Friedrich Adler

Who was Friedrich Adler?

Friedrich Adler was an Austrian jurist, translator and writer of Bohemian origin.

Friedrich Adler was the son of innkeeper and soaper Joseph Adler, and his wife Marie Fürth. After his parents' death, Adler was only able to attend school in Amschelberg irregularly. Despite this, he was admitted to a gymnasium in Prague, and to the Karl-Ferdinands University in Prague.

There, he studied Romance studies, English, Czech, and modern Greek. He later changed subjects and studied law and politics. During his studies, Adler received an award for his translation of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in a competition. He finished his studies in 1883 with a doctorate in law.

After his studies he completed a legal clerkship in 1890. In the same year he was licensed to become a lawyer and opened a law office on 1 January 1891 in Prague. In March 1895 he married Regine Wessely from Třebíč, Moravia. They had two daughters: Marie-Elise and Gertrude.

In 1896, Adler became the secretary of the Prague trade body. He was also a lecturer for Romance philology at the German University in Prague and arts and theatre correspondent for the newspaper Bohemia. From 1900 he taught Spanish at the German trade academy in Prague.