50th anniversary of death - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1995 - 6 Shilling

Anton von Webern was a representative of the Second Viennese School, the circle around Arnold Schönberg. It can be seen as a counterpoint to the first Viennese school, the so-called Viennese Classic. Von Webern was born in Vienna in 1883 and so also experienced the last years of the declining Danube monarchy. His career as a theater bandmaster was interrupted by military service 1915-1917. He then returned to Vienna. He developed a busy activity as a teacher and conductor in Viennese musical life and in the newly emerging radio. The era of National Socialism deprived him of all appreciation for his work, and his situation during this dark period of Austrian history worsened rapidly. At Easter 1945 he retired to Mittersill in the Land Salzburg and was shot by a crewman by mistake. Only after his death did the composer's isolation largely cease and his recognition grew beyond the borders of Austria. Through his 1924 consistently applied twelve-tone technique, he became the model for a whole generation of composers in France, Germany and America.