Kulturgeschichte - Klassik
	Anfangsseite Kurzdaten Herkunft 1769 - 1770 Bonn 1773 - 84 Bonn 1784 - 89 Wiener Kontakte Brunswick-Töchter Giuletta Giuccardi "Unsterbliche Geliebte" Letzte Jahre Kurzbiographie Todesursache  Anton Schindler Beethovenforschung Fidelio (Text) Literatur und Links	Klassik Ludwig van Beethoven zusammengestellt von Martin Schlu 1999 (29. Mai 2001) zurück - weiter Klassik -> Querformat bitte nutzen Ludwig van Beethoven - Karl 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! ...