Austria and Bohemia

Linz

Linz, capital of the province of Lower Austria and situated on the banks the Danube, plays a brief but important role in the life of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Beethoven's brother, Johann, a trained apothecary, bought an apothecary shop in the centre of Linz.

It was located between the main square and the old Danube bridge, and purchased on 13 March 1808 for the sum of 25,000 florins.

Four years later, while Ludwig was staying in the Bohemian spa town of Teplitz, he heard from his brother Carl in Vienna that their younger brother Johann was planning to marry his housekeeper in Linz, Therese Obermayer.

Beethoven was absolutely horrified. He immediately left Teplitz - in late September or early October 1812 - and travelled direct to Linz via Budweis [today Ceske Budewice] in southern Bohemia.

He stayed in Johann's house for little over a month - a stay fraught with tension and emotion. The sole aim of his visit was to persuade Johann of the folly of marrying his housekeeper. Johann remonstrated with him, arguing that it was none of his business.

Ludwig approached the Bishop of Linz, pointing out that Therese already had an illegitimate daughter. When the bishop informed him that was no bar to marriage, Ludwig went to the local police and urged them to arrest Therese. To no avail.

The brothers finally had a huge row in which they almost certainly came to blows. Ludwig left Linz and within the week Johann married Therese.

Beethoven's arrival in Linz had been greeted with a eulogy in the local newspaper, and he was feted during his stay. The local Kapellmeister, Franz Xavier Glöggl, asked Beethoven to compose a set of Equali for trombones that could be used in the church at funerals.

Beethoven complied, and composed the set of three Equali for four trombones, WoO30.

Linz today is a nicely preserved town, the main square dominated by the ubiquitous memorial to the plague that features in most Austrian towns of any size.

It is famous for its sweet cake, and more keen to stress its links with Anton Bruckner, who was church organist, than Adolf Hitler, who went to school there.

The apothecary shop owned by Johann van Beethoven was pulled down when the new iron bridge over the Danube was built in 1872. Ironically a modern pharmacy stands in the square on roughly the spot where Johann's apothecary shop stood.   

© John Suchet