Anton Webern
Anton was born Anton von Webern. Webern’s father was a mining engineer who later got an important government job. The family had belonged to the nobility which is why they had “von” before the family name. In 1918 a law was made in Austria to stop people from using “von” as part of their name, and so from then onwards he was always known as “Anton Webern”. Anton learned to play the cello and the piano. They had a country house where the family spent the summer, and the young boy spent a lot of time composing, especially songs to the poems of famous German poets such as Stefan George and Richard Dehmel. Together with his friend and cousin Ernst he read the philosophical books of Friedrich Nietzsche, studied modern paintings and listened to the music of Richard Wagner. His father took him to the Bayreuth Festival.