BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, May 31, 1825

Beethoven writes to Nephew Karl in Vienna today from Baden. His tone clearly reflects a very uneasy and highly cautious reconciliation, which grows both progressively angrier and more despondent as he writes.

“Dear Son! I intend to come to the City on Saturday [June 4] and return here by Sunday evening or Monday morning. I therefore ask you to ask Dr. Bach [Beethoven’s attorney, Johann Baptist Bach] what time he is usually available for me to speak to him, as well as to have the key given to you by Herr Brother Becker [brother-in-law Leopold Obermeyer, a baker or Bäcker in German], in order to see whether there are enough facilities in the room which Herr unbrotherly Brother [Johann] occupies so that I can stay there overnight, whether the laundry is clean, etc. Since Thursday is a holiday [June 2 is Corpus Christi] and you are hardly coming here, which I don’t ask for, you could probably do these few errands. You can report to me on Saturday when I arrive.”

“I’m not sending you any money yet, because in an emergency you can borrow 1 florin from the household. Sobriety is necessary for youth, and you don’t seem to have paid enough attention to it, since you acquired money without my knowing about it, and I still don’t know where it came from? Beautiful plots! Going to the theater is not advisable now because of the excessive distractions. I think in the meantime, I will pay off the 5 florins you acquired from Dr. Reissig [Beethoven again mistakes the name of the vice-director, Franz Michael Reisser] on time every month, and that’s that. Spoiled as you are, it wouldn’t hurt to finally strive for simplicity and truth, for my heart has suffered too much from your cunning behavior towards me, and it is hard to forget, and even if I wanted to pull on all of this as if I were a yoke of oxen without complaining, your behavior, which if it were directed against others, can never bring you people who will love you. — As God is my witness, I only dream of being completely removed from you and from this miserable brother and this despicable family that has been cobbled together for me. God hear my wishes, for I can never trust you again. Unfortunately, your father, or rather, not your father.”

Brandenburg Letter 1980; Anderson Letter 1379. The original is held by the Krakow Biblioteka Jagiellonska (Mus. ep. autogr. Beethoven 24). A little of the text is missing from damage to the margins, but it is clear what is meant. Ludwig does follow through on his plan to go to Vienna on Saturday, and his dealings with Karl will be recounted then.