Maximilian Steiner

Cartoon of Maximilian Steiner (bottom left) with his boss Friedrich Strampfer (top). By Karel Klíč, 1869.

Maximilian Steiner (August 28, 1839 – May 29, 1880) was an Austrian actor and theater manager.

Steiner was manager of Vienna's Theater an der Wien from 1869 to 1875 with Marie Geistinger, a Viennese actress, and from 1875 to 1880 on his own. During this period, he is said to have discovered Johann Strauss, and encouraged Jacques Offenbach to drop a lucrative conducting career to write his first operetta.^[1] Steiner gradually phased out spoken-word dramas from the Theater program, contributing to the Viennese opera boom.^[2]

Steiner was born in Ofen, near Budapest in Hungary, and died in Baden, Lower Austria. He had two sons: Franz Steiner, who took over his function in 1880 and remained until 1884; and Gabor Steiner, who also became a theatre manager and operator of a music hall. He was grandfather of Max Steiner, a Hollywood film composer.

References

External links

• Profile at Österreich-Lexikon