BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Friday, September 15, 1820 (approximately)
As regular readers will recall, Beethoven’s faithful friend Franz Oliva intended to go on a number of journeys during the fall of 1820 on behalf of his employer, banker/wholesaler Joseph Biedermann. Oliva said on August 5 (Conversation Book 15, leaf 32r), “It is quite certain, however, that I am going to Leipzig in September.” He repeated this on September 4 (Conversation Book 16, leaf 49v) “I am going to Leipzig in the middle of September.” He also said on August 5 that it was possible he would go to Frankfurt for the trade fair, and suggested he could speak to Bonn publisher Nikolaus Simrock there.
Our question today, since it is the middle of September: Did he actually do either of these things?
Our thanks to the Frankfurt Fair archivist, Peter Kerwien, for kindly checking their records and verifying for us that the autumn fair in Frankfurt ran from September 3 to September 24, 1820. According to the Leipzig Fair’s archivist, Fraunke Gränitz, to whom we likewise owe a great gratitude, their autumn trade fair did not begin until October 1 in 1820 (the Sunday after Michaelmas, September 29), and lasted about three weeks. The Frankfurt Fair, but not the Leipzig Fair, would have been running in mid-September, so he (or Biedermann) may have confused the dates for the two events. Biedermann’s plans may simply have changed.
Oliva is definitely known from conversation book entries and dated documents to be in Vienna on the 4th, 9th and 12th of September, again on about the 16th and once more on the 20th. He also stated his intention of visiting Beethoven in Mödling on the 17th. Finally, Oliva is in Vienna on September 30th. The longest gap where we are unsure of his whereabouts during September 1820 is a mere nine days.
Frankfurt is about 700 or more kilometers from Vienna, and Leipzig is roughly 550 km away from Vienna. Note these are distances via modern roads; in 1820 the route would surely be much less direct, adding significantly to the distance traveled. A horse-drawn carriage at ordinary speeds on good roads could make at most around 100 km/day at a rate of 13 km/hour in this period. Not all of the roads would be good, and inclement weather would certainly slow down such a trip. It has been a cold and rainy summer in Vienna.
Thus I would estimate it would take at minimum 8-10 days each way to Frankfurt, and 6-8 days each way to Leipzig. Oliva could probably cut a few days off a trip to Frankfurt by traveling part of it along the Danube. Even so, these closely-spaced dates where he was known to be in Vienna make it completely impossible for Oliva to have traveled to either Leipzig or Frankfurt during September of 1820.
But Oliva did say on August 5 that he was “quite certain” he was going to Leipzig. The Leipzig Fair does not begin until October 1. He does appear to be absent from Vienna in early October, concurrent with the Fair, since at that time we will see that Beethoven will not be able to talk to Oliva directly, but instead has to leave him a note. In addition, the next date after September 30 that we know with certainty Oliva is in Vienna does not occur until October 26.
So, despite Oliva’s stated intentions to travel to Leipzig or Frankfurt in mid-September, it appears certain that he did neither. He may have gone to Leipzig for the trade fair in early October, 1820. Given that he stated he was “quite certain” he was going to Leipzig (warning Beethoven about his upcoming absence several times), and there is circumstantial evidence suggesting that he was not in Vienna at some point, I conclude that he probably did attend the trade fair in Leipzig in October and was thus not available to help Beethoven for between two and three weeks in the early part of the month.
This conclusion is consistent with Oliva’s statement on September 9, “I’ll be back here by the end of October.” This extended absence will have some serious implications for Beethoven, who as we have seen relied upon Oliva far more than he would readily admit.
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For travel times, see the lengthy discussions here:
especially the discussion of Napoleon’s journey from Paris to Donauworth in April 1809. In haste, with all the resources of Europe at his command, it took Napoleon roughly 108 hours to travel about 850 km.