Franz Lehár (1870-1948) was born in Hungary during the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He studied at Prague Conservatory, and became a military bandmaster and a violinist in a theatre.
His first really successful composition was the waltz Gold and Silver and this encouraged him to move to Vienna in Austria. There he concentrated on operetta, and achieved enormous success with Die Lustige Witwe (The Merry Widow), which he wrote in 1905.