Ferdinand Raimund was born in Mariahilf, in outer Vienna, on 1st June 1790. An ambitious self-educated man, he began his career as an actor, appearing on many European stages. Even after he became famous as a playwright he often acted roles in his own plays. He began writing casually, revising scripts, until encouraged by friends to write his own plays. Raimund contributed eight well-known comedies to the Viennese Popular Theater (Wiener Volkstheater). Its best-known representatives are Raimund and his younger rival, the more satirical and realistic Johann Nepomuk Nestroy (1801-1862). The fanciful comedies of Raimund and Nestroy show influences of folk theater, Italian commedia dell’arte

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