1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Schneider, Louis

SCHNEIDER, LOUIS (1805–1878), German actor and author, was born at Berlin on the 29th of April 1805, the son of George Abraham Schneider (1770–1839). At an early age he was engaged at the Royal Theatre, Berlin, where he soon rose to play leading comedy parts. His reputation as a comedian grew with his success in such rôles as Zierl in the Einfahrt vom Lande, Peter in the Kapellmeister von Venedig, Schikaneder in the Schauspieldirektor and Basileo in Figaro’s Hochzeit, and he became the favourite of Berlin. In 1845 he was appointed head of the Royal opera in Berlin. But his bold patriotic couplets and impromptus during the revolutionary year 1848 necessitated his retirement, and thereafter he translated and adapted for the stage Mozart’s Cosi fan tutti; published, under the pseudonym “L. W. Both,” Das Bühnenrepertoire des Auslandes; and founded, as a result of his experiences as a soldier in the Danish war of 1849, the periodical Der Soldatenfreund. He also wrote Geschichte der Oper und des Opernhauses in Berlin (1845–1852). Soon after his retirement he was appointed reader to King Frederick William IV. of Prussia, and subsequently he received the title of Geheimen Hofrat. He continued to enjoy the favour of the court, and, as correspondent of the Staatsanzeiger, was attached to the headquarters’ staff of the Prussian army during the campaign of 1866; and, by special invitation, accompanied the emperor William during the war of 1870. Schneider also wrote a novel, Das böse Glück, and several volumes of reminiscences: König Wilhelm (1869), Kaiser Wilhelm, 1867–1871 (1875). He died at Potsdam on the 16th of December 1878.

See his posthumous memoirs, Aus meinem Leben (Berlin, 1879–1880), and Aus dem Leben Kaiser Wilhelms (1888), which caused some sensation on their publication.