Joseph Gregor was born in Czernowitz. He studied musicology and philosophy at Vienna University, graduating in 1911. He worked under Max Reinhardt as assistant director and from 1912-14 as a lecturer in music at the Franz-Josephs-University of Chernivtsi. He was employed at the Austrian National Library in Vienna in 1918. There he founded the Theatre Collection in 1922, in which he included film after 1929. He also taught from 1932–38 and 1943–45 at the Max-Reinhardt-Seminar. In 1953 he retired from the service of the National Library. Gregor's role in the era of National Socialism is disputed controversially: Gregor incorporated many libraries of politically persecuted intellectuals into the Austrian National Library. Some say, he did so in order to save these libraries, others say, Gregor profited from the political persecution. An example is the autograph collection of Stefan Zweig in 1937, were Oskar Pausch sees a promise by Gregor to protect the collection after the regime change in 1938, whereas others see the role of Gregor more critical; the same is valid for the acquisition of the theater collection of Helene Richter for the Austrian National Library. In 1940 Gregor took over the library of Heinrich Schnitzler, with whom he was friends. He was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering, Vienna, where his ashes are located in the arcade court. His son Čestmír Gregor became a noted composer.
A year after the seizure of power by the Nazis in Germany, Jewish librettist Stefan Zweig fled to London, leaving Richard Strauss to look for a new librettist. Originally recommended by Zweig, Joseph Gregor wrote three librettos for Richard Strauss: Friedenstag, Daphne and Die Liebe der Danae, as well as contributing to the texts of Capriccio and the posthumous school operaDes Esels Schatten. Never completely convinced by Gregor as a librettist, Strauss rejected his drafts for three other works: Celestina, Semiramis and Die Rache der Aphrodite. After completion of Danae's score, Strauss was planning in 1940, at the suggestion of Heinz Drewes and Hans Joachim Moser, to collaborate with Gregor to rework the libretto of the opera Jessonda. When Gregor offered to rewrite the text of the opera Die schweigsame Frau to replace that of Stefan Zweig, Strauss refused and also withdrew from the Jessonda project.
Works
Gregor was one of the leading theater scholars of his time. He wrote several standard works, including The Acting Leader, with Margret Dietrich and Wolfgang Greisenegger which has been revised and reissued. In addition, he wrote acclaimed biographies of Alexander the Great, William Shakespeare and Richard Strauss.
Theoretical texts
The American theater and cinema: Two cultural and historical treatises, Amalthea-Verlag, Leipzig, 1931
