Robert Schumann Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured Schumann that Robert could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. In 1840, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with Wieck, who opposed the marriage, Schumann married Wieck's daughter
Michael Wieck Michael Wieck Michael Wieck (born 19 July 1928) is a German violinist and author. Wieck's memoir, "Zeugnis vom Untergang Königsbergs" ("Witness to the fall of Königsberg"), was published in 1989. In it he relates his and his partly Jewish family's sufferings under the Nazis and, after the German defeat, under the Soviets. This moving story was translated into English in 2003 under the title "A Childhood Under Hitler and Stalin: Memoirs of a "Certified Jew,"", and in 2004 into Russian as "Закат Кёнигсберга" ("Sunset of Königsberg"). A revised Russian edition was published in 2015. Wieck was born in Königsberg, the