Georg Nikolaus Nissen

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Georg Nikolaus Nissen. Painting by Ferdinand Jagemann, 1809

Georg Nikolaus Nissen (born January 22, 1761 in Haderslev , † March 24, 1826 in Salzburg ) was a Danish diplomat and writer. As the husband of Mozart's widow Constanze , he became one of the first Mozart biographers.

Life

Georg Nikolaus Nissen was the son of the businessman Jens Nissen and Anna Elisabeth Zoëga, who came from an influential Danish family. After studying law at the University of Copenhagen (1778–1781), Nissen initially worked at the General Post Office in Copenhagen, which was run by his uncle Jürgen Zoëga. In 1791, however, he switched to the diplomatic service. Initially a Danish envoy to the Reichstag in Regensburg , he lived as a legation secretary from 1793, later chargé d'affaires of the Danish embassy in Vienna . From 1798 at the latest he lived in the house of Mozart's widow Constanze. The two married on June 26, 1809 in Pressburg . In 1810 the couple moved to Copenhagen, where Nissen worked as censor and councilor of state.

The couple traveled to Germany and Italy between 1820 and 1824 and settled in Salzburg in August 1824 . Here Nissen and his wife began work on one of the first biographies about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart . Nissen tried to take a neutral point of view. For the first time he attempted to document everything that was written about Mozart and to provide a faithful description of his life from the traditional correspondence of the Mozart family. However, Constanze had destroyed numerous letters by Leopold Mozart , who was against his son's association with Constanze Weber all his life. Nissen had to leave his work unfinished, he died in 1826.

Nissen's tomb in Salzburg

At the instigation of his widow, Mozart's biography was completed in 1828 with the assistance of the doctor Johann Heinrich Feuerstein and the Berlin general music director Gaspare Spontini and edited by Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig .

Nothing is documented about Nissen's elevation to the nobility. Some historians therefore argue that Constanze invented this. Georg Nikolaus Nissen has demonstrably not called himself 'Count von Nissen'.

Nissen's grave is located in the Sebastian cemetery in the Salzburger Linzergasse. On Nissen's tomb it says: "Georg Nicolaus von Nissen, Royal Danish real budget councilor. Knight of the Dannebrog order . Spouse of widow Mozart". Georg-von-Nissen-Strasse is named after him in the Salzburg district of Leopoldskron-Gneis .

Works

  • Biography of WA Mozart. Based on original letters, collections of everything written about him, with many new enclosures, stone impressions, music sheets and a facsimile (fourth reprint of the Leipzig edition 1828 ISBN 3-487-04548-6 ; new edition: Hildesheim, 1986)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Nissen, Georg Nikolaus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish diplomat and Mozart biographer
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1761
PLACE OF BIRTH Haderslev
DATE OF DEATH March 24, 1826
Place of death Salzburg