Franz von Gernerth

Life

Franz Elder von Gernerth was born in Purkersdorf, and worked as a judge at the Higher Regional Court in Vienna after studying law first in Hungarian, from 1860 in the Austrian judicial service . As a writer he wrote contributions to the August 1840-42 published music journal "Orpheus" as well as song lyrics, as a composer he set to music in addition to his own especially those of his contemporaries.

Gernerth is still known today for his text version of the waltz on the beautiful blue Danube. Since Josef Weyl's original verses were strongly related to current events, the work was seldom performed in the choral version. As a member of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein, to which Johann Strauss (Sohn) had dedicated this work, he wrote a new text in 1889, which now also took into account the title of the waltz and helped the work to a rebirth. The first performance with Gernerths words took place on 2 July 1890 during a summer Liedertafel of the association in Dreher Park in Meidling instead.

In old age he suffered from increasing visual impairment. Gernerth married to a sister of the writer Andreas Freiherr von Stifft. His grave is located in the Hietzinger cemetery.