BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, August 29, 1826

Beethoven goes in the late afternoon to unpaid assistant Karl Holz’s government office, and Holz joins him to visit Attorney Johann Baptist Bach to discuss the resignation from Nephew Karl’s guardianship. On the way to Bach’s office, they run into former unpaid assistant Anton Schindler, who has just come from there. Schindler had consulted Bach regarding his complaints against his former employer, the Josephstadt Theater. [Schindler had been promised the use of the Josephstadt Theater for a benefit concert when he was concertmaster. However, Schindler now plays at the Kärntnertor Theater, and the management of the Josephstadt no longer feels inclined to grant him the theater.]

Schindler tells Beethoven he briefly told Bach what had happened, and that he would be seeking Bach’s advice. Holz had commissioned Bach to be home and to expect Beethoven’s visit. [After Beethoven’s death, Schindler tried to change the writing to say that he himself had done this.]

Holz and Beethoven visit Bach. His recommendation is to be rid of the guardianship and Karl. “In your place, I would not concern myself any more.” The guardianship at this point is really only about the custody of his person. What will become of him, Beethoven asks. “What he is meant to become,” answers Bach. The best thing would be to arrange for employment in a distant location, such as an office in Trieste or Milan at once, where no one knows the story. Beethoven suggests that Karl should make up his examinations, but Bach says that delay would not be a good idea. “Right away, no more exams.” He could talk to the Geymüller banking firm and ask if he knows about a position for a year. Or some firm in Hamburg. Holz suggests Moritz Schlesinger in Paris, who already knows and likes Karl, as a possibility. Bach approves of that idea as well.

Beethoven would rather Karl complete his studies. Bach is more practical: “How do you expect a person, who does not want to go to school any more, to take a book into his hands again? One must take away every opportunity for him here. Away with him into the real world.” Holz agrees, Bach is absolutely right. Staying in Vienna would do him more harm than good. Where there are such family disputes, there is nothing else to do. It would not be difficult to get him a passport. Bach advises that no kind of guardianship would be of any use in Karl’s case, so long as he stays in Vienna.

Beethoven and Holz leave Beethoven’s office. They may go to a restaurant or inn, and they continue their discussion. Beethoven tells Holz about the letter he wrote yesterday to Brother Johann, and writes out for Holz the short, hostile letter in the conversation book: “I will not come — Your brother??? etc. !!!”

Holz tells Beethoven that Bach’s opinion was that Karl can only be improved by going out into the real world, and he should not stay here in Vienna one moment longer. His surroundings would have a negative influence on him, no matter how closely he is supervised, and then nothing will be gained. “Therefore, he also thinks that the exams are unnecessary; in an office such certificates are rarely considered, and every hour he is delayed by studying will be an obvious disadvantage to him.” One gets a position in an office primarily through recommendations; before the Polytechnic Institute existed, people also trained for commercial careers. “Anyway, most of the theoretical rules which they learn in such institutes are hardly usable in the practical world.” That was Bach’s opinion.

Beethoven likes the idea of sending him to Paris to work with Schlesinger. Holz agrees. “He is longing to go there anyway. If you would write to Schlesinger soon, then you would have taken a step which cannot be postponed for long.” Schlesinger might not even ask for a year’s board and lodging fee, or not very much in the first year of his apprenticeship. In his second year, people normally earn a good salary already. Beethoven wonders whether Schlesinger would have him. “You have to leave that up to fact; however, Schlesinger is a Jew who certainly speculates,” Holz answers, treating an investment in Karl’s future as a speculation. Other alternatives would include old Adolph Schlesinger in Berlin, or to Schott’s in Mainz.

Does Karl really have to leave Vienna, Ludwig asks. Holz indicates it is necessary: “Bach thinks that here is the biggest danger for him; even if he seems to improve, he won’t forget about the friends of his youth, who have made no small impression on him. The mother, the apothecary [Johann], the students, the gaming houses — he will forget all of that if he goes somewhere else, and he will be forced to take another path.” Once he is among better company, they will know how to engage him. They part, and Beethoven goes home to the Schwarzspanierhaus to consider Karl’s future.

Conversation Book 119, 29v-35r.