The von Breuning Family--Beethoven Brought Under Refining
Influences--Count Waldstein, His Mæcenas--The Young Musician is
Forced to Become Head of the Family.
In 1527, the year in which the administration of the office of
_Hochmeister_ of the Teutonic Order was united with that of the
_Deutschmeister_, whose residence had already been fixed at Mergentheim
in 1525, this city became the principal seat of the order. From
1732 to 1761 Clemens Augustus was _Hoch- und Deutschmeister_ of the
order; according to the French edition of the Court Calendar of 1761,
Christoph von Breuning was _Conseiller d’État et Référendaire_, having
succeeded his father-in-law von Mayerhofen in the office.
BEETHOVEN’S FRIENDS: THE VON BREUNINGS
Christoph von Breuning had five sons: Georg Joseph, Johann Lorenz,
Johann Philipp, Emanuel Joseph and Christoph. Lorenz became chancellor
of the Archdeanery of Bonn, and the _Freiadliges Stift_ at Neuss; after
the death of his brother Emanuel he lived in Bonn so that, as head of
the family, he might care for the education of the latter’s children.
He died there in 1796. Johann Philipp, born 1742 at Mergentheim, became
canon and priest at Kerpen, a place on the old highway from Cologne
to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he died June 12, 1831. Christoph was court
councillor at Dillingen.
Emanuel Joseph continued in the electoral service at Bonn; at the early
age of 20 years he was already court councillor (_Conseiller actuel_).
He married Hélène von Kerich, born January 3, 1750, daughter of Stephan
von Kerich, physician to the elector. Her brother, Abraham von Kerich,
canon and scholaster of the archdeanery of Bonn, died in Coblenz in
1821. A high opinion of the intellect and character of Madame von
Breuning is enforced upon us by what we learn of her influence upon
the youthful Beethoven. Court Councillor von Breuning perished in a
fire in the electoral palace on January 15, 1777. The young widow (she
had barely attained her 28th year), continued to live in the house of
her brother, Abraham von Kerich, with her three children, to whom was
added a fourth in the summer of 1777. Immediately after the death of
the father, his brother, the canon Lorenz von Breuning, changed his
residence from Neuss to Bonn and remained in the same house as guardian
and tutor of the orphaned children. These were:
1. Christoph, born May 13, 1771, a student of jurisprudence at Bonn,
Göttingen and Jena, municipal councillor in Bonn, notary, president of
the city council, professor at the law school in Coblenz, member of the
Court of Review in Cologne, and, finally, _Geheimer Ober-Revisionsrath_
in Berlin. He died in 1841.
2. Eleonore Brigitte, born April 23, 1772. On March 28, 1802, she was
married to Franz Gerhard Wegeler of Beul-an-der-Ahr, and died on June
13, 1841, at Coblenz.
3. Stephan, born August 17, 1774. He studied law at Bonn and Göttingen,
and shortly before the end of the electorship of Max Franz was
appointed to an office in the Teutonic Order at Mergentheim. In the
spring of 1801 he went to Vienna, where he renewed his acquaintance
with Beethoven. They had simultaneously been pupils of Ries in violin
playing. The Teutonic Order offering no chance of advancement to a
young man, he was given employment with the War Council and became
Court Councillor in 1818. He died on June 4, 1827. His first wife
was Julie von Vering, daughter of Ritter von Vering, a military
physician; she died in the eleventh month of her wedded life. He then
married Constanze Ruschowitz, who became the mother of Dr. Gerhard von
Breuning, born August 28, 1813, author of “Aus dem Schwarzspanierhause.”
4. Lorenz (called Lenz, the posthumous child), born in the summer of
1777, studied medicine and was in Vienna in 1794-97 simultaneously with
Wegeler and Beethoven. He died on April 10, 1798 in Bonn.[39]
Madame von Breuning, who died on December 9, 1838, after a widowhood of
61 years, lived in Bonn until 1815, then in Kerpen, Beul-an-der-Ahr,
Cologne and finally with her son-in-law, Wegeler, in Coblenz.
The acquaintance between Beethoven and Stephan von Breuning may have
had some influence in the selection of the young musician as pianoforte
teacher for Eleonore and Lorenz,[40] an event (in consideration of
circumstances already detailed and of the ages, real and reputed,
of pupils and master) which may be dated at the close of the year
1787, and which was, perhaps, the greatest good that fate, now become
propitious, could have conferred upon him; for he was now so situated
in his domestic relations, and at such an age, that introduction into
so highly refined and cultivated a circle was of the highest value to
him both morally and intellectually. The recent loss of his mother
had left a void in his heart which so excellent a woman as Madame
von Breuning could alone in some measure fill. He was at an age when
the evil example of his father needed a counterbalance; when the
extraordinary honors so recently paid to science and letters at the
inauguration of the university would make the strongest impression;
when the sense of his deficiencies in everything but his art would
begin to be oppressive; when his mental powers, so strong and healthy,
would demand some change, some recreation, from that constant strain in
the one direction of music to which almost from infancy they had been
subjected; when not only the reaction upon his mind of the fresh and
new intellectual life now pervading Bonn society, but his daily contact
with so many of his own age, friends and companions now enjoying
advantages for improvement denied to him, must have cost him many a
pang; when a lofty and noble ambition might be aroused to lead him
ever onward and upward; when, the victim of a despondent melancholy,
he might sink into the mere routine musician, with no lofty aims,
no higher object than to draw from his talents means to supply his
necessities and gratify his appetites.
There must have been something very engaging in the character of the
small, pockmarked youth, or he could not have so won his way into the
affections of the Widow von Breuning and her children. In his “Notizen”
Wegeler writes:
In this house reigned an unconstrained tone of culture in spite
of youthful wilfulness. Christoph von Breuning made early
essays in poetry, as was the case (and not without success)
with Stephan von Breuning much later. The friends of the family
were distinguished by indulgence in social entertainments which
combined the useful and the agreeable. When we add that the family
possessed considerable wealth, especially before the war, it will
be easy to understand that the first joyous emotions of Beethoven
found vent here. Soon he was treated as one of the children of
the family, spending in the house not only the greater part of
his days, but also many nights. Here he felt that he was free,
here he moved about without constraint, everything conspired to
make him cheerful and develop his mind. Being five years older
than Beethoven I was able to observe and form a judgment on these
things.
It must not be forgotten that besides Madame von Breuning and her
children the scholastic Abraham von Kerich and the canon Lorenz von
Breuning were members of the household. The latter especially seems
to have been a fine specimen of the enlightened clergy of Bonn who,
according to Risbeck, formed so striking a contrast to the priests
and monks of Cologne; and it is easy to trace Beethoven’s life-long
love for the ancient classics--Homer and Plutarch at the head--to
the time when the young Breunings would be occupied with them in the
original under the guidance of their accomplished tutor and guardian.
The uncle, Philipp von Breuning, may also have been influential in the
intellectual progress of the young musician, for to him at Kerpen “the
family von Breuning and their friends went annually for a vacation of
five or six weeks. There, too, Beethoven several times spent a few
weeks right merrily, and was frequently urged to play the organ,” as
Wegeler tells us in the “Notizen.” There let him be left enjoying
and profiting by his intimacy with that family, and returning their
kindness in some measure by instructing Eleonore and Lenz in music,
while a new friend and benefactor is introduced.
COUNT WALDSTEIN’S ARRIVAL IN BONN
Emanuel Philipp, Count Waldstein and Wartemberg von Dux, and his wife,
a daughter of Emanuel Prince Lichtenstein, were parents of eleven
children. The fourth son was Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel, born March 24,
1762. Uniting in his veins the blood of many of the houses of the
Austrian Empire, there was no career, no line of preferment open to
younger sons of titled families, which was not open to him, or to which
he might not aspire. It was determined that he should seek activity
in the Teutonic Order, of which Max Franz was Grand Master. According
to the rules and regulations of the order, the young nobleman came to
Bonn to pass his examinations and spend his year of novitiate. Could
the time of his arrival there be determined with certainty, the date
would have a most important bearing either to confirm or disprove the
chronological argument of some of our earlier pages; but one may well
despair of finding so unimportant an event as the journey of a young
man of 25 from Vienna to the Rhine anywhere upon record. One thing
bearing directly upon this point may be read in the “Wiener Zeitung”
of July 2, 1788. A correspondent in Bonn says that on “the day before
yesterday,” i.e., June 17, 1788, “our gracious sovereign, as Hoch- und
Deutschmeister, gave the accolade with the customary ceremonies to the
Count von Waldstein, who had been accepted in the Teutonic Order.”
Allowing for the regular year of novitiate, the Count was certainly in
Bonn before the 17th of June, 1787.
The misfortune of two unlucky Bohemian peasants, strange as it may
seem, gives us, after the lapse of a century, a satisfactory solution
of the difficulty. Some one reports in the “Wiener Zeitung” of May, 19,
1787, that on the 4th of that month two peasant houses were destroyed
by fire in the village of Likwitz belonging to Osegg, and adds: “Count
Ferdinand von Waldstein, moved by a noble spirit of humanity, hurried
from Dux, took charge of affairs and was to be found wherever the
danger was greatest.” It was between May 4 and June 17, 1787, that
Waldstein parted from his widowed mother and journeyed to the place of
his novitiate. His name may easily have become known to Wegeler before
the latter’s departure from Bonn for Vienna.[41] Here follows what the
good doctor says of the Count--to what degree correct or mistaken, the
reader can determine for himself:
The first, and in every respect the most important, of the
Mæcenases of Beethoven was Count Waldstein, Knight of the Teutonic
Order, and (what is of greater moment here) the favorite and
constant companion of the young Elector, afterwards Commander of
the Order at Virnsberg and Chancellor of the Emperor of Austria.
He was not only a connoisseur but also a practitioner of music.
He it was who gave all manner of support to our Beethoven, whose
gifts he was the first to recognize worthily. Through him the
young genius developed the talent to improvise variations on
a given theme. From him he received much pecuniary assistance
bestowed in such a way as to spare his sensibilities, it being
generally looked upon as a small gratuity from the Elector.
Beethoven’s appointment as organist, his being sent to Vienna by
the Elector, were the doings of the Count. When Beethoven at a
later date dedicated the great and important Sonata in C major,
Op. 53, to him, it was only a proof of the gratitude which lived
on in the mature man. It is to Count Waldstein that Beethoven owed
the circumstance that the first sproutings of his genius were not
nipped; therefore we owe this Mæcenas Beethoven’s later fame.
Frau Karth remembered distinctly the 17th of June upon which Waldstein
entered the order, the fact being impressed upon her mind by a not very
gentle reminder from the stock of a sentinel’s musket that the palace
chapel was no place for children on such an occasion. She remembered
Waldstein’s visits to Beethoven in the years following in his room in
the Wenzelgasse and was confident that he made the young musician a
present of a pianoforte.
To save his line from extinction the Count obtained a dispensation from
his vows and married (May 9, 1812) Maria Isabella, daughter of Count
Rzewski. A daughter, Ludmilla, was born to him; but no son. He died on
August 29, 1823, and the family of Waldsteins of Dux disappears. While
all that Wegeler says of this man’s kindness in obtaining the place of
organist for Beethoven and of his influence upon his musical education
is one grand mistake,[42] there is no reason whatever to doubt that
those qualities which made the youth a favorite with the Breunings,
added to his manifest genius, made their way to the young count’s
heart and gained for Beethoven a zealous, influential and active
friend. Still, in June, 1778, Waldstein possessed no such influence as
to render a petition for increase of salary, offered by his protégé,
successful. That document has disappeared, but a paper remains, dated
June 5, concerning the petition, which is endorsed “Beruhet.” Whatever
this word may here mean it is certain that Ludwig’s salary as organist
remained at the old point of 100 thalers, which, with the 200 received
by his father, the three measures of grain and the small sum that he
might earn by teaching, was all that Johann van Beethoven and three
sons, now respectively in their eighteenth, fifteenth and twelfth
years, had to live upon; and therefore so much the more necessity for
the exercise of Waldstein’s generosity.
LUDWIG THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY
After the death of the mother, says Frau Karth, a housekeeper was
employed and the father and sons remained together in the lodgings in
the Wenzelgasse. Carl was intended for the musical profession; Johann
was put apprentice to the court apothecary, Johann Peter Hittorf.
Two years, however, had hardly elapsed when the father’s infirmity
compelled the eldest son, not yet nineteen years of age, to take the
extraordinary step of placing himself at the head of the family. One of
Stephan von Breuning’s reminiscences shows how low Johann van Beethoven
had sunk: viz., that of having seen Ludwig furiously interposing to
rescue his intoxicated father from an officer of police.
Here again the petition has disappeared, but its contents are
sufficiently made known by the terms of the decree dated November 20,
1789:
His Electoral Highness having graciously granted the prayer of
the petitioner and dispensed henceforth wholly with the services
of his father, who is to withdraw to a village in the electorate,
it is graciously commanded that he be paid in accordance with
his wish only 100 rthr. of the annual salary which he has had
heretofore, beginning with the approaching new year, and that the
other 100 thlr. be paid to the suppliant’s son besides the salary
which he now draws and the three measures of grain for the support
of his brothers.
It is probable that there was no intention to enforce this decree
in respect of the withdrawal of the father from Bonn, and that this
clause was inserted _in terrorem_ in case he misbehaved himself; for
he continued, according to Frau Karth, to dwell with his children, and
his first receipt, still preserved, for the reduced salary is dated
at Bonn--a circumstance, however, which alone would prove little or
nothing.
FOOTNOTES:
[39] Dr. Deiters, differing with Thayer on the subject of the date of
the beginning of the intimacy between Beethoven and the von Breuning
family, omitted in the revised version of the Beethoven biography the
author’s comments on the brief biographical data concerning the sons,
which were as follows: “These dates, communicated by Dr. Gerhard, son
of Stephan von Breuning, prove a singular inaccuracy in Wegeler’s
remark (‘Nachtrag zur Notizen,’ page 26): ‘Lenz, as the youngest of the
three brothers, was nearest to Beethoven in age.’” Of Stephan he says:
“Inasmuch as he had lived in intimate association with Beethoven from
his tenth year up to his death.” Many a proof of this general fact will
hereafter appear; but whether this “intimate association” began quite
so early is a question. The two were at the same time pupils of Franz
Ries on the violin, and they may well have become acquainted in 1785
or 1786; but it was not favorable to extreme intimacy that four years’
difference existed in their ages; and that the one was but a schoolboy
while the other was already an organist, an author and accustomed to
move among men.
[40] Gerhard von Breuning would have it appear from a statement on
page 6 of his book “Aus dem Schwarzspanierhause,” that Beethoven was
recommended to the von Breunings by Wegeler.
[41] Dr. Wegeler’s grandson, in his criticism of Thayer’s assertions
concerning the date of the beginning of the acquaintance between
Beethoven and the von Breunings, falls foul of even this ingenious
demonstration, saying that the incident of the conflagration might have
taken place when Count Waldstein was at home visiting his mother. He
could not believe that the Count had spent all of the first 24 years
of his life at Dux in “idyllic solitude,” and argued that he might
have visited Bonn _for the first time_ at an earlier date than 1787.
Dr. Deiters held that the point was well taken; as if there was no
alternative for the young count between “idyllic solitude” at Dux and a
sojourn at Bonn!
[42] Thus in Mr. Thayer’s original manuscript. Dr. Deiters omitted the
remark in his revision, but it is here permitted to stand along with
other controverted matters.