BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Tuesday, November 7, 1826 (approximately)

Ludwig’s sister-in-law Therese travels to Vienna via the Stellwagen in order to collect the funds for the quartet op.135. The plan is for her to return to Gneixendorf tomorrow with the money.

Brother Johann is not around the estate today. He went to taste wines with one of the farmers. On his return, he is a little tipsy, and he’s talking about his doings in the cellar. The farmer wants to drown the big dog, but Johann will not tolerate that.

Johann reminds Ludwig that he gave Therese 5 or 6 florins W.W. in notes, and that needs to be deducted from her expense reimbursement.

Ludwig asks why the farmer wants to drown the dog. Karl tells him that when it gets away from him off the leash, it eats too much.

Uncle Ludwig has a question about the mails. Karl is going to go to Krems to take something in for Johann. While he is there, he can ask at the post office. Ludwig also needs pens; Karl tells him that in Krems they cost 30 kreutzers.

Brother Johann tells Ludwig that if he wants to live with them, he can have everything for 40 florins C.M. per month, which makes 500 florins for a whole year. [This comment will be a sore point with Ludwig later on, as he will complain about Johann charging him like a boarder.]

Beethoven’s patron, Archduke Rudolph, left Vienna yesterday, and today he has reached Kremsier [now Kroměříž in the Czech Republic], where he inaugurates the second chain bridge in the Austrian Empire. “His Imperial and Royal Highness, the Most Serene Archduke Rudolph, had this bridge built at his own expense by the archepiscopal engineer Talherr [Karl Thalherr] in Kremsier, over a branch of the March River [now the Morava River]. His Highness was the first to cross it upon his return from Vienna, on the 7th of this month, and thus, from that day forward, it was open for general use.”

The span between the two banks, just outside the archepiscopal garden of Rudolph’s palace at Kremsier, stretches 68 feet, and it has a capacity of 105,939 pounds. Brünner Zeitung of December 1, 1826 (Nr.331) at 1397-1398. No photographs of the bridge are known to exist since its useful life was only a few decades before it was replaced, but the Museum of the Kroměříž Region today has a large stylized model of it. Although he is not mentioned in the newspaper article, the iron suspension mechanics were designed by pioneering Bohemian engineer Friedrich (or Bedřich) Schnirch (1791-1868).

An 1825 drawing by Schnirch, of his first chain bridge, at Strážnice, is attached. The bridge at Kremsier was reportedly modeled after this bridge, which helped usher in the modern suspension bridge.