BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Monday, August 7, 1826

Early this morning, unpaid assistant Karl Holz takes a fiacre and goes to check on Nephew Karl’s condition at his mother Johanna’s house. There he finds the police removing Karl to the hospital, under guard since attempted suicide is considered a crime in Austria. He then goes to Ludwig to report. “Because he was declared unconscious, they had to have two female wardens. They will need to be paid 50 florins. You will get the receipt tomorrow. Today, no one will be allowed to visit him.” Beethoven asks when he can visit Karl. Tomorrow, Holz tells him. [Ludwig does not see Karl for a good deal longer.]

Beethoven should expect a visit from Johanna; “she will come to you.” When, he asks. “After 9 o’clock.” Karl did not react well to the mention of Uncle Ludwig. “He said he would tear the bandage off the wound if another word was spoken about you. He said, ‘If only the stupid nonsense would stop.'”

A little later in the morning, Karl’s landlord, Matthias Schlemmer, comes to see Beethoven. Karl’s friend Joseph Niemetz came to him last night at 10 o’clock with several letters from Karl, which were sent from Baden. There is also a letter for Ludwig, which Niemetz will bring himself today. [Niemetz changes his mind, and turns the letter over to the police instead.]

Gerhard von Breuning, the son of Ludwig’s longtime friend Stephan von Breuning, having heard of the tragedy, is sent to invite Beethoven to supper with them so that he is not alone. Beethoven accepts their kindness.

What is the prognosis for Karl, Beethoven asks. “It is still a question whether he will recover; any head wound can be fatal, and if the brain has been shaken too severely, which we will know about in a couple of days, then he is lost. What brings one to suicide, Beethoven asks, perhaps recalling his own suicidal feelings in Heiligenstadt 24 years earlier. “Life weariness,” Holz sums it up.

The housekeeper [probably still Marie Stiegel] asks if they will want two chickens for dinner; Holz tells her that 1 chicken is enough.

Holz continues, “Should he die, he will have to be buried at the Rabenstein [the place of execution], according to the law.” [Suicides were prohibited from burial in a cemetery according to the Austrian legal code of 1815.] David Parish, who committed suicide over the failure of the Fries banking house, is referenced as a comparison, saying that it took a lot of effort. [Holz’s comment suggests that with sufficient bribery, this burial prohibition could be overridden.]

Beethoven is understandably annoyed about the 50 florin charge. Holz will inquire at the chancellery about the payment. “I find the whole thing suspicious.”

How did Karl get more guns, Beethoven asks. He didn’t have any money. “He sold his watch on Saturday [August 5], and bought two new pistols with the money.”

Beethoven bemoans the fact that his beloved nephew may end up in prison. Holz tries to make the best of it: “One should not look at the prison as a place of punishment, but only as a place where he will be brought to his senses by wise people. The police will know what is best to do; it is only to be feared that he will take the same step again when he is recovered.”

[Karl undergoes surgery today and the bullet or bullet fragments are removed from his head. Karl will bear a significant scar on his left temple the rest of his life.]

Later, Beethoven and Holz go to see Stephan and Gerhard von Breuning. [Breuning’s wife is presumably still out in the country.] Beethoven explains all of the money he spent on Karl’s upbringing and education. Breuning expected little different, judging from the examples of many other young people. [He presumably means ingratitude and deception.] Breuning agrees that a military career would probably be a good outcome for Karl. “The military is the best discipline for someone who cannot tolerate freedom; he will learn to get by with little.” It’s not necessary to send him to a military school. He can be admitted as a cadet at once. Since Breuning works at the War Council, he will be able to advise on the best way to proceed.

Breuning believes that Karl could serve as an object lesson; he would like to tell the story to all young people as a warning.

After dinner, Holz departs, saying he will return later. Back at his apartment, Beethoven makes a note about where Karl spent the nights previous to his suicide attempt. “One night in the Bock [Zum schwarzen Bock inn where Karl spent Friday night], ball [there was a dance hall attached to that inn], 2 nights without sleeping at home.” [That is, Friday, August 5, and Saturday, August 6.]

Conversation Book 116, 55r-59r. This concludes this conversation book. The next conversation book, 117, is comprised of 41 leaves. Although there are very few internal clues to dating, it appears to be used during the second week of August.

This new Conversation Book 117 probably begins being used later today, after Holz makes some visits to the hospital and police to gather information for Beethoven. He reports that they have four of the most skilled doctors visiting Karl, four times a day. “He is getting unfailing care.”

Johanna will be receiving an official note from the magistrate tomorrow. “Therefore she asks you to expect her in the evening or in the afternoon, so that she can give you the name of the administrative officer, whom you can then talk to yourself. You will also be called in.”

Will Karl have a priest, Beethoven asks. [A priest was compulsory to give religious instruction in such a case.] “The priest will be sent from the magistrate; you need not concern yourself about that any more.”

“As of yet there is no fever, but if it should come, there would be a dangerous crisis.” [In a pre-antibiotic world, an infection could easily prove deadly.]

Beethoven would like Holz to be present tomorrow when he meets with Johanna. Holz agrees. “I would very much like to be there; who knows what she might say.” Will the magistrate be making changes to Karl’s guardianship? Holz thinks that will not be the topic of discussion. “Here the Magistrate is acting as a criminal court.”

Beethoven is annoyed that Karl was seeing both Johanna and his friend Joseph Niemetz, contrary to Ludwig’s instructions. Was that really what Johanna said? “I heard what she said,” Holz confirms. “The good Niemetz!”

“Now we had better buy indulgence instead of hospitals.” [Holz is indirectly remarking on the enormous amount of money paid to the Pope by the Emperor for the indulgences offered in Austria this earlier year, suggesting that more divine intervention for Karl would be welcome.]

Holz departs, waiting for the coach. [Possibly heading out to Döbling.] It is about 5 o’clock in the afternoon, he tells Beethoven. I loved him like a son, Beethoven mourns. “More than any father,” Holz agrees.

Conversation Book 117, 1r-3r.

In today’s Wiener Zeitung (Nr.179) at 754, Anton Diabelli & Co. advertises a newly published set of Trois Marches militaires for Pianoforte four hands composed by Franz Schubert, op.51, along with other, older Schubert works. The marches date from 1818, and are today catalogued as D.733. The first of these marches is one familiar to aspiring pianists everywhere, and is here performed by Lang Lang and Lucas Jussen: