Ignaz Schnitzer was born in Ratzersdorf (at the time Hungary, today one of the districits of Bratislava, Slovakia). He was an Austrian writer, journalist, translator, librettist and newspaper founder of Hungarian origins.

He began his studies of philosophy in Pest, however he started working as a journalist soon. He lived in Vienna from 1857 and wrote for different newspapers, like the Pester Lloyd or the Fremden-Blatt, and as Editor at the newspaper Der Fortschritt (The Progress). He swept back to Budapest in 1867 and become an editorial staff member of Bécsi Debatte. He founded the daily newspaper Neues Paster Journal together with Zsigmond  Bródy, and he conducted it for a decade as editor-in-chief.

He worked on Hungarian plays besides than for German stages: for Ede Zsigligetis, he translated in 1879 “Rauschgold”, for the Wiener Burgtheater and Mór Jókai’s hero Held Pálffy for the Carltheater.           

In 1881, he moved back to Vienna after the sale of his shares in the Neuen Pester Journal. He was primarily working as librettist and translator. Schnitzer found special recognition for his translations to German and free renderings of the work of Sándor Petőfis. His friendship with Johann Strauss (son) took him to prepare the libretto of Der Zigeunerbaron and the historically remarkable and partly biographical Werk Bunte Geschichten aus der Johann-Strauß-Zeit.