(Born June 8, 1810, in Zwickau; died July 29, 1856, in Endenich)

Robert Schumann was one of the most important figures of the Romantic era in Germany. He began the study of piano as a very young children and made his earliest efforts at composition when only eleven years old. Like several other composers of the 18th and 19th centuries, he studied law, but he gave it up early to pursue music. It is unknown whether it was accident or illness that injured Schumann's hand, but regardless, as a result of this injury, he gave up home of a career as a performer and turned instead to composition, as well as to conducting and editing an important musical journal that he founded in 1844. In 1840, he married one of the greatest pianists of the era, Clara Wieck, the daughter of his piano teacher, and one of the first women to achieve prominence as a composer. Intermittent mental illness-interfere with Schumann's work, and the last two years of his life he spent in a private asylum.