Joseph von Sonnenfels

[1] Joseph, who was baptized in his early youth, received his elementary education at the gymnasium of his native town Nikolsburg, and then studied philosophy at the University of Vienna.

In 1779, he received the title of Wirklicher Hofrath, and was in 1810 elected president of the Academy of Sciences, a position which he held until his death in Vienna.

From 1765 to 1767 and from 1769 to 1775 Sonnenfels was editor of the paper Der Mann ohne Vorurtheil, in which he defended the liberal tendencies in literature.

He is considered as a "Key stakeholders of the Austrian elite [... who was] impressed with the East Central German standard and Sonnenfels would influence with his “taste reform the literary developments in a role as ‘Austrian Gottsched’ ” in Vienna (De Boor & Newald, 1967, p.

"[3] His Gesammelte Werke appeared in 10 volumes (Vienna, 1783–87), and contained most of his belletristic works, poems, and dramas.