WERNER, Zacharias. - Playwright and orator, b. Königsberg 18 Nov. 1768, d. Vienna 17 Jan. 1823.
Three times divorced within a few years, he felt the need for religious activity and joined a masonic lodge to cooperate in a 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 Hunnen (1808), Wanda, die Königin der Sarmaten (1810), Der vierundzwanzigste Februar (1809), shows a transition from a utopian-Masonic ideal to an erotic-mystical world, ending in a fatalistic outlook. At Jena and Weimar he was in contact with Goethe; in Switzerland with Mme de Staël; on her advice he travelled to Rome (1809), where on 19 Apr. 1810 he entered the Catholic Church, and his fantastic mysticism was transformed into calm and convinced acceptance of Catholic dogma. On his return to Germany he was ordained priest by the archbishop of Mainz, K. Th. V. Dalberg (1814), and from then on his spiritual centre was near Vienna, where he maintained the role of a religious and moral organizer of humanity.