Ernst von Wolzogen

Ernst von Wolzogen was a German satirist and writer, more remembered today for founding the Überbrettl in Berlin in 1901, the first German literary cabaret, than for his prose. Composers who wrote for it included Oscar Straus and the young Arnold Schoenberg, and Otto Julius Bierbaum and Frank Wedekind were his co-founders. That same year he wrote the libretto for Richard Strauss's Feuersnot, drawing on a Flemish legend to score off the critics of Strauss's recent tone poems. He also wrote comic novels and social satires, prized in his day for their wit.