Русская версияFirst he threw a few books at his servant, then a chair without
registering a trace of sympathy: "After that I had peace and quiet
all day." And when a prince once thought two bassoons would do
instead of three, he replied: "If Your Highness allocates
instruments like that, then I don't give a damn!"
Employees, the nobility, his publishers -- they all got it dished
to them.
One of his biographers called Ludwig van Beethoven the
"bawdy genius."
Brain proprietor
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
"There is only one Beethoven"
Most of what we know about Beethoven comes from his correspondence
and his diary. Much unlike his contemporary Goethe, who he did not
get along very well with, Beethoven was a stranger to
self-stylization.
In his letters he writes about the malevolence of people and about
the class restrictions which refused him contact with the women he
worshipped.
He did not conduct himself as an outstanding nobleman; he even
treated friends to coarse language. When his brother once acquired
some land and signed himself as "van Beethoven, land proprietor,"
Ludwig replied with "van Beethoven, brain proprietor."
To Prince Lichnowsky, one of his appreciators and patrons, he
wrote: "Prince, what you are, you are through chance and birth;
what I am, I am through my own labor. There are many princes and
there will continue to be thousands more, but there is only one
Beethoven."
Beethoven for all
Beethoven's letters and diary are like a quarry from which one can
extract whatever one needs. There are sentences of his that give
the impression that he had a revolutionary disposition, others that
suggest he was elitist.
This ambiguity, together with his new musical aesthetic, later led
to occasionally absurd attempts at exploiting his music: The 9th
symphony sounded in 1937 for Hitler's birthday. And even the news
of Hitler's death was read out on the radio over the 9th symphony.
But even earlier, in the time of the Weimar Republic before the
Second World War, Beethoven was politically exploited. The right
emphasized his supposed hostility towards the French and saw in him
a "titanic fighting spirit." The left equated the revolutionary
quality of his music with revolutionary politics.
That is something which later recurred in East Germany: After the
Second World War Beethoven was used by the GDR propagandists --
Beethoven as a fighter for world peace.
A moody artist
Bildunterschrift:
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:
Beethoven didn't quite fit in
To apply concrete political goals to Beethoven himself is, however,
totally excessive. What he said was far too inconsistent. For
Beethoven it was about finding new paths in music -- new paths
which he carved out dazzlingly.
Beethoven was known for being business minded. Nevertheless he
lived in a rundown house near Vienna and hardly cared about his
appearance. To his contemporaries Beethoven must have seemed
completely unconventional.
Beethoven remained a bachelor, he lived for music -- in the morning
he composed, in the afternoon he went for a walk, at lunchtime he
ate heartily. In many people's eyes he defined the image of a
brilliant but difficult artist -- reinforced by the many hundreds
of paintings and busts of a Beethoven with wildly unkempt hair and
a serious piercing glare.
Beethoven's deafness
One often forgets the aspect that caused the most tragedy in his
life: his deafness.
Beethoven is just over 30 years old when it becomes clear that he
can no longer conceal his worsening hearing. A deaf musician?
"My ears, they whirl and roar night and day," he wrote. Beethoven
considered suicide, withdrew himself from society. He even wrote a
farewell letter which he never sent.
In the letter is one of Beethoven's most famous sentences about
himself: "Oh you people who think me hostile, stubborn and
misanthropic, how you wrong me."
(Deutsche Welle)
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