BEETHOVEN 200 YEARS AGO TODAY: Wednesday, September 10, 1823

The brushbinder is at the apartment, and Nephew Karl suggests that they get two new shoe brushes; the old ones are no longer usable. Uncle Ludwig agrees and Karl makes the purchase.

Karl plans to go back into Vienna this afternoon to take care of the matters tomorrow that he wasn’t able to do last week, like the visit to Kirchhoffer (who was out) and the Hesse-Kassel embassy (which is only staffed on Thursdays.) He doesn’t mind, since he has all day to do the tasks. Uncle Ludwig suggests that he come along, but Karl puts him off; it’s cheaper for just one carriage ride, and he can do things much faster when he’s by himself. There’s nothing Karl needs to do in Baden, so it’s indifferent whether he spends the night in Baden, or in Vienna at Blöchlinger’s. He causes no inconvenience there, and his bed is here. It’s just a fifteen minute walk from Blöchlinger’s to the coach station. Uncle Ludwig objects that it’s more like half an hour, and if he doesn’t leave enough time he will miss the coach. Karl laughs it off, saying that he and Niemetz have walked it in a quarter hour; they have longer legs than his uncle.

Dinner today is a chicken with stewed plums. The bird cost 45 kr. Karl makes some fun of housekeeper Barbara Holzmann, saying she knows the story of St. Peter, but she doesn’t understand what it means when they say he denied Christ three times.

The wine will be coming out via the postal coach. Karl will take the carriage, but if he leaves at 3 p.m. he will get to Vienna too late to meet with Salzmann today about the bank shares and collect the money. Karl asks whether he has to do anything regarding Beethoven’s old apartment. Ludwig gives him some instructions about arrangements to be made for the furniture, and gives Karl the keys to the various rooms and to the building.

Ludwig suggests that Karl visit Attorney Johann Baptist Bach at his summer residence in Baden before going into the City, but Karl says he doesn’t know where that is. In any event, it’s unnecessary. Tobias Haslinger said the money doesn’t need to go through Bach, but Karl can bring the loan repayment there directly and he’ll give Karl a receipt. Uncle Ludwig insists, and Karl resignedly agrees to visit Bach this afternoon. He has Holzmann cancel the carriage for this afternoon, and he’ll go into the City early in the morning.

Conversation Book 42, 1r-4v.

At this point in the Conversation Book, there appears to be a page ripped out. The next page begins mid-sentence, but part of it may have been removed to serve as a to-do list for Karl.