Some things I dug up while researching my novel Beethoven's Assassins.

Beethoven in Fiction
When was Beethoven born?
What caused his deafness?
Who was the “Immortal Beloved”?
Why "Moonlight" Sonata?
Was Beethoven a Freemason?
What was the "Incident at Teplitz"?
Why "Hammerklavier" Sonata?
Who first played the Hammerklavier Sonata?
Bibliography

Was Beethoven a Freemason?

According to Maynard Solomon, "Beethoven's name does not appear on the surviving membership lists of any Masonic or other fraternal society; nor has it ever been claimed that he belonged to a specific lodge or order."¹ Nevertheless, Solomon judged there to be "abundant indications of Beethoven's close associations with Freemasons and Illuminists," and "a variety of remarks and allusions in Beethoven's letters and other writings that may have Masonic overtones."²

Freemasonry in the broadest sense covered a variety of things during Beethoven's lifetime, and its character changed over time in response to the political and social upheavals of the French Revolution, Napoleonic War and post-Napoleonic settlement. As well as serving ideological, moral and political roles, masonic bodies could have a social networking value. There were also bodies that were not masonic as such, but had similar structures. All these factors come into play in the case of Beethoven.

An important body in Bonn society was the Teutonic Order. Like the Knights of Malta – and the extinct Templars who inspired much masonic pseudo-history – the Teutonic Order was a chivalric relic of the Crusades, long past its era of greatest glory, yet surviving as a significant political and economic power. The order had its seat at Mergentheim, with the grandmaster (Hoch-und Deutschmeister) being chosen from the highest levels of nobility. In 1780 the role went to Archduke Maximilian, nephew of the previous incumbent, and brother of the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II. The empire was a large collection of dominions which included most of what is now Germany and Austria, plus other parts. The ruler was formally chosen by a college (Kur), each of whose electoral members was prince (Kürfurst), sometimes also archbishop, of a dominion within the empire. When Maximilian became grandmaster of the Teutonic Order, it was alongside the more significant role of Elector and Archbishop of Cologne. The capital of Maximilian's dominion was the city of Cologne, but his electoral court was in Bonn. From there he made occasional visits to Mergentheim, nearly two hundred miles away, to fulfil duties as grandmaster.

Beethoven's father and grandfather were musicians in the electoral court at Bonn,³ and Beethoven was to become one too. It was in that capacity that he would make at least one trip to Mergetheim with the Elector's entourage.⁴ A family with strong ties to the Teutonic Order, the Breunings, were to play a prominent role in Beethoven's life.

The Elector and his predecessor "numbered prominent Freemasons and members of the quasi-Masonic Order of Illuminati among their most trusted advisors."⁵ The Order of Illuminati had been formed by Adam Weishaupt in Bavaria in the 1770s, ostensibly for the furtherance of Enlightenment values. Much of the later pseudo-history of the organisation may stem from Augustin de Barruel's Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, published in 1797-8, which aimed to prove the order was an atheistic conspiracy that had engineered the French Revolution and sought global subversion of church, state and society. I don't know if the alleged founding date of May 1, 1776 is genuine, but Barruel supplied an entertaining pre-history, given here in a contemporary translation:⁶

"According to this tradition, a Jutland merchant, who had lived some time in Egypt, began in the year 1771 to overrun Europe, pretending to initiate adepts in the antient mysteries of Memphis. But from more exact information I have learned that he stopped for some time at Malta, where the only mysteries which he taught were the disorganizing tenets of the antient Illuminees, of the adopted slave; and these he sedulously infused into the minds of the people. These principles began to expand, and the island was already threatened with revolutionary confusion, when the Knights [of Malta] very wisely obliged our modern Illuminee to seek his safety in flight. The famous Count (or rather mountebank) Cagliostro is said to have been a disciple of his, as well as some other adepts famous for their Illuminism in the county of Avignon and at Lyons. In his peregrinations, it is said, he met with Weishaupt, and initiated him in his mysteries."

In reality, the Order of Illuminati was initially seen as a benign offshoot of Freemasonry, and an officially sanctioned lodge, "Stagira", was formed in Bonn in 1781.⁷ Its members included court musicians Nikolaus Simrock, Franz Ries and C.G. Neefe, all of whom would be significant in Beethoven's life.⁸ Simrock went on to found a major music publishing business, Ries gave Beethoven violin lessons.⁹ Neefe was one of Beethoven's earliest teachers, starting with him some time after 1779, ¹⁰ and advertising him in the press in 1783 as a "youthful genius".¹¹

Attitudes towards Freemasonry changed, and the Stagira lodge "dissolved of its own accord in 1785 rather than await an official prohibition."¹² Neefe disowned the Illuminati, later writing about the organisation, "I uncovered many deficiencies, many human weaknesses, and indeed even worse things, so that I decided once more to distance myself."¹³ In December 1787 a new society was formed that could pursue similar aims legally. "The Bonn Lesegesellschaft (reading society) [...was...] devoted to the dissemination of enlightened thought and literature. Erstwhile Masons and Illuminists flocked into the Lesegesellschaft, which became the center of Bonn's intellectual life."¹⁴ It would commission some of Beethoven's earliest important music.

A significant figure in Beethoven's life was Franz Wegeler, whose memoir tells us when they first met, not how. It was 1782,¹⁵ and Wegeler was a seventeen-year-old medical student in Bonn. Beethoven was twelve, and due to a confusion lasting well into adulthood, would have thought himself only ten. What could have brought them together? Biographer A.W. Thayer thought the date had to be a mistake; Thayer's subsequent editors have considered it unlikely that the punctilious Wegeler could have erred about such an important detail.¹⁶ It's interesting to note that in 1782 the Illuminati were still operating openly, and that Beethoven's music teacher (C.G. Neefe), and Wegeler's university professor (F.W. Kauhlen¹⁷) were both members. If Beethoven and Wegeler were brought together under Illuminist auspices – perhaps some educational event or programme to foster local talent – it might explain Wegeler's reticence in the memoir he wrote years later. It's also noteworthy that while many writers have praised Neefe for his mentorship of Beethoven and recognition of the boy's genius, Wegeler downplayed Neefe's role, saying he "had little influence on the instruction of our Ludwig; indeed he [Beethoven] complained about Neefe's excessively harsh criticism of his first attempts at composition."¹⁸ Wegeler's editor, A.C. Kalischer, doubted this remark,¹⁹ just as Thayer queried the date – but again, there's no need to doubt, if Wegeler was remembering a young boy's grumbles about his teacher.

Wegeler and Beethoven both became regular visitors to the household of Helene von Breuning, remaining so into early adulthood. Helene's deceased husband had held high office in the electoral court; her late father-in-law had done similar service for the Teutonic Order at Mergentheim. Helene's son Stephan von Breuning was destined to be one of Beethoven's closest friends, and an official with the Teutonic Order.²⁰ In 1874 Stephan's ageing son Gerhard recorded what he'd been told of the initial entry of Wegeler and Beethoven into the Breuning household. In his account, the "poor student"²¹ Wegeler was first to become a regular visitor, and by 1782 was "a denizen of the house",²² bringing Beethoven (12 years old) as piano teacher for two of Helene's children (Lenz and Eleonore, aged 5 and 11).

How had Wegeler got to know the Breuning's? According to Gerhard, "Children bring playmates, schoolchildren bring schoolmates home with them."²³ Once again, the dates don't make sense. Wegeler was six years older than the eldest of the four Breuning children (Eleonore). Gerhard, writing in 1874, could have got the piano-teacher story from Wegeler's 1838 book,²⁴ but Wegeler didn't claim to have made the introduction, and from his account it's not clear which of the two – Wegeler or Beethoven – was first to enter the Breuning household. Given Helene's connections to the top level of Bonn society, with its predilection at that time for Freemasonry, and given the social and age gaps between her children and the youths she let them befriend, we can reasonably wonder if some Illuminist-tinged social engineering might have been at play. What everyone in the household shared, Gerhard wrote, was "a general thirst for knowledge, inspired by the widespread literary reforms of the time."²⁵

Wegeler's "daily"²⁶ visits to the Breunings may have been inspired by more than thirst for knowledge. In 1802 he married Eleonore, who on slender evidence has gone down in history as Beethoven's "first serious love".²⁷ In 1825, aged 60 and living in Coblenz , Wegeler wrote to Beethoven after a very long gap, remembering, "my acquaintance and childhood friendship with you, which was limited but blessed," and adding, "the house of my mother-in-law [Helene] was more your house than mine, especially after you lost your own noble mother [in 1787]."²⁸

In his book, Wegeler recalled the arrival in Bonn of "Beethoven's first and in every respect most important patron, his Maecenas, [...] Count Waldstein, Knight of the Teutonic Order and, what is most important in this connection, favorite and constant companion (Liebling und beständiger Gefährte)²⁹ of the young Elector. Subsequently he [Waldstein] became Commander of the Teutonic Order at Virnsberg and Exchequer to the Emperor of Austria. Not just a connoisseur, he was also a practising musician. It was he who in every way possible supported our Beethoven and first appreciated his genius to the full. With his assistance the young artist developed the talent for extemporizing and improvising variations on a given theme. From him he often received financial support, bestowed with such consideration for his easily wounded feelings that Beethoven usually assumed they were small gratuities from the Elector. Beethoven's appointment as organist, his being sent by the Elector to Vienna, etc., were all the Count's doing. That Beethoven dedicated the great and important Sonata in C Major, Opus 53, to him in later years is proof of the undiminished gratitude of the mature man."³⁰

Ferdinand Ernst von Waldstein (1762-1823) came from a large and distinguished family, and is not to be confused with his older brother, Josef Karl von Waldstein (1755-1814). The elder Waldstein is worth briefly considering, though, thanks to his intriguing connection with Giacomo Casanova, which we learn about from the memoirs of the Prince de Ligne:³¹

About the year 1784 Casanova went to Paris for the last time. My nephew, Waldstein, took a fancy to him at the Venetian ambassador's, where they met at dinner. As Waldstein makes a pretence of believing and practising magic, he happened to mention the collar-bones of Samson and Agrippa, and all that sort of thing, which comes very easily to him. " To whom are you telling it ? " cried Casanova. " 0, che hella cosa ! Cospetto ! I am familiar with it all." " Well, then," said Waldstein, "come to Bohemia with me. I start to-morrow."

Casanova, at the end of his money, his travels, and his adventures, agreed ; and thus it was that he became the librarian of a descendant of the great Waldstein [Wallenstein]. As such he passed the last fourteen years of his life at the castle of Dux [Duchcov], near Töplitz [Teplice], the Chantilly of Bohemia, where, for six summers, he made me happy with his imagination, as lively as at twenty, his enthusiasm for me personally, and his useful and agreeable information.

Casanova died at Dux, and is buried there. A painting at Dux Castle shows his erstwhile host holding a copy of the Zohar, bearing witness to Waldstein's keen interest in Kabbalah.³² About twenty miles away from the Waldstein castle at Dux was the home of Count Franz Joseph Thun, "an extravagant Bohemian aristocrat, who was known to his contemporaries as a spiritualist communicating with a spirit named Gablidon, as a magical healer, and as Mozart’s patron."³³ (Thun's magnetic therapy is parodied in Così fan Tutte). Thun was member of a Vienna lodge (Zur wahren Eintracht) from 1783 to 1785, but "His mystical ideas conflicted with the rationalist strain promoted by Ignaz von Born (1742–1791) and Joseph von Sonnenfels (1732–1817)."³⁴ As well as proximity, there was a family connection between the Thuns and Waldsteins. Thun's sister-in law (Elisabeth von Ulfeldt) was married to Georg Christian von Waldstein, uncle of Beethoven's Maecenas.

Ferdinand Ernst Waldstein grew up in Vienna,³⁵ and his early career is summarised in Thayer-Forbes.³⁶ "In the spring of 1784 [aged 22] he was in Venice and Malta hoping in vain to be sent on the Tunisian Campaign [... He] was again in Malta in the spring of 1785. After another year of travels he returned to Austria in the spring of 1786, at which time there was still a year before he was to enter the [Teutonic] order [... The Elector] called him to Bonn, where he arrived between January 29 and February 1, 1788." Waldstein was inducted into the Teutonic Order there, amid great ceremony, on 17th June, 1788. To cover his expenses for the event, Waldstein borrowed money from the Breunings.³⁷

Thayer-Forbes points out an error in Wegeler's claim that it was Waldstein who got Beethoven appointed as court musician. "When Beethoven received his appointment as second organist in 1784, the Count was in Malta [... Nevertheless,] it is conceivable that Beethoven and Waldstein met before the latter's arrival in Bonn." ³⁸ In the spring of 1787, the 16-year-old Beethoven went to Vienna, stayed there "less than two weeks",³⁹ and met Mozart. Mozart had not long before been a guest of Count Thun in Bohemia, leading one scholar to speculate that Waldstein could have met Mozart at Thun's estate in February, 1787, and might then have met Beethoven in Vienna in April.⁴⁰

Waldstein arrived in Bonn after the restrictions that led to the disbandment of the Illuminati and formation of the Bonn Reading Group. Waldstein became a member of that society very soon after his arrival in Bonn at the start of 1788, and became its director in 1794.⁴¹ I haven't found any indication that Waldstein was a practising Freemason. Maynard Solomon would have mentioned any evidence had he found it, but instead described Waldstein simply as Aufklärer,⁴² meaning someone who pursued Enlightenment ideals. Nor can his Kabbalist brother be definitely associated with any lodge: "The classic monograph on eighteenth-century Czech Freemasonry, written by Jan Podškubka, does not mention Joseph Carl Waldstein (although it does mention his brother, Vincenz)."⁴³ Count Vinzenz von Waldstein (1731-97) was actually a relative rather than sibling, but the quote reiterates the absence of evidence in relation to Ferdinand Ernst.

Between Waldstein's arrival in Bonn (when Beethoven had just turned 17) and the composer's departure to Vienna (a few weeks before his 22nd birthday)⁴⁴ there were many opportunities for contact. "The distinction between persons of noble birth and the ordinary citizens of Bonn, who could not afford to own a house [e.g. the Beethovens, who rented], was not sharp enough to prevent a mixture of the two in the salon life of such families as the von Mastiaux, von Breuning, von Belderbusch and Hatzfeld."⁴⁵ Countess Hatzfeld, niece of the Elector and a talented musician⁴⁶ had been instrumental in securing Neefe's position as principal court organist.⁴⁷ Beethoven dedicated a set of piano variations to Countess Hatzfeld (WoO 65) in 1791 – one of his earliest published works.⁴⁸ Count August von Hatzfeld (1754-1787) had been a "beloved friend" of Mozart, and an Illuminist.⁴⁹

Frau Karth, a Bonn resident who knew the Beethoven family, recalled that Waldstein sometimes visited Beethoven's home, and gave him a gift of a piano.⁵⁰ Despite a lack of adequate schooling, in May 1789 Beethoven began attending lectures at the university, whose rector, Kauhlen, was an Illuminist.⁵¹ This made Beethoven ineligible to join the Bonn Reading Group, which barred from membership,⁵² however in February 1790 – probably thanks to Waldstein's influence – the Reading Group commissioned Beethoven to write a cantata (WoO 87) on the death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Joseph II (brother of Elector Maximilian).⁵³

In March 1791, "the local nobility performed in the Ridotto Room a characteristic ballet in old German costume. The author, His Excellency Count Waldstein, to whom the composition and music do honor, had shown in it consideration for the chief proclivities of our ancestors for war, the chase, love and drinking."⁵⁴ The music (Ritterballet, WoO 1) was in fact by Beethoven, who had allowed Waldstein to pass off this "knights' ballet" as his own. In the autumn, Beethoven was part of the large entourage that accompanied the Elector to Mergentheim for a grand meeting of the Teutonic Order.⁵⁵ Beethoven's cantata was rehearsed there, but found too difficult,⁵⁶ and remained unknown until the late 19th century. The emperor it mourned, Joseph II, would be remembered for his liberal policies, and in the reactionary atmosphere arising after the French Revolution, "Josephinist" would come to denote political dissidence of a kind with which Beethoven sympathised.

In 1792 the Elector – possibly at Waldstein's urging⁵⁷ – agreed to send Beethoven to Vienna to study with Haydn. Beethoven's friends put their good wishes in a farewell album where Waldstein wrote:⁵⁸

"Dear Beethoven! You are going to Vienna in fulfillment of your long frustrated wishes. The Genius of Mozart is mourning and weeping over the death of her pupil. She found a refuge but no occupation with the inexhaustible Haydn; through him she wishes to form a union with another. With the help of assiduous labor you shall receive Mozart's spirit from Haydn's hands."

In Vienna, Beethoven was quickly received into aristocratic circles almost as an equal. Partly he was helped by the "van" inherited from Flemish ancestors, which was wrongly taken to be equivalent to "von".⁵⁹ He was also helped by Waldstein's social and family connections. Of special importance was Prince Karl Lichnowsky, son-in-law of the afore-mentioned Count Thun.⁶⁰ Lichnowsky had been "a lodge brother of Mozart's and has also been identified as a member of the Order of Illuminati."⁶¹

Wegeler wrote of Lichnowsky that he "was a great benefactor, indeed friend, of Beethoven. The Prince even took Beethoven into his house as a guest, where he remained for at least a few years. I found him there toward the end of 1794 and he was still there when I left in the middle of 1796. However, Beethoven almost always kept lodgings in the country at the same time."⁶² In June 1800, Beethoven wrote to Wegeler, "Last year he [Lichnowsky] set aside a fixed [annual] sum of 600 florins on which I can draw until I find a position suitable for me."⁶³

Lichnowsky had his own salaried string quartet, and there was regular music-making at his house, where "usually also an amateur, Zmeskall, took part."⁶⁴ Count Nicolaus Zmeskall von Domanovecz und Lestine was a Hungarian lawyer and cellist who had settled in Vienna in 1783 and "soon found his way into aristocratic, freemasonry and musician circles."⁶⁵ Zmeskall became a close friend of Beethoven, and from Wegeler's account one assumes they first met through Lichnowsky; though in notes for a projected biography of Beethoven, Joseph Fischhof (1804-57) wrote, "Through the influence of Z. [Zmeskall... Beethoven] entered the houses of Baron van Swieten, Prince Lichnowsky, Herr Streicher and others who were subsequently of great importance for his career."⁶⁶ According to Maynard Solomon, "Gottfried van Swieten's formal membership in any lodge is undocumented, but there is much evidence of his Masonic leanings."⁶⁷ Swieten came to be "listed on police documents as a clandestine leader, or at least supporter" of the Illuminati."⁶⁸ Solomon concluded, irrespective of who exactly was first in Vienna to take Beethoven under their wing, "On the whole there seems reason to think that Beethoven was initially welcomed in Vienna (and perhaps later on in Prague) by members of a loose network of individuals who were closely allied with Freemasonry or the Order of Illuminati."⁶⁹

Solomon cited a number of passages in Beethoven's writings that could be given a masonic interpretation, noting that fear of revoultion like the one in France gave rise in the early nineteenth century to conspiracy theories "which regarded the Order of Illuminati, the Jacobins, the Knights Templars, the Carbonari, and the Freemasons as indivisible segments of a vast clandestine organization whose aim was the overthrow of organized authority, religious and secular."⁷⁰ The contribution of Barruel's book has already been mentioned here. A further curious manifestation was a dramatic duology by Zacharias Werner, whose two parts were later published in English as The Templars in Cyprus and The Brethren of the Cross. Based on the idea that some survivors of the Templar suppression escaped to Scotland and founded Freemasonry, Werner's drama climaxes with the discovery of a larger organisation with headquarters beneath Paris. In an afterword, Werner highlighted modern parallels, warning darkly that in recent times, "a certain new Order, very difficult to suppress absolutely and entirely, began to reappear in various places shortly after its public extinction, notably in M..."⁷¹ Beethoven copied passages from The Templars in Cyprus into the Tagebuch (commonplace book) he began in 1812, presumably thinking of turning the play into an opera.⁷²

Solomon saw Beethoven's Tagebuch as containing "several explicit Masonic references and a large number of other entries that arguably have Masonic significance."⁷³ He saw this as justification for "reading the Tagebuch as a diary analogous to those that were required to be maintained by candidates in the Order of Illuminati."⁷⁴ While not specifically arguing that Beethoven at this time "was actually associated with, or a member of, an as-yet-unidentified clandestine fraternal society,"⁷⁵ Solomon did not "exclude the possibility that he belonged to a latter-day Lesegesellschaft or informal reading group with strong Masonic or Illuminist leanings."⁷⁶

Along with Barruel and Werner, another writer who warned of international conspiracy was orientalist Joseph von Hammer, an acquaintance of Beethoven.⁷⁷ In History of the Assassins - a work whose inaccuracies about the Ismaili sect remain common currency today – Hammer wrote:⁷⁸

"As the Templars, in many respects, trod in the footsteps of the Assassins, so also did the Jesuits, whose exertions for the aggrandisement of their order, and its preservation, if not by political power, at least by secret connexions and influence, agree entirely with the similar policy of the Assassins after the fall of Alamut. The Assassins were, themselves, as we have seen, a branch of the Ismailites, the proper Illuminati of the east. The institution of their lodge at Cairo; the various grades of initiation; the appellations of master, companions, and novices; the public and the secret doctrine; the oath of unconditional obedience to unknown superiors, to serve the ends of the order; all agree completely with what we have heard and read, in our own days, concerning secret revolutionary societies; and they coincide not less in the form or their constitution, than in the common object of declaring all kings and priests superfluous."

The Napoleonic War stimulated the creation of various nationalist or partisan movements with a masonic character. These included the Prussian Tugendbund, Greek Filiki Eteria (or Hetaeria) and Italian Carbonari. In the post-Napoleonic period, groups of this kind were seen as a potential threat by victorious powers. Student societies were often viewed with suspicion too, and this is significant in regard to Beethoven's friend, amateur violinist Anton Schindler (1795-1864), a law student at Vienna University. He was involved in a nationalistic society whose rules included strict purism in the use of German language – there was a fine for using foreign words.⁷⁹ Schindler first met Beethoven in the spring of 1814, in circumstances he described later in his biography of the composer:

In the winter of 1813-14, a well-to-do music-lover by the name of Pettenkofer used to assemble every Saturday in his home a considerable group of young people to play orchestral music. I was a member of this group, along with several of my university friends, including Dr. Leopold Sonnleithner...⁸⁰

[Anton Pettenkofer (1788-1834) was shipping agent for a wholesale firm.⁸¹ Leopold Sonnleithner (1797-1873) was son of the original librettist of Fidelio, and became in his own right a major figure in Viennese musical life.⁸²]

At such a gathering towards the end of March 1814 one of the musicians next to me asked me to deliver a note from Schuppanzigh, who was his teacher, for he himself was unable to do so.⁸³

[Violinist Ignaz Schuppanzigh (1776 - 1830) had been leader in the 1790s of Prince Lichnowsky's private string quartet,⁸⁴ and from 1808 to 1816 played the same sort of role for the Russian ambassador in Vienna, Count Razumovsky,⁸⁵ who was Lichnowsky's brother-in-law, and son-in-law of the Count Thun mentioned earlier.⁸⁶]

The note concerned a rehearsal that had been proposed, and Beethoven, who was to take part in it, had to answer simply Yes or No. I accepted the commission joyfully.⁸⁷

Schindler took the note next morning, was let in by a servant, and managed to exchange a few words with Beethoven, who was working at his desk.

Soon after this incident [...I] made the acquaintance of Schuppanzigh. He honoured me with a ticket to the concert he had organized for 11 April [1814], when Beethoven himself took part in the first performance of his great trio in B flat major, opus 97 ["Archduke"]. On this occasion I presented myself with somewhat more confidence to the great master and greeted him respectfully. He responded in a friendly manner and showed that he remembered the messenger who had brought him the note. Schuppanzigh invited me to take part in the great concerts of 29 November and 2 December. Thus I had several opportunities of seeing the creator of the A major symphony at close range. This was the unlooked-for beginning of a close relationship. It probably would have gone no further but for a misfortune that soon after befell me.⁸⁸

We'll come to the misfortune in a moment, but first it should be noted how swiftly Schindler's account moved from two very short meetings with Beethoven in spring, to participation in two concerts that Beethoven conducted at the end of the year. They could barely have spoken – Beethoven knew of Schindler's existence, little more. The concerts capped what Schindler later said was "indisputably the most brilliant year of Beethoven's life [...and] also the most rewarding... This was made possible by the extraordinary success of the A major symphony and the Battle of Vittoria, by the revisions he had made in the opera Fidelio, and finally by important historical events."⁸⁹ Those events were the abdication of Napoleon in April 1814, his exile to Elba very soon afterwards, and the congress of victorious powers that began in Vienna in September and lasted for months. Resuming Schindler's account:⁹⁰

In our narrative we have come to the time when the Carbonari had begun to agitate in Italy, as a result of which anyone who moved from one place to another aroused the suspicions of the police. These suspicions were augmented by the sympathies somewhat too loudly expressed by the Austrian people for Napoleon when they learned of his escape from Elba. Young people were particularly vocal in these expressions, and the author [Schindler] was no exception. It was surely only a coincidence that at the same time there occurred a riot among a small fraction of the Viennese students, a riot which in itself was insignificant but which nevertheless drew the attention of the officials, so that one of the most venerated professors was removed from his post.

Towards the end of February 1815 I accepted a teaching assignment in Brünn. Hardly had I arrived there when I received a summons from the police. I was asked what connection I had with the rioters at the university of Vienna, and was requested to give information about certain Italians in Vienna in whose company I had often been observed. To cap it all, my papers were not in order, and the document listing the lectures where I had been in attendance was missing (through no fault of my own), with the result that I was imprisoned despite the offer of a highly placed official to give bond for me. After a few weeks of correspondence back and forth, it was established that I was not a propagandist, and I was released. But a whole year had been lost in my academic pursuits." ⁹¹

Brünn (Brno) was in Schindler's home province of Moravia, so the "teaching assignment" could have been an excuse to flee Vienna following the riot. Also his chronology is skewed, since Napoleon did not escape from Elba until March 1815. It's not clear how long Schindler was imprisoned, nor why he lost a year of study. The important point is that by his own acknowledgment he was suspected of Carbonarist sympathies, and it was this that interested Beethoven when Schindler returned from Moravia.

Once back in Vienna I received through a close acquaintance of Beethoven's an invitation to present myself at a certain place where the master wanted to hear from his own lips the events that had taken place in Brünn. As I talked, Beethoven revealed such warm sympathy and concern over my unfortuante experience that I could not keep back my tears. He invited me to come often at four o'clock in the afternoon to the same place where he was in the habit of coming almost every day to read the newspapers. His handshake said even more.⁹²

Solomon saw the handshake as "meaningful – implying Masonic".⁹³ That might be an over-interpretation, but Schindler did describe the meeting-place as a haunt of political subversives:

We had met in a remote room of the tavern "Zum Blumenstock" in the Ballgässchen. I became a regular visitor to the place, and before long I realized that it was a sort of cell of a small number of Josephinists of the truest dye.⁹⁴

Josephinism, it will be recalled, referred to the liberalism of the late emperor Joseph II, and denoted opposition to the reactionary authoritarianism championed by Austrian statesman Klemens von Metternich. Schindler's account cannot be taken at face value, since he said the episode marked the start of his role as "Beethoven's private secretary",⁹⁵ whereas in fact he only became closely involved in Beethoven's daily affairs in 1823.⁹⁶ What it does seem to show is that Schindler wished to depict Beethoven in 1815 as being the same sort of political subversive that he himself may have been at the time.

In 1820 some French soldiers were arrested, accused of plotting to overthrow the restored monarchy. In Greece the following year, the quasi-masonic Hetaeria played a role in launching an insurrection against Ottoman rule. Reporting on the trial of the French soldiers in 1822, a correspondent for the Edinburgh Magazine wrote that the conspiracy was "described as the work of the sect of Carbonari, which had spread itself in Italy, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, and which invaded France, beginning in Corsica."⁹⁷ The term Carbonari was now being used for any secret movement seeking to overthrow existing authority.

By 1823 – when Schindler became more involved in Beethoven's life – the Greek War of Independence was at its height. This, I think, might explain why Beethoven coined the nickname "Samothracian rapscallion" (Samotrazischer Lumpenkerl) for Schindler, though other explanations have been offered. Schindler himself maintained that it referred to "the Samothracian mysteries (of the mythical heroic age, 2000B.C.), which were based partly on music. He [Beethoven] designated me thus as a sharer in the Beethoven mysteries."⁹⁸ This self-serving explanation would reinforce Schindler's image of himself as Beethoven's closest and most intimate friend (though see comments elsewhere on this site about Franz Oliva). Theodor Frimmel thought the allusion was instead Masonic, signifying "one who was initiated," while Maynard Solomon noted that since the Samothracian deities were a male couple, it was "conceivable" that Beethoven used the word as "a euphemism for what he may have perceived, rightly or not, to be Schindler's sexual orientation."⁹⁹ What seems to have gone unnoticed is the connection with current events. As with later conflicts in Spain or Ukraine, idealists and adventure-seekers from many countries were volunteering to fight for the Greek cause, in what was widely seen as a Carbonarist uprising. Was Beethoven teasing Schindler for his alleged association a decade earlier?

In July 1823, Beethoven addressed Schindler in a letter as "Most excellent L[umpenkerl] of Epirus and not less of Brundusium [Brindisi] and so forth!"¹⁰⁰. Epirus in north-western Greece was scene of a major campaign at the time, while the port of Brindisi was suitable departure point for Italian Carbonarists seeking to join the fight. Equally suggestive is a letter beginning: "Samothracian! Don't trouble to come here until, let us say, a hattisherif has been issued."¹⁰¹ A hattisherif was an Ottoman government edict; Beethoven used the word more than once in letters, jokingly portraying himself as a sultan. The humour may have reflected political conversations at the time. In April 1823, Karl Peters wrote in Beethoven's conversation book, "You are a revolutionary? A carbanaro?" ¹⁰² Beethoven's vocal comment that prompted the written question, or his reply to it, can only be guessed.

References

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