Anton Diabelli (1781-1858) was a composer and publisher, whose publishing house for music was the most important in Europe during the first half of the 19th Century. He was most famous for his connection with Schubert whose first printed works he published and he was the Diabelli of Beethoven's Diabelli Variations op. 120. Diabelli was responsive to musical fashion and used the publication of popular pieces to finance the production of serious or advanced music. He retired in 1851 and the company passed to Carl Anton Spina, the publisher of Josef and Johann Strauss II.