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Ludwig
van Beethoven
zusammengestellt von Martin Schlu
1999 (29. Mai 2001)
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- Ludwig van
Beethoven - Karl
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The great composer Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827) never married and never seems to
have had an intimate relationship with a woman.
His personality is a very complex one, but the
popular mythology that requires this romantic
musician to have had a string of passionate
heterosexual relationships has no basis in
reality. In fact his "grand passions" were
always women of a higher social position than he
and already attached to someone else
&emdash; as if he deliberately addressed
those he knew were out of his reach. In 1801 he
wrote about a charming girl who could make him
happy but he immediately qualified this by
saying she was not of his class, and anyway he
was very busy with his music! His relationships
with Josephine Deym, Magdalena Willmann,
Giulietta Gicciardi, and Therese Malfattti were
clearly platonic. The famous letter to his
Immortal Beloved, which was written in two
instalments over two days in 1812, essentially
indicates his unwillingness to give total
commitment, and he finally renounces the
opportunity for union forever; in any case the
letter was never sent, for it was really just
written to resolve his own mind.
On the other hand, Beethoven had many close
friendships with men of his own age and he
enjoyed the company of younger men, such as
Ferdinand Ries early in his career and Karl Holz
at the end, as well as Stephan von Breuning,
Wegeler, Gleichenstein, the attractive young
pianist Karl Friedrich Amenda, the handsome
Baron de Trémont and others. Karl Maria
von Weber, also a good-looking young man,
reported:
He received me with an affection which was
touching; he embraced me most heartily at least
six or seven times and finally exclaimed
enthusiastically: "Indeed, you're a devil of a
fellow! &emdash; a good fellow!" We spent
the afernoon very merrily and contentedly. This
rough, repellent man actully paid court to me,
served me at table as if I had been his
lady.
Beethoven alost certainly had unconscious
homosexual feelings for his beloved brother
Caspar Carl, whom he felt had been stolen from
him by his marriage to Johanna Reiss in 1806.
Als Caspar 1815 starb, adoptierte Beethoven
dessen Sohn Karl (geboren 1806), und verstrickte
sich in eine nervenzerreißende Fehde
gegenüber Johanna um das Sorgerecht
für ihn.
Sein Neffe Karl became the recipient for all the
love he had felt both for his brother and for
his Immortal Beloved. Beethoven was declared
Karl's joint guardian in 1816, and from that
date his relationship with Karl became his sole
emotional outlet, effectively a marriage, and no
woman henceforward occupied any significant role
in his life. Karl was withdrawn from his tutor
to live with his uncle from 1818, when the
composer began his Ninth Symphony. Beethoven
used a German phrase, acknowledging that he
"clung to him like button to trousers"
&emdash; a telling choice of metaphor. But
Karl continued to love his mother despite his
uncle's loathing of her, and sometimes ran away
to her. After a series of court battles,
Beethoven finally obtained sole guardianship in
1820. Beethoven's legal adviser told him to stop
taking Karl to eat in taverns (they always ate
out) because it was causing "gossip and false
interpretations" and might harm his case.
While studying at university and the polytechnic
in Vienna, Karl visited his uncle on weekends
and holidays, and acted as his secretary and
bookkeeper and housekeeper. Beethoven was
jealously possessive,even asking friends to spy
on Karl's activities in town, and they had
bitter quarrels. Beethoven moved to Baden in
1825 to attempt a cure for his gout and other
complaints, and Karl had to organize his Vienna
affairs and run constant errands for him, as
well as staying with him frequently; about 40
letters survive from this traumatic period.
Beethoven constantly alternated between spoiling
and punishing the lad, now 19 years old and
good-looking, who was made to feel guilty for
wanting some independence. One day Beethoven
would berate him for wasting money on the
theatre, "my heart has suffered too much from
your deceitful behaviour to me," and almost the
next day he would write "Dear Son &emdash;
Dear Boy &emdash; ... All good wishes,
little rascal."
In October 1825 Karl ran away to his mother,
after being accused of selfishness by his uncle,
but Beethoven tried to patch up their
relationship: "Stop, no further &emdash;
Only come to my arms, you won't hear a single
hard word. ... We will lovingly discuss what has
to be considered and what must be done for the
future. On my word of honour you will hear no
reproaches." But it was no good: in July 1826
Karl bought a pair of pistols and tried to kill
himself, saying he was "weary of imprisonment."
The bullet lodged in his head, and he was taken
to his mother's home, and subsequently spent a
month in hospital, during which time the
composer's Ninth Symphony was published. When
the police asked Karl why he had attempted
suicide, he said "Because my uncle harrassed me
so" (weil mein Onkel mich so sekkiert hat).
After Karl's recovery, he returned to live
quietly with his uncle for four months, but
their love had died. Beethoven was devastated by
the incident, which shattered the father/son
illusion. In December 1826 Karl nursed Beethoven
with loving care, but was not even allowed to go
out of doors for some relaxation or go to his
room to be alone for a little while. In one
conversation he says to his uncle "I beg you
again not to torment me as you do. ... you must
remember that other people are human too." Karl
was allowed to enter military service in January
1827. After this obvious rejection of his love,
Beethoven's physical stamina collapsed almost
overnight and he died two months later. During
the last few months of Beethoven's life Karls's
place was taken by a vivacious 13-year-old boy,
Gerhard, son of Beethoven's friend Stephan von
Breuning. They grew so close during this short
period that Beethoven even called him
"trouser-button," reverting to his earlier
metaphor about his relationship with Karl. Karl
was named Beethoven's sole heir. Karl went on to
have a successful military career, got married
in 1832 and had five children; he was a good
pianist, and settled in Vienna as a man of
leisure; he died in 1858.
Beethoven's first and official biographer Anton
Schindler destroyed 240 of the 400 Conversation
Books (communication via notes written on slates
or paper which became necessary due to
Beethoven's deafness)because of the material
they contained about Karl, and advocated that
their letters (which were not in his possession)
be destroyed. Those notes that do survive,
document a tormented relationship, and
Beethoven's jealousy over Karl's friendships
with other men. For example, Karl wrote to
Beehoven in August 1824:
I see very well that you are incensed, I even
have to take it as natural, unfortunately!
&emdash; And yet I still hope that in a
calmer hour you will think otherwise and will
not entirely give me up. Do not rob me of this
hope, and do not cast me down completely; I am
sufficiently so as it is. Allow but a little
time for your full conviction and I know it will
be different again. &emdash; I have no girl
friends.
Beethoven even disliked the occasional boyfriend
that Karl brought to his uncle's home to help
allay his own loneliness: Beethoven: "I find him
crude and common." Karl: "For my part, I shall
not cease to love him, as I could love my
brother if I had one. .. . I never forced him on
you. ... You do not need to quarrel. If you stop
talking about it the subject will be closed."
And the letters are full of moral blackmail:
Beethoven to Karl:
I have no doctor, not even a sympathetic soul at
hand &emdash; If you can manage to come on
Sundays, do come. But I don't want to interfere
with your plans in any way, ... &emdash; Oh,
where have I not been wounded, nay more, cut to
the heart?! ... if it is at all possible for you
to do so, well then, in my solitude I shall look
forward to having a human heart beside me ...
With all my heart I embrace you.
Beethoven's most devoted biographer, Alexander
Thayer, kept getting intolerable all-day
headaches whenever he tried to deal with
Beethoven's relationship with Karl, and Thayer
kept putting off volume IV of his biography
which would have contained it, until his death,
so the nature of the relationship was never
revealed.
Letters from Ludwig van Beethoven to Karl van
Beethoven
[Vienna
c. September 18, 1816]
My Dear K,
According to the orders of v. Smetana, you must
take some baths before the operation [for
hernia]. Today the weather is favourable,
and it is exactly the right time. I shall be
waiting for you at the Stubenthor [entrance
to the baths].
Of course you will first ask Herr v[on]
G[iannatasio]'s permission. Put on
drawers [a pair of underpants] or take
them with you so that you can put them on when
you come out of the bath, in case the weather
should again become cooler. If the tailor has
not yet been to you, when he comes let him also
take your measure for linen drawers. You need
them. If Frau v. G. knows where he lives, my
servant can tell him to go to you.
My son farewell; I am, and indeed through
you,
Your breeches button,
L. v. Beethoven
Baden
August 16, 1823
My dear Boy,
I did not wish to say anything to you until I
felt better, which is not yet quite the case. I
came here with a cough and a cold, both bad for
me, as the normal state, anyhow, is catarrhal;
and I am afraid this will soon cut the thread of
my life, or worse still, will gnaw continually
at it. Also my ruined bowels must be restored by
medicine and diet, and for this, one has to
thank faithful servants. You can imagine how I
am roaming about, for only today I really (not
really, but involuntarily) commenced my service
of the Muses. I have to do it, but it shall not
be perceived &emdash; for the place tempts
one, me at least, to the enjoyment of beautiful
Nature, but nous sommes trop pauvres et il faut
écrire ou de n'avoir pas de quoi. Now see
that everything is ready for your exam., and,
especially, be modest, so that you may show
yourself higher and better than people suppose.
Send your washing straight here. Your grey
trousers can at any rate be worn at home
[i.e. to save your good clothes for public
show], for, my dear son, you are a very dear
one to me! ...
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