On the trail of the thief

The Austrian author Heinrich Ritter von Levitschnigg (1810-1862) has completely disappeared from literary consciousness today even though he wrote the first Austrian detective story Der Diebsfänger (The Thief Catcher). This thesis aims to present the author and his work. The first part of the thesis provides an overview of Heinrich Ritter von Levitschnigg's biography and oeuvre. Levitschnigg's novel Der Diebsfänger is based on the popular feuilleton novel Die Geheimnisse von Paris (The Mysteries of Paris) by Eugène Sue as a comparison shows. Levitschnigg's novel not only refers to the new genre of the feuilleton novel but also contains all the elements of a classic detective novel as a detailed analysis in this thesis shows. In particular the unvarnished portrayal of the Viennese underworld and the sub-proletariat that emerged after the 1848 revolution gives the reader a good insight into the conditions in the city of Vienna in the 19th century. An analysis of Der Diebsfänger as a social and societal portrait of its time rounds off the thesis.