WILBRANDT, ADOLF

(1837-1911)

Playwright. In the 1870s Wilbrandt became one of the most frequently performed playwrights atVienna's Burgtheater, creating exciting roles for the company's leading performers in plays with historical subject matter. For hisGracchus der Volkstribun(Gracchus, the Peoples' Tribune), he won the 1872 Austrian Schiller Prize. In quick succession, other plays followed, notablyArria undMessalina(1874),Giordano Bruno(1874),Nero(1876), andKriemhild(1877). He was so successful, in fact, that he married a leading actress of the Burg and became the company's director in 1881, a post he held until 1886. By that time, King Ludwig II of Bavaria had raised him to the nobility, permitting him to add "von" to his name.