Arthur Schnitzler was born in Vienna, son of a famous laryngologist, he was early attracted to the theater and began to write plays. He obtained his medical degree at the university of Vienna and practiced psychiatry for a few years, editing a medical journal.
However, Schnitzler became increasingly involved in literary activities writing playlets and then full-length plays, often centering on the problems of married life. In some of his writings, notably his play Professor Bernhardi, he grappled with Jewish subjects, primarily assimilation, anti-Semitism and Zionism (which he did not accept despite his friendship with Theodor Herzl). He became a central figure of Jungwien, the literary movement that dominated Austrian letters until World War I.