The New International Encyclopædia/Wurzbach, Constant, von Tannenberg

WURZBACH, Constant, von Tannenberg (1818-93). An Austrian biographer, born at Laibach. After studying jurisprudence at Gratz, he served in the army from 1836 to 1844, when he obtained a position in the university library at Lemberg. In 1849 he was appointed librarian in the Ministry of the Interior at Vienna, and afterwards Secretary in the Ministry of State. His writings include: Die Volkslieder der Polen und Ruthenen (1846); Die Sprichwörter der Polen (1852); Die Kirchen der Stadt Krakau (1853); Joseph Haydn und sein Bruder Michael (1861); Glimpf und Schimpf in Spruch und Wort (1864); Historische Wörter, Sprichwörter und Redensarten (1866); Franz Grillparzer (1871); Ein Madonnenmaler unserer Zeit: E. Steinle (1879); Feldmarschall Erzherzog Karl (1880). He is, however, best known for the Bibliographisch-statistische Uebersicht der Litteratur des österreichischen Kaiserstaates (1856), and his valuable Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Oesterreich (60 vols., 1857-92), a unique publication on a gigantic scale, containing about 25,000 critical biographies of notable personages in every walk of life and from all parts of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.