Ludwig Speidel

Ludwig Speidel (11 April 1830 – 3 February 1906) was a German writer, which in the second half of the 19th century was the leading music, theater and literary critic in Vienna.

Besides, he gave piano lessons and from 1852 he wrote reviews for the Augsburger Allgemeine; his first ('Musikalisches aus München') was published on October 28.

Among his circle of acquaintances in Munich were Friedrich Kaulbach, Ernst Förster, Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, Justus von Liebig, Ludwig Steub [de] and Adolf Bayersdorfer.

He wrote about many topics: Theatre, music, art, chats, humoresques, travel letters, genre pictures among others 1860-1864 he worked for the newspaper Vaterlan.

Speidel became the most important Viennese critic and feature writer of his time and was known and befriended with many of the greats of Viennese music and theatre life of his time, among others Josef Bayer, Ludwig Bösendorfer, Johann von Herbeck, Martin Greif, Ludwig Hevesi, Max Kalbeck, Martin Gustav Nottebohm, Ludwig Porges, Johann Vesque von Püttlingen and Hugo Wittmann [de].