BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Sunday, June 20, 1824

Nephew Karl comes to Penzing to visit his Uncle Ludwig with some trepidation, for he has some news that will likely make his uncle furious.

But first some mundane matters need to be dealt with, as Karl procrastinates, looking for the right time to make his announcements. The handle of the basket for bottles is broken, so they will need to buy a new one. Karl’s friend Carl Enk, who is sharing Uncle Ludwig’s apartment in the City, sends his regards. Uncle Ludwig asks after Enk’s dog, but unfortunately the dog ran away yesterday.

There is some discussion, possibly with a wine dealer in Penzing. If the bottles are not filled full, the wine will not be good. Uncle Ludwig asks about the jostling of wine being brought back and forth between Penzing and Vienna. It certainly doesn’t do the wine any good, but again, if the bottles are completely filled then the harm can be avoided.

Karl says that the drive out to Penzing took a long time today, because of the processions in the suburbs celebrating the feast of Corpus Christi [held on the Sunday after the actual feast day, which was on Thursday, June 17 in 1824.]

The landlord of Uncle Ludwig’s apartment in the City has erected a scaffold directly in front of the gate, so if you want to go in or out, you have to jump.

Housekeeper Barbara Holzmann has prepared half of the asparagus now for mid-day dinner, and the other half is for the evening. She hasn’t any yeast, so she could not make a pastry.

Uncle Ludwig asks about his mail in the City. Karl tells him he has told the building superintendent’s wife to accept letters for Uncle Ludwig, and pay if necessary. Uncle Ludwig asks whether she can get him candles from the high market. Karl says he can’t have her do that, but he will get them from the small shopkeeper. Or the old woman [Holzmann] could get them when she goes into the City.

Uncle Ludwig asks how long Karl can stay. He thinks 5, or at the latest 5:30. In the future he will take the coach from Hietzing, about a five minute walk from this summer apartment.

Enk has had a run of bad luck, since he has been confined to his room since Friday [June 18.] He fell and injured his arm.

Uncle Ludwig asks whether Karl needs some more wine. He already got them last week and paid for them the day before yesterday. The wine certainly tastes different than Count Fries’s Vöslauer wine.

Karl says he reprimanded the shoemaker. He excused himself and said that the shoes were the same ones that Uncle Ludwig recently saw at his place.

Uncle Ludwig broaches the subject of Karl’s upcoming examinations at the University of Vienna, and this is where things begin to get uncomfortable since Karl expects to fail. “I am doing my utmost. The [first] examination must take place, if I want to study further, because otherwise I will lose an entire year. Because I cannot take the 2nd examination, if the first is not taken.” Uncle Ludwig suggests an unspecified alternative plan, but Karl says he still needs to take the first set of examinations.

Karl steels himself, and begins. “I want to be entirely honest. It has come too far now to hold back. At the very beginning it was a lack of enthusiasm for these things that prevented me from taking proper advantage of the discussion groups; and therefore it also happened that I occasionally played hooky. I have not missed much, and during that time I was in the Library; Professor Stein [Karl’s professor of Latin and Greek at the University] can confirm this.”

Uncle Ludwig believes that Karl, having missed these discussion groups, may not do well on the examinations. Karl agrees, “unfortunately! — so do I.” Uncle Ludwig fears that Karl will need to repeat the year. “Begin from the beginning again? I don’t believe that I could endure the shame of being behind so many others with whom I began. What will Giannatasio [headmaster of Karl’s school from 1816 to 1818] and others say about that? I will be the object of their derision, and unfortunately, not without reason. You yourself know how that can hurt me.”

Karl tries changing the subject to the wine, and that the old woman says that no more blankets need to be bought. Adolf Bäuerle may have written to Beethoven asking why he cancelled his subscription to the Allgemeine Theater-Zeitung.

Returning to the subject, since there is more to be said that Ludwig will not like to hear, Karl asks whether his Uncle is giving him free choice as to his future. “I don’t want to become anything without your consent, and will, if you want, either continue these studies or even start again from the beginning.”

Uncle Ludwig, probably suspicious based on Karl’s beating around the bush, asks what it is that Karl wants to do with his life, if it were to be his decision. “You will find my choice strange, but I shall speak freely about my inclination nevertheless. The profession that I would like to choose is also not among the ordinary. On the contrary, it also requires study, only of another kind, and as I believe, more suited to my inclinations.”

Uncle Ludwig, most likely frustrated by all this circumlocution, demands Karl answer his question: what do you intend to be? Karl writes the single word, “Soldier.”

Uncle Ludwig no doubt hits the roof. Who of his friends has convinced him to do this? Enk? Karl denies that there was any influence from anyone in his social circle. He adds, “The curriculum is certainly very strict. And mathematics and the science of fortifications are certainly not among the inferior [studies.]

At this point, Karl abruptly vanishes from the conversation book today. Did he sit quietly listening to a long harangue from Uncle Ludwig, or did his uncle just angrily tell Karl to get out of his sight? Unfortunately, we cannot tell from the silence of the conversation book. However, a few of pieces of calligraphy and doodles found on the next page (10r) suggest the former was the case. In any event, Karl heads back to Vienna without saying anything further to his uncle.

Conversation Book 72, 4r-10r.