Ritter, Alexander (1833–1896)

German violinist, conductor, and composer. He studied violin with Franz Schubert of Dresden and later went to the Leipzig Conservatory. He married Wagner's niece, Franziska Wagner in 1854 and became an ardent Wagnerian. In 1856 he became a conductor at Stettin and in 1863 settled at Würzburg, where he ran a music shop 1875–82. He then joined the ducal orchestra at Meiningen under Bülow, whose retirement caused him to move to Munich in 1886. He was a close friend of Richard Strauss.

Works operas Der faule Hans (1885) and Wem die Krone? (1890); symphonic poems, etc.