Leopold von Sonnleithner


Leopold Andreas Ignaz Sonnleithner, in Vienna, was an Austrian lawyer and a well-known personality of the Viennese Classical music scene. He was a friend and patron of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Franz Grillparzer, and Carl Czerny.

Family

Leopold von Sonnleithner was a grandson of the composer Christoph Sonnleithner and son of the lawyer Ignaz von Sonnleithner. Leopold married Hamburg native Louise Augusta Gosmar on 6 May 1828.

Life

Sonnleithner received his doctorate of law on 4 May 1819 in Vienna.
He was a personal friend and patron of the Viennese composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and his cousins, the playwright Franz Grillparzer, and Carl Czerny. Schubert dedicated his musical setting of Grillparzer's Serenade "Hesitantly Quiet" to Sonnleithner's wife Louise. And it was Sonnleithner who handled Carl Czerny's will.
Sonnleithner was buried at a cemetery in the Viennese district of Margareten in 1873.