Johann Senn and Franz Schubert were friends. Together with Johann Mayrhofer, Franz von Bruchmann, Leopold Kupelwieser, and Ernst von Feuchtersleben, they formed a circle of friends who, secretly and sometimes openly, "reputed" and thereby "attracted the attention of the secret police". Senn was accused of criticizing the regime of Metternich. He was imprisoned in 1820 for his revolutionary ideas and later deported to Tyrol.

The friends were involved when Johann Chrysostomus Senn was arrested in 1820.

Report from Pol. Ob. Coars [Police Chief Commissioner] Ferstl about the stubborn and insulting behavior that Johann Senn, born in Pfunds in Tyrol and involved in the Burschenschaft student association, exhibited during the search of his apartment and the seizure of his papers ordered by the authorities, and where he used expressions such as "he did not care about the police," then: "the government was too stupid to be able to penetrate his secrets." His friends who were with him, the schoolteacher from Rossau Schubert and the lawyer Steinsberg, then the students who came at the end, the private law student Zechenter from Cilly and the son of the merchant Bruchmann, a fourth-year law student, joined in with the same tone and attacked the acting official with verbal insults and abuse. Pol. Ob. Coar. Ferstl makes the official report so that this excessive and criminal behavior can be appropriately punished. The P.O.D. (= Police Chief Directorate) notes that consideration will be given to Senn's constitution in response to this report. In addition, those individuals who behaved rudely towards the Pol.O.Coar. during the visit to Senn will be summoned and threatened with severe warnings. The Hofsecretär Steinsberg as well as the merchant Bruchmann will also be informed about their sons' behavior.^2.1

Due to Schubert's sudden death in 1828, the group of friends fell apart.

In 1822, Schubert set to music Schwanengesang D 744 and Selige Welt D 743 by Senn. He received the poems from his friend as an autograph.