Karl van Beethoven

Anonymous miniature by Karl van Beethoven.

Karl van Beethoven (born September 4, 1806 in Vienna , † April 13, 1858 in Josefstadt ) was the nephew of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven .

Karl van Beethoven was the son of Kaspar Anton Karl van Beethoven, the composer's brother. When his father died of tuberculosis in 1815 , a long-term legal battle broke out between Ludwig van Beethoven and his sister-in-law about custody of him. This episode in the composer's life, known as the “nephew's conflict”, “nephew episode”, “nephew tragedy”, “nephew complex” and “tragedy of a genius”, is one of the central areas of research in Beethoven's research.

Life

origin

Karl van Beethoven came in 1806 as the son of Beethoven's brother Kaspar Karl ( baptized April 8, 1774, † November 15, 1815 in Alservorstadt ) and his wife, the upholsterer's daughter Johanna Beethoven nee. Reiss (* around 1786 in Vienna, † February 2, 1868 in Baden near Vienna ). Ludwig van Beethoven had a deep dislike of his sister-in-law, whom he accused of immoral behavior, and referred to her several times, referring to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, as "Queen of the Night".

The "nephew conflict"

Conflict between Ludwig van Beethoven and his sister-in-law

On November 14, 1815, one day before his death, the seriously ill Kaspar Karl van Beethoven appointed his brother Ludwig van Beethoven as guardian for his son Karl van Beethoven in his will. An originating from Kaspar Karl van Beethoven codicil , which provided for his wife as co-guardian, has been revoked by him, but not confirmed by a notary.

At the end of November 1815, Beethoven applied to the land law for custody of his nephew Karl. In December 1815, Beethoven a. a. with reference to his sister-in-law's criminal record, which she had received after embezzling jewelry, petitioned the magistrate to exclude Johanna van Beethoven from guardianship. The petition was rejected, but the magistrate forwarded it to the land rights. The decision of the kk Niederösterreichischen Landrecht of January 9th, 1816 established Beethoven as sole guardian for his nephew Karl.

On February 2, 1816, Karl van Beethoven came to the boarding school of the Cajetan Giannatasio del Rio in Vienna on Landstrasse, where he stayed until January 24, 1818. Ludwig van Beethoven soon moved to the vicinity of the boarding school and hired his student Carl Czerny as a piano teacher for his nephew; Karl van Beethoven was to be prepared for a musical career according to his uncle's plans. On an emotional level, however, Beethoven was more distant. For example, he canceled the visit that both had wanted to pay to the grave of Kaspar Karl van Beethoven on the first anniversary of his death, stayed away when Karl van Beethoven had to undergo a groin operation and spent his summer spa stays in the country alone while his nephew was left alone at Giannatasio del Rio's institute.

After a hint from Giannatasio del Rio that Karl "always cries for her after his mother's visits", Beethoven obtained the land law in February 1816 to determine whether and when Johanna van Beethoven was allowed to visit her son. On September 4, 1816, she made the declaration that she would waive her guardianship claims in favor of Beethoven, “in order to establish unity”.

In the course of 1817 Karl van Beethoven received 2000 guilders from his father's inheritance and Johanna van Beethoven received total ownership of house 121 in Alservorstadt as compensation. In the same year she was obliged to pay Karl half of her pension; in November Ludwig van Beethoven felt compelled to demand the missing payments in court.

In January 1818, Karl van Beethoven was taken out of the boarding school by his uncle and now lived in his household. He attended the third grade of the university high school; Ludwig van Beethoven continued his piano lessons. Beethoven continued to insist that his nephew attend the academic high school. Although he recognized Karl's lack of musical talent, he now planned a scientific career for his nephew instead.

When Karl van Beethoven was staying with Pastor Fröhlich in Mödling while his uncle was taking a cure, Johanna van Beethoven used this opportunity to secretly visit her son several times. After Karl van Beethoven fled to his mother in December 1818 and was brought back to his uncle by the police, Johanna van Beethoven achieved in a further process that Ludwig van Beethoven's title of nobility and guardianship claims were revoked. Beethoven himself had carelessly admitted by his statement that he would let his nephew visit the reputable Vienna Theresianum if he were only aristocratic, that the “van” in his name was not of aristocratic (but Flemish) origin. Shortly before that, despite prominent advocacy by Archduke Rudolph (a student of Beethoven), Beethoven's plan to have his nephew teach the theologian Johann Michael Sailer had failed because the police department and the magistrate refused to approve.

Johanna van Beethoven initially took over the guardianship with Magistrate Mathias von Tuscher; Karl van Beethoven came to his mother. Beethoven considered circumventing the visiting rights imposed on him by his plan to secretly house his nephew with Aloys Weißenbach , but was apparently convinced by friends to give up these plans. After three months, however, Mathias von Tuscher withdrew; City sequester Nussbok took his place. As a reason, Mathias von Tuscher gave "the amount of official business, as well as several other reasons"; but it is also possible that Beethoven tried to manipulate him in his own way.

After the events of December 1818, Beethoven, with the support of the lawyer Johann Baptist Bach, went to the Lower Austrian Court of Appeal. Bach assessed the chances of success as limited because of Beethoven's deafness and advocated a joint guardianship between Beethoven and his sister-in-law. On April 8, 1820, the court approved Beethoven's suggestion that he should exercise guardianship together with his friend Karl Peters, the tutor of the Lobkowitz family . Her previous conviction and her inability to handle money spoke against Johanna van Beethoven. Concerns about Beethoven's deafness and hateful behavior toward his sister-in-law were dispelled by his reputation and financial generosity toward Karl. After Johanna van Beethoven's complaint was unsuccessful, she turned to her daughter Ludovica, who was born in 1820. In the period that followed, Karl van Beethoven lived from June 22, 1819 to 1823 at the Blöchlinger Institute, where he achieved very good performance and an excellent school leaving certificate.

Conflict between Ludwig van Beethoven and his nephew

Karl van Beethoven began studying philology, continued to live with his uncle and supported the composer, who was currently working on the Missa solemnis and the 9th Symphony , with secretarial work, among other things. When Ludwig van Beethoven found out about his sister-in-law's illness in January 1823 and wanted to waive her share of the maintenance, he initially allowed himself to be dissuaded by objections from his nephew that Johanna van Beethoven could then continue her unsound way of life, but he resigned a year later Plan into action. On March 6, 1823, Beethoven made a will with his nephew as a universal heir.

However, in the initially harmonious coexistence between the two of them, tensions arose when Karl van Beethoven, when he was having difficulties with his studies, expressed the wish to become a soldier. When the difficulties in his studies continued, Karl van Beethoven managed to take up commercial training at the Polytechnic Institute. In September 1823, publisher Maurice Schlesinger , who was negotiating with Ludwig van Beethoven about his String Quartet No. 15 in A minor op.132, offered Karl van Beethoven a job in London where he wanted to set up an art dealership, but Ludwig van Beethoven sabotaged it Project.

Rauhenstein castle ruins .

Joseph von Stutterheim , the supporter of Karl van Beethoven in the military.

During this time Ludwig van Beethoven tried to gain more and more control over his nephew's private life. Beethoven had Karl report to him about his daily routine and his activities and installed his friend Karl Holz to watch Karl. This finally culminated on August 6, 1826, when Karl van Beethoven wanted to kill himself with a pistol shot on the Rauhenstein castle ruins near the Helenental , where Ludwig van Beethoven liked to go for walks. The day before, Karl van Beethoven had told his landlord Schlemmer and his wife that he was suicidal and moved his watch so that he could buy two pistols. At Rauhenstein Castle, he fired two pistol shots on his temple; only one of the two shots hit and left just a graze. A few hours later, Karl van Beethoven was found by a carter; at his own request he was brought to his mother's in Adlergasse.

After his recovery, Karl van Beethoven, whose guardian now became Ludwig van Beethoven's childhood friend Stephan von Breuning , spent the summer with his uncle on the estate of Ludwig van Beethoven's brother Johann van Beethoven, the Wasserhof Palace in Gneixendorf .

Karl van Beethoven's learning difficulties, which now also began at the Polytechnic Institute, as well as his suicide attempt now definitely led to entry into the military. On the one hand, his uncle suffered from the police investigations and the talk in Vienna, and on the other hand, under the impression of the events, he gave up his resistance to his nephew's wish to become a soldier.

Karl van Beethoven joined the army as a cadet in the 8th Infantry Regiment "Archduke Ludwig" in Jihlava, 150 kilometers from Vienna . Due to the poor health of his uncle, which was to lead to the composer's death a few weeks later, Karl van Beethoven was only able to start his military service with a delay. There Karl van Beethoven was looked after by Lieutenant Field Marshal Joseph von Stutterheim ; Out of gratitude, Ludwig van Beethoven dedicated his String Quartet No. 14 in C sharp minor op.131 to the Lieutenant Field Marshal . On January 3, 1827, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his last will; here too he made his nephew universal heir.

After Karl van Beethoven entered the military, there was no longer any personal contact between him and Ludwig van Beethoven. Karl van Beethoven was also absent from his uncle's funeral because the news of his death reached him a few days late.

After Ludwig van Beethoven's death

Karl van Beethoven was honorably discharged from the military as a sub-lieutenant in May 1832 and on August 28 of the same year married Karoline Naske, the daughter of the Jihlava city lawyer Maximilian Naske. The marriage had five children.

In 1834 Karl van Beethoven applied for a position as border guard inspector. When the application remained unanswered, despite a letter to Emperor Franz on May 14, 1835, Karl van Beethoven withdrew it in May 1836. From then on he lived as a private citizen; as the sole heir to his uncles Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann van Beethoven, he was financially supported.

Karl van Beethoven died of liver cancer on April 13, 1858.

Descendants

From the marriage of Karl van Beethoven to Karoline Neske a son and four daughters were born:

• Karoline Johanna van Beethoven (born November 5, 1831 in Alservorstadt , † August 30, 1919 in Vienna)
• Maria Anna van Beethoven (born August 31, 1835 in Niklowitz , † September 29, 1891 in Dornbach )
• Ludwig Johann van Beethoven (* March 8, 1839, † between 1890 and 1916 in France or Belgium)
• Gabriele van Beethoven (born March 23, 1844 in Vienna, † October 10, 1914 in Josefstadt )
• Hermine van Beethoven (born July 31, 1852 in Josefstadt, † April 7, 1887 in Fünfhaus ).

Karoline Johanna van Beethoven and Maria Anna van Beethoven

Karl van Beethoven's daughters later married into civil servant families. Karoline Johanna van Beethoven and Maria Anna van Beethoven married the brothers Franz and Paul Weidinger, two bank officials. Gabriele van Beethoven's husband Robert Heimler also worked for a Viennese bank. Hermine van Beethoven's husband Emil Axmann was station manager in Karlsbad; Hermine van Beethoven herself became a piano teacher.

Ludwig Johann van Beethoven

Karl van Beethoven's son Ludwig Johann van Beethoven married Maria Anna Philippina Nitsche on February 27, 1865 (born March 27, 1846 in Vienna, † May 19, 1917 in Vienna-Lainz). The couple is said to have had a total of six children; the names and dates of some of these children are not known. Ludwig Johann van Beethoven was financially supported by the Bavarian King Ludwig II between summer 1868 and February 1870 through the mediation of the composer Richard Wagner with a total of 1,175 guilders . After a short employment with the Teutonic Order , he lived without a permanent job and was financially supported by noblemen by posing as Ludwig van Beethoven's grandson and "Baron van Beethoven". On May 1, 1872, an arrest warrant for fraud and embezzlement was issued against him and his wife; on July 30, 1872, he was sentenced to four years in prison and six months to his wife. Already on August 20, 1871, the couple with their son Karl Julius Maria (* May 8, 1870 in Munich, † December 10, 1917 in Vienna, Garrison Hospital 1) emigrated to America and settled in Detroit after several moves. While Maria van Beethoven became a concert pianist, Ludwig Johann van Beethoven initially worked for the Michigan Central Railroad Company and later, on January 1, 1874, founded a service men’s company. After visiting the couple with their children Karl and Meta (* 1874 in Chicago, † between 1878 and 1890, allegedly on a boat trip in America) in Vienna and returning to America, there is no reliable information about Ludwig Johann van Beethoven's further life. He is said to have been director of the Pacific Railroad in New York under the name Louis van Houven. He died in France or Belgium between 1890 and 1916.

Honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery

Karl Julius Maria van Beethoven

Karl Julius Maria van Beethoven's life is largely in the dark. He wrote as a journalist for Belgian and English magazines. According to some newspaper reports, he was in the summer of 1917 as a Landsturmmann in the Vienna German Master Regiment because of a foot ailment in a Vienna hospital and, according to a report by a Hanoverian officer, he was "terribly depraved in dirt and misery, penniless [...] totally worn out". Karl Julius Maria van Beethoven died childless on December 10, 1917 in the hospital as the last bearer of the name Beethoven in Karl van Beethoven's descendants (and thus also in the family branch of the composer Ludwig van Beethoven).

Karl Julius Maria van Beethoven is buried together with his mother, Marie Anna Philomena Van Beethoven, in an honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery (Group 84, Row 28, No. 21).

Evaluation of the "nephew conflict" in Beethoven research

Anton Schindler

Anton Schindler .

The description of Anton Schindler , Beethoven's first biographer, divides those involved into two groups, with the “hero of music” on the one hand and his family members as representatives of moral slovenliness on the other.

So the brothers Johann and Kaspar Karl would have impaired the composer's health and creativity.

Schindler accuses the nephew Karl of a penchant for play, an abuse of his freedom and too much interaction with his mother and aunt (the wife of Beethoven's brother Johann van Beethoven), who are morally decrepit. In Gneixendorf, Karl took no account of his uncle's poor health. In Vienna, instead of calling a doctor himself, he preferred to play billiards and instead sent a servant who, in turn, was late in carrying out his assignment.

Schindler gives Beethoven great credit for trying to remove Johanna's influence from his nephew. To Schindler's regret, Beethoven wrote many letters about this instead of many notes, which could also put Beethoven in a bad light. The composer "lacked the necessary educational business", although the task of educating Karl was also of an extraordinary nature. Beethoven was too often trusting his nephew, who tended to lie; his attempted suicide would have made the composer an old man.

As it turned out later, Schindler made numerous falsifications in his Beethoven biography and even in the composer's conversation books. On the one hand, he wanted to present Beethoven in the most favorable light possible; on the other hand, as psychoanalyst Stefan Wolf suspected, he was never able to get over Beethoven's rejection of his person and his secretary services. According to Wolf, Schindler's idealization of Beethoven and the devaluation of Beethoven's relatives implies, possibly inadvertently by Schindler, a devaluation of Beethoven, since the latter should actually have recognized the weaknesses of his relatives with the help of his integrity, which Schindler attributes to him.

Alexander Wheelock Thayer

Alexander Wheelock Thayer .

In the 2,500 pages of Alexander Wheelock Thayer's Beethoven biography, the nephew's conflict only takes up five pages. From the onset of the nephew's conflict, Thayer left the work on the biography to his co-authors, Hermann Deiters and Hugo Riemann , which, as psychoanalysts Richard and Editha Sterba noted , gave Thayer a headache from now on, but this did not prevent him from doing other scientific works.

According to Thayer, Beethoven's plan was doomed to failure from the start because of his helplessness in the face of the demands of daily life. Beethoven behaved towards his nephew Karl in inconsistent ways, sometimes strict, sometimes soft. Despite Johanna van Beethoven's moral reprehensibility, who spoke for Beethoven's efforts to gain custody, Karl needed his mother, whose actions Thayer explained by saying that she “maybe really loved” her son, and with the composer's rigorous demeanor.

Karl, who tended to be idle, had shown no diligence in studying and used his uncle's weaknesses to gain "a kind of rule over him".

As motives for the suicide attempt, Thayer considers Beethoven's controlling behavior, Karl's feelings of guilt towards his uncle and Karl's monetary debts combined with a fear of punishment. Schindler's allegations of dealing too closely with his aunt and calling in a doctor too late are refuted; Beethoven had already come to Gneixendorf sick.

For the first time, according to Wolf, a Beethoven biographer is looking for joint responsibility for Beethoven's nephew conflict; The application of the disposition theory, which Schindler had already attempted, also takes place here in a more differentiated manner, in that Beethoven's behavior is also explained by the external influence of deafness.

On the other hand, Wolf notices emotional identifications with Beethoven in Thayer's work, despite his efforts to be objective. Statements made by Karl that contradict Beethoven's outlined personality would immediately be questioned and at the same time serve as an explanation for Beethoven's controlling behavior. Here an identification with Beethoven's own doubts about his nephew takes place.

Paul Bekker

Paul Bekker .

In his Beethoven biography from 1912, Paul Bekker concentrates on the description of the work, but in the biographical part he focuses on the nephew conflict, which, according to Bekker, was the "most serious fate" in Beethoven's life. Wolf sees it as a contradiction if, according to Bekker, Beethoven saw guardianship on the one hand as a fulfillment of duty, on the other hand as “a new purpose in existence”.

According to Bekker, Johanna van Beethoven provoked Beethoven's behavior through her intrigues, which Karl had to suffer from. Karl, in turn, had taken advantage of his uncle's good-naturedness; his attempted suicide triggered the composer's fatal illness, who nevertheless still felt obliged to his nephew.

Theodor von Frimmel

According to Theodor von Frimmel, the fraudulent codicil and Johanna van Beethoven's depraved nature left Ludwig van Beethoven no choice but to fight for guardianship. Karl van Beethoven had been under the bad influence of his mother and, during his studies, also of his college friend, Niemetz; The latter incited Karl to waste money and to go to coffee houses. The suicide attempt was a stupid prank with a pernicious effect on Beethoven; military service had been extremely beneficial for Karl.

In the malleability of Karl van Beethoven, described by Frimmel, through his mother and his college friend - significantly but not through Beethoven himself - Stefan Wolf sees an expression of von Frimmel's own educational ideal.

Walter Riezler

In Walter Riezler's biography Beethoven from 1936, the description of Beethoven's life takes up only limited space.

Beethoven took over the guardianship out of a sense of family and a sense of duty, but also out of an unfulfilled desire to have children. However, the nephew had proven to be “not worthy” of Beethoven's love. Beethoven's dislike of his sister-in-law is understandable, but he has shown a “certain moral rigidity” and failed to separate his nephew from his mother and convey his ideals to him.

Riezler disregards the consequences of the actions of those involved. In that Riezler does not go into the causes of Karl van Beethoven's suicide attempt either, he follows the spirit of his time, according to Wolf, which generally made suicide taboo.

Editha Sterba and Richard Sterba

Editha and Richard Sterba's treatise on the nephew's conflict, published in German in 1964, was the first and for a long time the only study on the subject by professional psychologists. She wanted to explain the events with Beethoven's personality and these in turn with early childhood developments.

The father's authoritarian style of upbringing led to rebellion against all kinds of authorities in adulthood. Beethoven's behavior, especially towards his sister-in-law, suggests rejection of his mother. On the other hand, there is an exaggerated "affectionate" relationship, particularly with his brother Kaspar Karl, whose nephew Karl later became his replacement. Beethoven had adopted a maternal attitude towards both of them with a "homosexual tendency". Beethoven was aware with a bad conscience that he had wrongly tried to snatch the child from his sister-in-law, which was expressed, for example, through attempts to make amends to her. Beethoven used his nephew so much with assignments and controls that he had to fail in his studies. With his suicide attempt, Karl was able to break away from his uncle, who had taken on the role of a “poisonous mother” towards him. At the same time, the suicide attempt as a "murder sentence" is a reaction to the overwhelming love of his uncle. Beethoven's destructive instinct was directed against himself in the form of premonitions and illnesses.

The treatise by the Sterba couple caused controversy with the postulation of a "homosexual component" in Beethoven's personality. According to Stefan Wolf, however, the aspect of same-sex partner choice is not in the foreground, but the aspects of "mother attachment, narcissism, castration fear and seduction" in early childhood development, as described by Sigmund Freud . Thereupon the theses of the Sterbas, as Harry Goldschmidt did, with evidence of Beethoven's virility or even to assume that Beethoven had homosexual inclinations towards his nephew, is therefore misleading.

Overall, Stefan Wolf pays tribute to Editha and Richard Sterba for the fact that the nephew's conflict was first researched from a psychological point of view and that it received greater attention from now on.

F. Zobeley

In his Beethoven biography, written in 1965, F. Zobeley links the composer's life with his oeuvre. From this perspective, the nephew's conflict is portrayed in the sense that it disrupted Beethoven's oeuvre. Karl van Beethoven used the disputes between his mother and his uncle to his advantage, was "capricious" and lacked hard work and thrift. In Gneixendorf he only dawdled around; his entry into the military was a boon for his uncle.

According to Stefan Wolf, Beethoven is heroized in Zobeley's portrayal in a manner similar to that in Schindler's. A description of Beethoven's biography and thus also of the nephew conflict as well as a psychological interpretation are of secondary importance; so the role of Johanna van Beethoven is treated only marginally.

M. Cooper

In his book Beethoven , published in 1970 . In The Last Decade , Cooper sees the nephew conflict in a phase of upheaval, in which the composer gave up his marriage wishes, which were practically unrealistic due to his deafness, his "homosexual component" and the incompatible demands of a married life on the one hand and those of his art on the other, and his energies now diverted to the fight for guardianship. His tension almost caused a nervous breakdown; Beethoven's state of health impaired his creativity.

In the fight against his sister-in-law Johanna, whom Cooper describes as a “professional prostitute”, numerous negative traits of Beethoven's character came to light that cast doubt on the composer's sanity.

Cooper sees Karl's suicide attempt as one of the reasons for Beethoven's behavior, whose attitude towards the nephew fluctuated from one extreme to the other. The suicide attempt was designed as revenge on Beethoven, although Stefan Wolf believes Cooper's doubts about the finality of the suicide attempt to be implausible. In Beethoven's relationship with his nephew, Cooper sees, like the Sterba couple, a homosexual component, albeit to a lesser extent.

GR Marek

The Beethoven biography, written by GR Marek in 1970, describes the nephew conflict as hell and calls for compassion for Beethoven. The entanglements came about through Beethoven's search for someone he could love and had a negative effect on his productivity and health. Johanna van Beethoven was not an arch villain, but unlike Beethoven, she was also unable to raise and promote the blood relative of a genius. Johanna's fight for Karl was only partly based on maternal instinct, but also on concerns about her pension. The conflict intensified around 1825 when it became apparent that Karl's talent was insufficient for Beethoven's claims. By attempting suicide, Karl wanted to evade the contradiction between Johanna's pampering and Beethoven's demanding style of upbringing, whereby Wolf sees the contradiction that Karl did not attempt suicide in 1819, when the dispute over him was strongest, but only in 1826, when in this regard calm had already returned.

According to Marek, Beethoven showed himself to Karl as a "tyrant" who acted "in love".

K.-H. Charcoal burner

As K.-H. Köhler published Beethoven's conversation books from 1968 onwards, he also undertook an assessment of the nephew's conflict. According to Köhler, being a father to Beethoven's nephew offered fulfillment and a substitute for the tense relationship with his brothers and for the lack of a family of his own. The varied fraternal relationship also led to Kaspar Karl's uncertainties when drafting the will. Johanna's threat to Beethoven's role as a father was also the reason for the composer's hatred of his sister-in-law.

In addition to these conflicts, Karl himself was confronted with the separation from his mother and the placement in the boarding school as well as the performance claims of the boarding school and his uncle. Despite his intelligence, Karl developed a deep aversion to his uncle's demands for education, which would ultimately have culminated in attempted suicide. The "annoyances" of the nephew conflict would have stimulated Beethoven's creative power.

Stefan Wolf credits Köhler with his understanding view of Karl and the detailed analysis of the relationships between the people involved. Wolf agrees with Köhler that failure to perform can damage self-esteem and subsequently lead to suicidal acts, but in view of Karl's good to very good performance, he doubts Köhler's hypothesis that Karl lacked perseverance.

J. and B. Massin

According to J. and B. Massin, Beethoven, even if he was not always in the right, gave a “testimony to his humanity” in caring for his nephew; the composer was driven by his search for love and family life as well as his fear of loneliness. Because of his moderate intelligence, Karl himself was unable to be a Beethoven's companion. Johanna was not as bad as Beethoven had portrayed, but was simply easygoing, but wanted to sow distrust between Karl and his uncle, and Karl got caught between the fronts. As a result of Beethoven's behavior towards his nephew, Karl developed a "convict mentality". Karl's attempted suicide, which may also have had an impact on Beethoven's state of health, made the nephew more autonomous and freed the composer from an oppressive responsibility.

According to Stefan Wolf, the presentation of the nephew conflict by J. and B. Massin only contains generalizations and evaluations without any evidence. The main focus is still on characterizing those involved in the nephew conflict.

Maynard Solomon

According to the Beethoven biographer Maynard Solomon , the composer hoped to achieve an inner balance with a guardianship over Karl. The codicil reflected Kaspar Karl's wishes and was created without Johanna's influence. After his brother's death, Beethoven developed a number of self-delusions, especially that of becoming a father. In connection with the secret desire for a “fantasy marriage” with Johanna, which has now become available, Solomon speaks of “impulses for a union with a mother figure” in connection with a “fear of fatherly revenge”. Beethoven tried to achieve this relationship with Johanna through Karl. Beethoven's relationship with Karl was similarly ambivalent, on the one hand he made an orphan in a hostile manner, but on the other hand he received familial warmth. Beethoven also saw in Karl the beloved brother Kaspar Karl, who was resurrected in Karl.

At the same time he wanted to be the ideal father to Karl, whom he never had himself. In this context, Beethoven wanted to use the aristocratic affiliation suggested by the “van” in the guardianship process in order to give Karl a “counts education”. According to Solomon, there was a conflict in Beethoven's father image between an ideal father and the real father; this conflict was nourished by uncertainties about Beethoven's year of birth as well as the existence of the first-born, deceased and never forgotten Ludwig Maria. The fact that Johanna Karl was mother clearly and unequivocally disproved the paternity of Beethoven, which resulted in Beethoven's antipathy towards his sister-in-law.

Beethoven's system of relationships with Karl and Johanna led to a maturation process in Beethoven and to the conflicts in his “ family novel ”. At the same time, the events helped Beethoven to find a balance that ultimately helped him to achieve his late artistic style. The process of maturation led to numerous conciliatory gestures between 1820 and 1823. The conflicts with Karl that began again in 1824 were due, on the one hand, to his poor state of health and, on the other, to his renewed desire for Johanna.

Solomon sees the reasons for Karl's suicide attempt in the compulsions triggered by Beethoven, in the aggression that Karl harbored against himself and projected onto his uncle, in Karl's reunification with his mother and in Beethoven's postulated father role towards Karl. With the suicide attempt, Karl achieved that Beethoven accepted the detachment that Karl sought.

Stefan Wolf notices that, in contrast to other Beethoven biographers, Solomon does not see the composer's family members as people who harmed him, but rather benefited him. Furthermore, Solomon's analysis of the topic was shaped by psychoanalysis . In this context, as Solomon himself admits, the various psychoanalytic elements in question allow various combinations of these elements for possible explanations. This phenomenon is exacerbated by gaps in the biographical tradition. For this reason, Wolf has doubts about the importance of Beethoven's doubts about his actual year of birth for his biography. Wolf also doubts whether the title of nobility in the guardianship process was really as important for Beethoven as Solomon portrays it.

Overall, Wolf considers these concerns to be secondary in view of the fact that Solomon clears up numerous stereotypes and prejudices with regard to Karl and Johanna.

R. Emans

In his portrayal of the nephew's conflict, Emans concentrates on the guardianship process and questions the substance of the composer's allegations against Johanna van Beethoven. Evans sees the reasons for Beethoven's hatred of his sister-in-law on the one hand in the embezzlement of Kaspar Karl's assets by Johanna in 1811 and in Johanna as the alleged cause of Kaspar Karl's fatal illness. Johanna was naive but not malicious in the process, while Beethoven tried to use his relationships to his advantage. Beethoven's memorandum to the appellate court in 1820 was marked by a “loss of reference to reality”. Beethoven narrowed his nephew through secretary work during his studies as well as through constant surveillance and allegations, whereas Karl tried to defend himself by attempting suicide. Beethoven was unable to accept Karl and Johanna as individual personalities.

Stefan Wolf notices that, in Emans' point of view, Beethoven was mainly handicapped by his deafness and suffered from psychological peculiarities from which those around him suffered.

Harry Goldschmidt

Harry Goldschmidt .

In his analysis of the conflict between nephews, Harry Goldschmidt largely relies on other authors, but vehemently advocates a psychological foundation for biographies both in general and in Beethoven in particular. With regard to the nephew conflict, Goldschmidt emphasizes its connection within Beethoven's entire life story. According to Goldschmidt, Beethoven's destructive behavior towards Karl leads to the conclusion that Beethoven was looking for a substitute in Karl for the unsuccessful attempt to develop a love relationship with a woman. Goldschmidt sees his theory confirmed in the fact that Beethoven's efforts to get his nephew started in 1813 and thus shortly after the failure of Beethoven's last efforts to get a wife - the " Immortal Beloved " - in 1812. The father role that Beethoven was striving for was reinforced by the idealized image of men and the de-sexualized image of women of his time. Building on this, Goldschmidt examines why Beethoven's love affairs with women failed, and sees the reason for this in the importance that art had in his life; Conflict situations and suffering would have increased Beethoven's productivity. With their extreme effects, the years 1816–1818 would even have had the opposite effect, before a new high point in Beethoven's productivity set in ( hammer piano sonata , Missa solemnis ). Like the nephew's conflict, Beethoven's deafness and the lack of marital happiness had repeatedly encouraged the composer to expand the limits of his art.

In his analysis Goldschmidt processes theories from Gordon Allport , Michael Balint , Karl Jaspers , Kurt Lewin and Hans Thomae . Stefan Wolf admits that Goldschmidt is trying to find a scientific basis, but considers, for example, the compensation theory of frustration as an explanation for Beethoven's committed action in relation to guardianship to be "naive". Wolf sees in Goldschmidt's thesis of self-sacrifice for art a correspondence with Beethoven's self-image and raises the question of whether it should not simply alleviate the experiences made through conflict situations in retrospect.

Stefan Wolf

According to Stefan Wolf, the basis for Beethoven's behavior pattern in the nephew conflict, which had already shown itself in his above-average, fatherly concern for his brothers, was laid in the composer's childhood. As a result, Beethoven's mother Maria Magdalena van Beethoven had the favor of her father-in-law, Ludwig van Beethoven the Elder. Ä. want to win through the birth and upbringing of a male ancestor. From this motivation, she developed an almost overprotective attitude towards her son Ludwig, especially since her son, who was born in 1768, also named Ludwig, died at the age of a few days. In this constellation, Beethoven himself would have needed a reliable father figure as an antipole. However, Johann van Beethoven , who, as Gerhard von Breuning , the father of Beethoven's long-time friend Stephan von Breuning , reports, often got into conflict with the police because of drunkenness and needed the help of his son, was unable to assume such a father role.

Furthermore, according to Wolf, Beethoven followed several views on the nature of a child in Karl's upbringing. On the one hand, he saw a child as a “vessel” for upbringing. According to this, a child can be shaped as desired from the outside - for good as well as bad. In this sense, he once attributes Karl's bad behavior towards him to Johanna: "This dates back to his mother from his last stay with her, you can imagine what poison she brought him on." This view requires an “omnipotent educator” who is control and strict. Secondly, Beethoven sees - possibly influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau - the child as a “plant” (“The gardener has patience with his plants, he waits for them, allows them, binds them again, and people shouldn't do it with them young human plant? ") and accordingly admonishes Czerny and Giannattasio to deal with Karl in an emotional and understanding manner. On the other hand, Beethoven also has an image of the child as a “snake” that already has the ability to do evil within itself and only needs a small external stimulus, for example from the “evil” mother Johanna. "It is too much to ask that I should have a snake raised in my own bosom," as Beethoven wrote in a letter to the Blöchinger Institute.

According to Wolf's assessment, Beethoven could have looked for a “marriage substitute” in the guardianship without having to enter into the obligation of married life; there was always the possibility of transferring responsibility and thus the exercise of the relationship to other co-guardians. Wolf also agrees with Maynard Solomon's assumption that Beethoven could have sought a “fantasy marriage” with Johanna through Karl, and sees no contradiction in Beethoven's hostile attitude towards his sister-in-law, since, as G. and R. Blanck explain, an unconsciously longed for closeness can be so feared "that they are aggressively fended off". Wolf traces this mechanism back to Beethoven's mother picture.

Wolf similarly agrees with Solomon's assessment that worrying about his nephew could have served as a “creative substitute”, as his “heroic style” came to an end in 1815 and the public interest that the composer was experiencing at the time was for him made conscious of its existence.

When Beethoven began to fight for the guardianship of his nephew immediately after the death of his brother, he, according to Wolf, Karl and his mother Johanna, took the opportunity to appropriately mourn their father and husband who had just passed away. According to Wolf, the inability to complete the mourning process was also the reason why Karl could not accept his uncle as a father substitute; at the same time, the loss together strengthened the bond between Karl and his mother. His escape from his mother during his stays with Beethoven had served to "reassure himself of her". At the same time, according to Wolf, Karl had to understand his uncle's attacks against his mother as attacks against himself, since he identified with her. At the same time, Wolf also notes that their attempt in 1811 to evade their creditors through embezzlement and slander did not say anything good about their suitability to take on responsibility for raising a child. According to Wolf, the birth of his stepsister Ludovica gave Karl the opportunity to end the conflict of loyalty that had arisen as a result of the disputes between his uncle and mother and to distance himself from his mother, who now apparently replaced the lost son with Ludovica. That is why he advised his uncle, for example, not to spare her too much when he asked for alimony.

At the same time, Beethoven placed a heavy burden on his nephew by trying to realize a noble ego ideal in Karl with his high moral standards. According to Wolf, this could also be the reason why Karl did not even take the final exam at the university. The failure of his uncle's ideals is also expressed in the fact that Karl, after trying to become an artist, then a scientist and finally a merchant, ended up becoming a soldier and thus pursued the activity that was least valued by his uncle.

On the other hand, the use of Karl by his uncle was also reflected in the monitoring of his person and his daily routine by his uncle, which collided with the striving for autonomy that Karl developed due to age during the struggle for guardianship. In addition to all the tensions that were likely to encourage Karl's desire to break away from his uncle, there were also circumstances on the other hand that favored the continuation of the relationship. These consisted on the one hand in the actual dependence of Charles on his uncle due to the guardianship; On the other hand, he also benefited from his uncle's high public reputation, as this also gave Karl a certain amount of public attention.

During the police investigation into his suicide attempt, Karl testified: “I / have gotten worse / because my uncle / wanted me to be better”. Wolf sees an essential reason for the suicide attempt in the guardianship claim and the resulting relationship constellation. In the end, Karl turned the aggression against his uncle against himself.

literature

• Joseph Schmidt-Görg : Beethoven - The story of his family , Beethoven-Haus Bonn, G. Renle Verlag, Munich / Duisburg 1964
• Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich 1995
• Jan Caeyers: Beethoven - The lonely revolutionary , CH Beck-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-65625-5 :
  • Mass and Power (1809-1816) - Struggle for a Child , pp. 554-568
  • The lonely way (1816–1827) - Fight for a child: The defeat :, pp. 700–714
• Joseph Schmidt-Görg (Ed.): Draft of a memorandum to the Court of Appeal in Vienna of February 18, 1820 . Transfer and comments by Dagmar Weise, 1953
• Sieghard Brandenburg : Beethoven to the appellate court in Vienna. Draft memorandum . Unpublished manuscript, 1993
• Reinmar Emans: The fight for the nephew Karl , in: Siegfried Kross (Ed.): Beethoven. Man of his time . Röhrscheid, Bonn 1980, ISBN 3-7928-0434-4 , pp. 97-117
• R. Gruneberg: Karl van Beethoven's "Suicid" , in: The Musical Times , Vol. 97, 269/270, London 1956
• Luigi Magnani: Beethoven's nephew . Rowohlt, Reinbek 1978
• Editha Sterba , Richard Sterba : Beethoven and his nephew. A Psychoanalytic Study of their Relationship , 1954. German edition: Ludwig van Beethoven and his nephew. Tragedy of a genius. A psychoanalytic study . Munich 1964
• Sieghard Brandenburg: Johanna van Beethoven's embezzlement , In: Alan Tyson, Sieghard Brandenburg: Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven. Studies in the music of the classical period. Essays in honor of Alan Tyson . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1998, ISBN 0-19-816362-2
• Max Vancsa: Beethoven's nephew . Reprint from the supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung , Munich, No. 30 and 31, 6-7. February 1901

Individual evidence

1. ↑ As early as 1804, Johanna van Beethoven had been accused of theft by her parents; For more information, see Sieghard Brandenburg (Ed.): Johanna van Beethoven's Embezzlement , in: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Studies in Music of the Classical Period. Essays in Honor of Alan Tyson , Oxford, 1998, pp. 273-251
2. ↑ D. Weise (ed.): Beethoven: Draft of a memorandum to the Court of Appeal ... (facsimile), Bonn, 1953, p. 15f.
3. ↑ D. Weise (ed.): Beethoven: Draft of a memorandum to the appellate court ... (facsimile), Bonn, 1953, p. 17
4. ^ Ludwig van Beethoven: Correspondence. Complete edition , ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg , 7 volumes, Munich 1996–1998, No. 1311, note 4
5. ↑ Jan Caeyers: Beethoven - The lonely revolutionary , CH Beck-Verlag, 2013, p. 563.
6. ↑ Ludovica later bore the surname Hofbauer. It is not clear whether the “imperial and royal” bell-founder Johann Caspar Hofbauer, who paid alimony to Johanna van Beethoven, or the Hungarian medical student Samuel Raisz de Nagy, who was rumored to be the father.
7. ↑ Ludwig van Beethoven: Konversationshefte , ed. by Karl-Heinz Köhler, Grita Herre, Dagmar Beck, et al., 11 volumes, Leipzig 1968-2001, volume 2, p. 327
8. ↑ Beethoven's nephew Karl van Beethoven (1806-1858). Beethoven-Haus Bonn, accessed on August 23, 2017 . 
9. ^ Vossische Zeitung , December 14, 1917.
10. ^ Anton Felix Schindler: Ludwig van Beethoven , 2 volumes, Münster, 1840, ³1860; Volume 2, pp. 398f.
11. ↑ Editha Sterba and Richard Sterba : Beethoven and his nephew. A Psychoanalytic Study of their Relationship , 1954, German: L. v. Beethoven and his nephew. Tragedy of a genius. A psychoanalytic study , Munich, 1964, p. 14
12. ↑ Alexander Wheelock Thayer: Ludwig van Beethoven's life in 5 volumes, 5 volumes in German edited by Hermann Deiters, revised by Hugo Riemann, 1866ff., Reprint Hildesheim-New York 1970, volume 4, p. 109
13. ↑ Alexander Wheelock Thayer: Ludwig van Beethoven's life in 5 volumes, 5 volumes in German edited by Hermann Deiters, revised by Hugo Riemann, 1866ff., Reprint Hildesheim-New York 1970, volume 5, p. 7f.
14. ^ Paul Bekker : Beethoven , Berlin, 2nd edition, 1912, p. 38
15. ^ Theodor von Frimmel : Beethoven-Handbuch , Volume 1, Leipzig, 1926, pp. 453f.
16. ↑ L. v. Beethoven and his nephew. Tragedy of a genius. A psychoanalytic study
17. ↑ Editha Sterba and Richard Sterba: Beethoven and his nephew. A Psychoanalytic Study of their Relationship , 1954, German: L. v. Beethoven and his nephew. Tragedy of a genius. A psychoanalytic study , Munich, 1964, p. 83
18. ↑ Editha Sterba and Richard Sterba: Beethoven and his nephew. A Psychoanalytic Study of their Relationship , 1954, German: L. v. Beethoven and his nephew. Tragedy of a genius. A psychoanalytic study , Munich, 1964, pp. 238, 245 and 256ff.
19. ↑ Editha Sterba and Richard Sterba: Beethoven and his nephew. A Psychoanalytic Study of their Relationship , 1954, German: L. v. Beethoven and his nephew. Tragedy of a genius. A psychoanalytic study , Munich, 1964, p. 283
20. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study . Munich, 1995, p. 29.
21. ^ GM Marek: Ludwig van Beethoven. The life of a genius , Munich, 1970, p. 464
22. ↑ K.-H. Köhler: The Beethoven picture of the conversation books , in: Ludwig van Beethoven 1770-1827 , ed. by HG Hoke, 1977, p. 14.
23. ^ J. Massin, B. Massin: Beethoven. Material biography: data on the work and essay , Munich, 1970, p. 243.
24. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich, 1995, p. 53
25. ↑ Friedrich Kerst : The memories of Beethoven , two volumes, ed. by Friedrich Kerst, Stuttgart, 1913, p. 12
26. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich, 1995, p. 138ff.
27. ^ ^{A b} Ludwig van Beethoven: Correspondence. Complete edition , ed. by Sieghard Brandenburg, 7 volumes, Munich 1996–1998, No. 1326 (quoted from letter numbers)
28. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich, 1995, p. 140
29. ↑ Joseph Schmidt-Görg (Ed.): Draft of a memorandum to the Court of Appeal in Vienna of February 18, 1820 , transfer and comments by Dagmar Weise, 1953, p. 7
30. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich, 1995, pp. 173f.
31. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich, 1995, p. 174
32. ↑ G. and R. Blanck: Applied I-Psychology , Stuttgart, 1988, p. 113
33. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich, 1995, p. 175
34. ^ Stefan Wolf: Beethoven's nephew conflict. A psychological-biographical study , Munich, 1995, p. 147
35. ↑ A. 119, 40r