Anton Johann Gross-Hoffinger

Anton Johann Gross-Hoffinger (22 May 1808 – 26 August 1875) was an Austrian geographer, lexicographer, author and publisher.

After graduating from secondary school there, he attended the Schottengymnasium; he then studied geography and history at the University of Vienna while devoting himself to journalism and writing.

Following the wishes of his parents, he chose not to graduate and enlisted as a Cadet in the "Line Infantry Regiment Archduke Ludwig", which was based in Jihlava.

During that period, in 1832, he published his first work, together with the bookseller Carl Bruggemann, in Halberstadt: the Neuestes Conversationslexikon für alle Stände [de].

He returned to Vienna in 1837 and found some financial backers for his next project, a news, entertainment and arts journal called Der Adler (The Eagle), which appeared in 1838, under the aegis of the Wiener Zeitung.