Joseph Martin Kraus

Joseph Martin Kraus (20 June 1756 – 15 December 1792), was a composer in the classical era who was born in Miltenberg am Main, Germany. He moved to Sweden at age 21, and died at the age of 36 in . He has been referred to as "the Swedish Mozart", and had a life span which was very similar to that of Mozart.

Kraus was born in the central German town of Miltenberg in Franconia, the son of Joseph Bernhard Kraus, a County clerk in the Archbishopric of Mainz, and Anna Dorothea née Schmidt. His father's family, originally from Augsburg, had a small restaurant in Weilbach near Amorbach, while his mother was a daughter of the master-builder at Miltenberg Johann Martin Schmidt. Joseph had 13 brothers and sisters, but seven of them died during their childhood.

After a short stay in Osterburken, the Kraus family moved to Buchen (Odenwald) (in Baden-Württemberg) in 1761, where the father Joseph Bernhard Kraus found a position as a clerk; Amtsschreiber. In Buchen, Kraus started his earliest formal education. His first music teachers were rector Georg Pfister (1730–1807) and cantor Bernhard Franz Wendler (1702–1782), giving him mainly piano and violin lessons. Kraus showed his musical talent at a very early stage. At the age of 12, Kraus joined the Jesuit Gymnasium and Music Seminar at Mannheim, where he studied German and Latin literature and music. He received a rigorous musical education, especially in violin technique, from P. Alexander Keck (1724–1804) and P. Anton Klein (1748–1810).

It was the wish of his parents that Joseph Martin Kraus should matriculate as a student of law at the University of Mainz in 1773. However, Kraus was not satisfied with the situation at that university, and even published a satire about it. After only one year, he applied to the University of Erfurt, where he could attend music lessons too. Both Catholic and Evangelical (i.e. Lutheran) music was flourishing in Erfurt, with a rich musical tradition. Very soon, Kraus neglected his studies of law and focused fully on music and literature.

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