Friedrich Ludwig Schröder

Shortly after his birth, his mother, Sophie Charlotte Bierreichel (1714–1792), separated from her husband, and, joining a theatrical company, toured with success in Poland and Russia.

Young Schröder early showed considerable talent, but his childhood was rendered so unhappy by his stepfather that he ran away from home and learned the trade of a shoemaker.

[1] After Ackermann's death in 1771 Schröder and his mother took over the management of the Hamburg theatre, and he began to write plays, largely adaptations from the English, making his first success with the comedy Die Arglistige.

In 1780 he left Hamburg, and after a tour with his wife, Anna Christina Hart, a former pupil, accepted an engagement at the Court Theatre in Vienna.

[2] As an actor Schröder was the first to depart from the stilted style of former tragedians; as a manager he raised the standard of plays presented and contributed, with Abel Seyler, to introducing Shakespeare on the German stage.