Helene von Breuning

Helene von Breuning (born January 3, 1750 in Cologne ; † December 9, 1838 ) was a member of the Bonn upper class, which Ludwig van Beethoven introduced into social circles and gave him education. Due to the close ties, she was later referred to as the composer's “second mother”, as she benevolently shaped his early career.

Life

Helene von Kerich was the daughter of Stephan von Kerich, privy councilor and personal physician to the last elector of Cologne , Max Franz . Her brother Abraham was canon and scholaster at the Archidiakonalstift in Bonn. She married the Electoral Councilor Emanuel Joseph von Breuning (* 1741; † January 15, 1777 Bonn), who died trying to save files from the castle fire in Bonn. The widow lived with four children (Christoph, Eleonore , Stephan and Lorenz) in Bonn until 1815, later in Kerpen and Beul .

From 1785 her house on Bonn's Münsterplatz was a place of retreat for the young Ludwig von Beethoven, then 15 years old and employed as piano teacher for the children Eleonore and Lorenz, who were two and seven years younger, respectively. He was there as often as possible and also stayed there occasionally. Eleonore was Beethoven's first love and later married another long-time friend of Beethoven's, Franz Gerhard Wegeler . His son Stephan, four years younger than Beethoven, also remained a good friend of the composer's life. According to Wegeler's testimony, Beethoven learned more sophisticated social manners in the Breunings' house and came into close contact with literature and poetry for the first time.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. 1000 biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 82.
2. ↑ Thayer, Alexander Wheelock: Ludwig van Beethoven's life. Volume 1, 3rd edition, Leipzig: Breitkopf & Härtel, 1917.