a sixth of the arable land a considerable share as compared with other nations in the feudal era.^[7] The peasant rebellion had frightened the nobles, however, causing them to look to Duke Albert for leadership.

Administratively, little changed in the transition from the Teutonic Knights to ducal rule. Although he was formally a vassal of the crown of Poland, Albert retained self-government for Prussia, his own army, the minting of his currency, a provincial assembly (Prussian Diet, Landtag), and had substantial autonomy in foreign affairs.^[8]

Lack of heirs[link]

When Albert died in 1568, his teenage son (exact age is unknown) Albert Frederick inherited the duchy. Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg, who had converted to Lutheranism in 1539, was after the co-enfeoffment (Mitbelehnung) of his line of the Hohenzollern with the Prussian dukedom. So he tried for gaining his brother-in-law Sigismund II Augustus of Poland and finally succeeded, including the then usual expenses.

On 19 July 1569, when Albert Frederick rendered King Sigismund II homage and was in return enfeoffed as Duke of Prussia in Lublin, the King simultaneously enfeoffed Joachim II and his descendants as co-heir. Administration in the duchy declined as Albert Frederick became increasingly feeble-minded, leading Margrave George Frederick of Brandenburg-Ansbach to become Regent of Prussia in 1577.

Following King Sigismund III's Prussian regency contract (1605) with Joachim Frederick of Brandenburg and his Treaty of Warsaw, 1611, with John Sigismund of Brandenburg, confirming the Brandenburgian co-enfeoffment, these two regents guaranteed free practice of Catholic religion in prevailingly Lutheran Prussia. Based on these contracts some Lutheran churches were reconsecrated as Catholic places of worship (e.g. Nicholas Church, Elbing in 1612).

Transition into Brandenburg-Prussia in 1618[link]

As in 1618, Albert Frederick had no surviving male heirs, the co-enfeoffment of 1569, confirmed by the Treaty of Warsaw in 1611, allowed his son-in-law, Elector John Sigismund of the Hohenzollern branch in Brandenburg, to become the duke's legal successor, thereafter ruling Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia in personal union.

In 1618, the Thirty Years' War broke out, and John Sigismund himself died the following year. His son, George William, was successfully invested with the duchy in 1623 by the king of Poland, Sigismund III Vasa, thus the personal union Brandenburg-Prussia was confirmed.^[5] Many of the Prussian Junkers were opposed to rule by the House of Hohenzollern of Berlin and appealed to Sigismund III Vasa for redress, or even incorporation of Ducal Prussia into the Polish kingdom, although without success.^[9]

Brandenburg, being a fief of the Holy Roman Empire, and Ducal Prussia, being a Polish fief, made a cross-border real union legally impossible. De facto Brandenburg and Ducal Prussia were more and more ruled as one, and colloquially referred to as Brandenburg-Prussia.

Frederick William the Great Elector, duke of Prussia and prince-elector of Brandenburg, was after acquiring Royal Prussia in order to territorially connect his two fiefs. Yet, during the Second Northern War, Charles X Gustav of Sweden invaded Ducal Prussia and dictated the Treaty of Königsberg (January 1656), which made the duchy a Swedish fief. In the subsequent Treaty of Marienburg (June 1656), Charles X Gustav promised to cede to Frederick William the voivodships of Chełmno, Malbork, Pomerellia, and the Prince-Bishopric of Ermland, if Frederick William would support Charles Gustav's effort.^[10] The deal was a mere spec, since Frederick William would definitely have to provide military support, while the reward was only under the condition of a victory. When the tide of the war turned against Charles X Gustav, he concluded the Treaty of Labiau (November 1656), making Frederick William I the full souvereign in Ducal Prussia and Ermland.

King John II Casimir of Poland didn't take the Swedish-Prussian alliance lying down. He submitted a counter-offer and Frederick William accepted. On July 29, 1657 they signed the Treaty of Wehlau in Wehlau (Polish: Welawa; now Znamensk). In return for Frederick William's renunciation of the Swedish-Prussian alliance, John Casimir recognised Frederick William's full sovereignty over the Duchy of Prussia.^[10] After almost 200 years of Polish suzerainty over the Teutonic Monastic State of Prussia and its successor Ducal Prussia, full sovereignty was regained. Therefore Duchy of Prussia then became the more adequate appellation for the state. Full sovereignty was a necessary prerequisite for upgrading Ducal Prussia to become the sovereign Kingdom of Prussia, not to be confused with Polish Royal Prussia, in 1701.

Kingdom in 1701[link]

Ducal Prussia's full sovereignty allowed Elector Frederick III of Brandenburg to become "king in Prussia" in 1701 without offending Emperor Leopold I. The government of de facto collectively ruled Brandenburg-Prussia, seated in Brandenburg's capital Berlin, mostly appeared under the higher ranking titles of Prussian government. After the Kingdom of Prussia's annexation of Royal Prussia in 1772, a year later former Ducal Prussia including formerly Royal Prussian Warmia (German: Ermland) was reorganised into the Province of East Prussia, while most of former Royal Prussia became the Province of West Prussia. The Kingdom of Prussia, then consisting of East and West Prussia, being a sovereign state, and Brandenburg, being a fief within the Holy Roman Empire, were only amalgamated legally after the latter's dissolution in 1806.

See also[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Medieval map with borders
• Map of Prussia from about 1635

v t e Administrative division of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Province of Greater Poland Brześć Kujawski · Chełmno · Gniezno · Inowrocław · Kalisz · Łęczyca · Malbork · Masovian · Płock · Pomeranian · Poznań · Rawa · Sieradz · Prince-Bishopric of Warmia Province of Lesser Poland Bełz · Bracław · Chernihiv · Kiev · Kraków · Lublin · Podlaskie · Podole · Ruthenian · Sandomierz · Volhynia  · Duchy of Siewierz Grand Duchy of Lithuania Brest Litovsk · Minsk · Mstsislaw · Nowogródek · Polotsk · Smolensk · Trakai · Vilnius · Vitebsk · Duchy of Samogitia Polish Livonia Duchy of Livonia (1561–1621): Dorpat, Parnawa, Wenden · Inflanty (1621–1772) Fiefs Lauenburg and Bütow Land · Duchy of Prussia · Duchy of Courland and Semigallia

Coordinates: 55°44′N 20°29′E / 55.733°N 20.483°E / 55.733; 20.483

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II (October 25, 1825 – June 3, 1899), also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son (German: Sohn), was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas and a ballet. In his lifetime, he was known as "The Waltz King", and was largely then responsible for the popularity of the waltz in Vienna during the 19th century.

Strauss was born in St. Ulrich (now a part of Neubau), the son of Johann Strauss I, another composer of dance music. His father did not wish him to become a composer, but rather a banker; however, the son defied his father's wishes, and went on to study music with the composer Joseph Drechsler and the violin with Anton Kollmann, the ballet répétiteur of the Vienna Court Opera. Strauss had two younger brothers, Josef and Eduard Strauss, who became composers of light music as well, although they were never as well known as their elder brother.

Some of Johann Strauss's most famous works include The Blue Danube, Kaiser-Walzer, Tales from the Vienna Woods, the Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka, and the Pizzicato Polka. Among his operettas, Die Fledermaus and Der Zigeunerbaron are the most well-known.

Early life[link]

His father, Johann Strauss I, in an etching from 1835

Strauss was born in St. Ulrich near Vienna (now a part of Neubau), Austria, on October 25, 1825, to the famous composer Johann Strauss I. His father did not want him to become a musician but rather a banker.^[1] Nevertheless, Strauss Junior studied the violin secretly as a child with the first violinist of his father's orchestra, Franz Amon.^[1] When his father discovered his son secretly practising on a violin one day, he gave him a severe whipping, saying that he was going to beat the music out of the boy.^[2] It seems that rather than trying to avoid a Strauss rivalry, the elder Strauss only wanted his son to escape the rigours of a musician's life.^[3] It was only when the father abandoned his family for a mistress, Emilie Trampusch, that the son was able to concentrate fully on a career as a composer with the support of his mother.^[4]

Strauss studied counterpoint and harmony with theorist Professor Joachim Hoffmann,^[1] who owned a private music school. His talents were also recognized by composer Joseph Drechsler, who taught him exercises in harmony. His other violin teacher, Anton Kollmann, who was the ballet répétiteur of the Vienna Court Opera, also wrote excellent testimonials for him. Armed with these, he approached the Viennese authorities to apply for a license to perform.^[5] He initially formed his small orchestra where he recruited his members at the Zur Stadt Belgrad tavern, where musicians seeking work could be hired easily.^[6]

Debut as a composer[link]

Johann Strauss in his younger years

Johann Strauss I's influence over the local entertainment establishments meant that many of them were wary of offering the younger Strauss a contract for fear of angering the father.^[4] Strauss Jr. was able to persuade the Dommayer's Casino in Hietzing, a suburb of Vienna, to allow him to perform.^[7] The elder Strauss, in anger at his son's disobedience, and at that of the proprietor, refused to ever play at the Dommayer's Casino again,^[8] which had been the site of many of his earlier triumphs.

Strauss made his debut at Dommayer's in October 1844, where he performed some of his first works, such as the waltzes "Sinngedichte", Op. 1 and "Gunstwerber", Op. 4 and the polka "Herzenslust", Op. 3.^[1] Critics and the press were unanimous in their praise for Strauss's music. A critic for Der Wanderer commented that "Strauss’s name will be worthily continued in his son; children and children’s children can look forward to the future, and three-quarter time will find a strong footing in him."^[1]

Strauss at the beginning of his career.

Despite the initial fanfare, Strauss found his early years as a composer difficult, but he soon won over audiences after accepting commissions to perform away from home. The first major appointment for the young composer was his award of the honorary position of "Kapellmeister of the 2nd Vienna Citizen's Regiment", which had been left vacant following Joseph Lanner's death two years before.^[9]

Vienna was wracked by a bourgeois revolution on February 24, 1848, and the intense rivalry between father and son became much more apparent. Johann Jr. decided to side with the revolutionaries. It was a decision that was professionally disadvantageous, as the Austrian royalty twice denied him the much coveted 'KK Hofballmusikdirektor' position, which was first designated especially for Johann I in recognition of his musical contributions. Further, the younger Strauss was also arrested by the Viennese authorities for publicly playing "La Marseillaise", but was later acquitted.^[10] The elder Strauss remained loyal to the monarchy, and composed his "Radetzky March", Op. 228 (dedicated to the Habsburg field marshal Joseph Radetzky von Radetz), which would become one of his best-known compositions.^[11]

When the elder Strauss died from scarlet fever in Vienna in 1849, the younger Strauss merged both their orchestras and engaged in further tours.^[1] Later, he also composed a number of patriotic marches dedicated to the Habsburg Emperor Franz Josef I, such as the "Kaiser Franz-Josef Marsch" Op. 67 and the "Kaiser Franz Josef Rettungs Jubel-Marsch" Op. 126, probably to ingratiate himself in the eyes of the new monarch, who ascended to the Austrian throne after the 1848 revolution.^[1]

Career advancements[link]

Strauss Jr. eventually surpassed his father's fame, and became one of the most popular waltz composers of the era, extensively touring Austria–Hungary, Poland, and Germany with his orchestra. He applied for the KK Hofballmusikdirektor Music Director of the Royal Court Balls position, which he eventually attained in 1863,^[1] after being denied several times before for his frequent brushes with the local authorities.

In 1853, due to constant mental and physical demands, Strauss suffered a nervous breakdown.^[1] He took a seven-week vacation in the countryside in the summer of that year, on the advice of doctors. Johann's younger brother Josef was persuaded by his family to abandon his career as an engineer and take command of Johann's orchestra in the interim.^[1]

In 1855, Strauss accepted commissions from the management of the Tsarskoye-Selo Railway Company of Saint Petersburg to play in Russia for the Vauxhall Pavilion at Pavlovsk in 1856. He would return to perform in Russia every year until 1865.^[1]

Later, in the 1870s, Strauss and his orchestra toured the United States, where he took part in the Boston Festival at the invitation of bandmaster Patrick Gilmore and was the lead conductor in a 'Monster Concert' of over 1000 performers,^[12] performing his "Blue Danube" waltz, amongst other pieces, to great acclaim.^[12]

Marriages[link]

Strauss married the singer Henrietta Treffz in 1862, and they remained together until her death in 1878.^[1] Six weeks after her death,^[1][13] Strauss married the actress Angelika Dittrich. Dittrich was not a fervent supporter of his music, and their differences in status and opinion, and especially her indiscretion, led him to seek a divorce.^[1]

Strauss was not granted a divorce by the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore changed religion and nationality, and became a citizen of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in January 1887.^[1] Strauss sought solace in his third wife Adele Deutsch, whom he married in August 1882. She encouraged his creative talent to flow once more in his later years, resulting in many famous compositions, such as the operettas Der Zigeunerbaron and Waldmeister, and the waltzes "Kaiser-Walzer" Op. 437, "Kaiser Jubiläum" Op. 434, and "Klug Gretelein" Op. 462.

Musical rivals and admirers[link]

Johann Strauss and Johannes Brahms photographed in Vienna.

Although Strauss was the most sought-after composer of dance music in the latter half of the 19th century, stiff competition was present in the form of Karl Michael Ziehrer and Émile Waldteufel; the latter held a commanding position in Paris.^[14] Phillip Fahrbach also denied the younger Strauss the commanding position of the KK Hofballmusikdirektor when the latter first applied for the post. The German operetta composer Jacques Offenbach, who made his name in Paris, also posed a challenge to Strauss in the operetta field.^[15]

Strauss was admired by other prominent composers: Richard Wagner once admitted that he liked the waltz "Wein, Weib und Gesang" Op. 333.^[16] Richard Strauss (unrelated to the Strauss family), when writing his Rosenkavalier waltzes, said in reference to Johann Strauss, "How could I forget the laughing genius of Vienna?"^[17]

Johannes Brahms was a personal friend of Strauss; the latter dedicated his waltz "Seid umschlungen, Millionen!" ("Be Embraced, You Millions!"), Op. 443, to him.^[18] A story is told in biographies of both men that Strauss's wife Adele approached Brahms with a customary request that he autograph her fan. It was usual for the composer to inscribe a few measures of his best-known music, and then sign his name. Brahms, however, inscribed a few measures from the "Blue Danube", and then wrote beneath it: "Unfortunately, NOT by Johannes Brahms."^[19]

Stage works[link]

The most famous of Strauss' operettas are Die Fledermaus, Eine Nacht in Venedig, and Der Zigeunerbaron. Notwithstanding their general lack of modern popularity, there are many dance pieces drawn from themes of his operettas, such as "Cagliostro-Walzer" Op. 370 (from Cagliostro in Wien), "O Schöner Mai" Walzer Op. 375 (from Prinz Methusalem), "Rosen aus dem Süden" Walzer Op. 388 (from Das Spitzentuch der Königin), and "Kuss-Walzer" op. 400 (from Der lustige Krieg), that have survived obscurity and become well-known. Strauss also wrote an opera, Ritter Pázmán,^[20] and was in the middle of composing a ballet, Aschenbrödel, when he died in 1899.^[21]

Death and legacy[link]

A statue of the Waltz King in Stadtpark, Vienna

Silhouette by Otto Böhler

Strauss was diagnosed with pleural pneumonia in the spring of 1899,^[21] and died in Vienna, at the age of 73. He was buried in the Zentralfriedhof. At the time of his death, he was still composing his ballet Aschenbrödel.^[21]

Strauss's music is now regularly performed at the annual Neujahrskonzert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as a result of the efforts by Clemens Krauss who performed a special all-Strauss programme in 1929 with the Viennese orchestra. Many distinguished Strauss interpreters include Willi Boskovsky,^[22] who carried on the "Vorgeiger" tradition of conducting with violin in hand, as is the Strauss family custom, as well as Herbert von Karajan and the opera conductor Riccardo Muti. In addition, the Wiener Johann Strauss Orchester, which was formed in 1966, pays tribute to the touring orchestras which once made the Strauss family so famous.^[23]

Most of the Strauss works that are performed today may once have existed in a slightly different form, as Eduard Strauss destroyed much of the original Strauss orchestral archives in a furnace factory in Vienna's Mariahilf district in 1907.^[24] Eduard, then the only surviving brother of the three, took this drastic precaution after agreeing to a pact between himself and brother Josef that whoever outlived the other was to destroy their works. The measure was intended to prevent the Strauss family's works from being claimed by another composer. This may also have been fueled by Strauss's rivalry with another of Vienna's popular waltz and march composers, Karl Michael Ziehrer.^[25]

Portrayals in the media[link]

The lives of the Strauss dynasty members and their world-renowned craft of composing Viennese waltzes are also briefly documented in several television adaptations, such as The Strauss Family (1972), The Strauss Dynasty (1991)^[26] and Strauss, the King of 3/4 Time (1995).^[27] Many other films used his works and melodies, and several films have been based upon the life of the musician, the most famous of which is called The Great Waltz (1938).^[28]

Alfred Hitchcock made a low-budget biographical film of Strauss in 1933 called Waltzes from Vienna.^[29] After a trip to Vienna, Walt Disney was inspired to create four feature films. One of those was The Waltz King, a loosely adapted biopic of Johann Strauss, which aired as part of the Wonderful World of Disney in the U.S. in 1963.^[30] In Mikhail Bulgakov's 1940 (published 1967) novel, The Master and Margarita, Johann Strauss conducts the orchestra during Satan's Great Ball at the invitation of Behemoth.

A Corny Concerto (1943), a Warner Bros cartoon, directed by Bob Clampett with animation by Robert McKimson, features music that was composed by Johann Strauss, and is a parody of Walt Disney's 1940 Fantasia. The cartoon is narrated by Elmer Fudd, parodying Deems Taylor's appearance in Fantasia.

The 1953 animated short "Johann Mouse" from the series Tom and Jerry features a mouse mesmerised by the playing of several Strauss waltzes by the cat.

	"The Blue Danube"
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Works[link]

See List of operettas by Johann Strauss II and List of compositions by Johann Strauss II.

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Gänzl, Kurt. The Encyclopedia of Musical Theatre (3 Volumes). New York: Schirmer Books, 2001.
• Traubner, Richard. Operetta: A Theatrical History. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983.
• Jacob, H. E. Johann Strauss, Father and Son: A Century of Light Music. The Greystone Press, 1940.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Johann Strauss II

Ballet portal

• A complete list of Strauss's compositions
• A complete list of compositions by Johann Strauss II compiled by the Johann Strauss Society of New York
• European Archive Copyright free LP recording of several (abridged) works by Johann Strauss II, at the European Archive (for non-American viewers only).
• Johann Strauss Gallery
• List of Strauss's stage works with date, theatre information and links
• Free scores by Johann Strauss II at the International Music Score Library Project
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net Free Scores by Strauss
• Free scores by Johann Strauss II in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)