Ernst Theodor Amadeus (E. T. A Hoffmann: Ernst Theodor Amadeus Hoffmann (E.T.A. Hoffmann, 1776-1822) was a German writer, composer and musician of the Romantic period. His main profession was legal. He studied law in Königsberg, Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) in 1792. He in 1798 he completed his final exams. After his appointment as government advisor he moved to Posen and Warsaw. In 1806 he conducted for the first time in public.



The occupation of Berlin by Napoleon's troops forced him to move to Berlin. In 1809 he held a position as kapellmeister at the Bamberg Theatre and worked as a composer. He then returned to Berlin.



In 1816 he composed "Die Elixiere des Teufels" ("The Devil's Elixir"), the opera "Undine" and two years later the tale "Das Fräulein von Scuderi" ("The Maiden from Scuderi"). In 1821 he was released from his employment due to ill health. In the same year he published his second novel in two parts, the "Lebensansichten des Katers Murr" ("Tomcat Murr's Perspectives on Life") as well as biographical fragments of the kapellmeister Johannes Kreisler.