Ignaz von Gleichenstein

Ignaz von Gleichenstein, lithograph by Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld , 1809

Ignaz Freiherr Gleichauf von Gleichenstein (born May 24, 1778 in Staufen im Breisgau ; † August 3, 1828 in Heiligenstadt near Vienna ) was a German lawyer and civil servant and one of Ludwig van Beethoven's closest friends .

Life

Gleichenstein was a son of the lawyer Carl Benedict Freiherr Gleichauf von Gleichenstein (1725-1813), who worked as a senior bailiff in Staufen and Freiburg . From 1794 to 1798 he studied law at the University of Freiburg and settled in Vienna in August 1800 , where in November 1801 he took a position as a clerk at the k. k. Court War Council received. Beethoven's friend Stephan von Breuning was one of his colleagues . Around 1807 he also got to know Beethoven and became one of the few friends of the composer whom the composer took on duet. In addition to Beethoven, Gleichenstein signed the publishing contract, which he concluded with Muzio Clementi on April 20, 1807 . In addition, he drafted the contract for Beethoven, which guaranteed him from March 1809 a lifelong pension from the three patrons Archduke Rudolph , Prince Joseph Lobkowitz and Prince Ferdinand von Kinsky .

The sonata in A major op. 69 for violoncello and piano, completed in 1808 and dedicated to Gleichenstein, is a sign of the close friendship . As has been handed down by Julius Schneller , a friend of the family, Beethoven marked the copy of the first edition intended for Gleichenstein with the inscription: “Inter Lacrimas et Luctum” (Under tears and grief).

Through Gleichenstein, Beethoven also got to know Therese Malfatti at the end of 1809 , as Gleichenstein frequented the Malfatti family and married Therese's sister Anna Malfatti (1792–1869) on May 28, 1811.

In the summer of the same year, the couple moved to Freiburg and Oberrotweil , what is now the Freiherr von Gleichenstein winery , to take over the management of their parents' property. However, both returned frequently to Vienna. At the beginning of 1827 Ignaz von Gleichenstein traveled again to Vienna to visit Beethoven on his last sick bed. Finally, he himself sought help from Beethoven's long-time doctor Johann Malfatti .

Gleichenstein owned a replica of the second Beethoven portrait by Willibrord Joseph Mähler from 1815.

Ignaz von Gleichenstein was also politically active and from 1819 to 1823 had a seat in the Second Chamber of the Baden Estates Assembly .

family

Ignaz and Anna von Gleichenstein had four children:

• Mathilde (born November 26, 1812 in Vienna, † January 7, 1907 in Oberrotweil),
• Anna (born June 26, 1814 in Freiburg; † August 28, 1909 in Oberrotweil),
• Arthur (1817-1828),
• Hermann (1822-1859).

A descendant of Mathilde was the lawyer Viktor Huber von Gleichenstein (1909–1994).

literature

• Ludwig Nohl , three friends of Beethoven. About Beethoven's relationship with Ignaz von Gleichenstein, Stephan von Breuning and Johann Malfatti. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Musikzeitung , vol. 6 (1879), no. 39 of September 26th, pp. 305–308; No. 40 of October 3, pp. 313-315; No. 41, October 10, pp. 321-323; No. 42, October 17, pp. 329-331; No. 43 of October 24, pp. 337-339
• Andreas Dietzel, History of the Freiherr v. Gleichenstein in Oberrotweil am Kaiserstuhl 1634–1984, compiled for the 350th anniversary from the archives of Baron Huber v. Gleichenstein's archive in Oberrotweil , Vogtsburg-Schelingen im Kaiserstuhl 1984, pp. 38–51
• Sieghard Brandenburg (ed.), The Friends of the Malfatti Family in Vienna, drawn by Ludwig Ferdinand Schnorr von Carolsfeld . Bonn 1985
• Ludwig van Beethoven, correspondence. Complete edition , ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg, Volumes 1 and 2, Munich 1996
• Peter Clive, Beethoven an His World: A Biographical Dictionary . New York 2001, pp. 131f. (Digitized version)
• The Beethoven Lexicon , ed. by Heinz von Loesch and Claus Raab , Laaber 2008, p. 289f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ See Klaus Martin Kopitz , Rainer Cadenbach (Ed.) And a .: Beethoven from the point of view of his contemporaries in diaries, letters, poems and memories. Volume 2: Lachner - Zmeskall. Edited by the Beethoven Research Center at the Berlin University of the Arts. Henle, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-87328-120-2 , p. 838.