WERNER, ZACHARIAS. – Dramatist and orator, b. at Königsberg on 18 November 1768, d. at Vienna on 17 January 1823.
Divorced three times within the space of a few years, he felt the need for religious activity and enrolled in a Masonic lodge in order to cooperate in the religious and moral regeneration of humanity.
The series of his dramas: Die Söhne des Thales (1800–1806), Das Kreuz an der Ostsee (1806), Luther, oder die Weihe der Kraft (1807), Attila, König der Hünnen (1808), Wanda, die Königin der Sarmaten (1810), Der vierundzwanzigste Februar (1809), contains the transition from a utopian-Masonic ideal to an erotic-mystical world, culminating in a sombre fatalism. At Jena and Weimar he was in contact with Goethe; in Switzerland with Madame de Staël; on her advice he travelled to Rome (1809), where on 19 April 1810 he entered the Catholic Church, and his fantastic mysticism was transformed into a calm and convinced acceptance of Catholic dogma. Upon returning to Germany, he was ordained a priest by the archbishop of Mainz, K. Th. V. Dalberg (1814), and from then on his centre of activity was Vienna, where he became well known as a preacher; there he became a disciple of s. Clement Hofbauer.
His dramatic works were published by himself in the edition: Theater von Z. W. (6 vols., 2nd ed. Vienna 1881). Other works, including a selection of his sermons, in: Z. W. Sämtliche Werke, aus seinem schriftlichen Nachlass herausgegeben von seinen Freunden (13 vols., Grimma 1840).