<<SONNENTHAL, ADOPLH RITTER VON.>> Collection of 28 Autograph Letters Signed. All in German.

Adolph Ritter von Sonnenthal was born in Budapest in 1834, the son of a Jewish tailor. By the time of his death in 1909, he had been ennobled and was one of the most celebrated figures in Viennese theater, director of the city’s famed Hofburgtheater. Despite manifold entreaties to convert to Catholicism, Sonnenthal refused to renounce Judaism. Consequently, upon the fortieth anniversary of his debut at the Hofburgtheater, the Vienna City Council refused to extend to him the traditional Freedom of the City. See JE, Vol. XI, p. 469; EJ, Vol. XV, cols. 158-159.