Karl van Beethoven (Nephew)

Karl van Beethoven, son of Carl and Johanna, was the only child of the three Beethoven brothers, and thus the sole Beethoven of the next generation.

Beethoven, his uncle, saw Karl as the Beethoven to carry the illustrious musical name forward. Even before Carl's death, Beethoven saw himself as guardian of his nephew, determined to rescue him from the clutches of his (as he saw it) immoral mother.

The protracted legal action that Beethoven waged against his sister-in-law is testament to his overriding determination to be in sole control of Karl's destiny.

In time he came to see himself as Karl's father, and pleaded with the boy to accept that.

Karl, naturally, was confused emotionally. The legal action took place while he was aged between ten and 14. He had the strain of that - at one hearing having to stand up in court and give evidence - as well as coping with the death of his father and the obvious distress of his mother.

Beethoven - after winning custody of Karl -- forbade him to see his mother. The boy frequently disobeyed him, running away to be with her. On one occasion Beethoven called the police to have him forcibly returned.

Beethoven placed Karl in a series of schools, most notably Giannatasio del Rio's and Joseph Blöchlinger's. Determined that Karl should become a musician, Beethoven ordered his pupil Carl Czerny to give him lessons. Beethoven refused to listen when Czerny told him the boy had no musical talent.

Karl lived unhappily with his uncle for a time before becoming a student of philology at the University of Vienna in 1824. Shortly after, he informed his uncle of his intention to pursue a military career - which sent Beethoven into paroxysms of rage.

In July 1826, in a state of supreme emotional turmoil, Karl buys a pistol with the intention of committing suicide. His landlord finds out and alerts Beethoven.

On 29 July Karl pawns his watch and buys another pistol. With both pistols and a supply of gunpowder he climbs to the Rauhenstein ruins in Baden - where he had so often climbed with his uncle - loads both guns and puts the first to his head. He misses. With the other he grazes his temple.

When he is found, he asks to be taken to his mother's house. The combination of the attempted suicide and Karl's return to his mother devastates Beethoven. It is fair to say he never truly recovers from the shock. It is final proof he has failed in his attempt to be father to Karl.

In August Karl is admitted to hospital where - as a potential suicide - he is forced to undergo religious instruction.

In September Beethoven takes Karl to stay with Johann and Therese at Gneixendorf for a fraught stay that lasts until the two brothers fall out irreconcilably and Beethoven leaves with Karl for Vienna on 1 December.

One month later, on 2 January, Karl leaves for military service in Iglau in Bohemia, his hair combed forward to hide the scar of the bullet wound. He says goodbye to his uncle in an unemotional meeting - though he certainly knows Beethoven is mortally ill.

It turns out to be the last time he sees him. He fails to return to Vienna before Beethoven's death on 26 March 1827, though he takes part in the funeral three days later.

Karl van Beethoven left the army in 1832, marrying Caroline Naske in the same year. They had four daughters and a son, whom they named Ludwig. Karl briefly tried his hand at managing property, but was able to live comfortably as a private citizen on his inheritance from his uncles. He died at the age of 52 from liver disease. His wife outlived him by 33 years.

Their only son emigrated to America, where he worked for the Michigan Central Railroad Company of Detroit. He married a concert pianist, Maria Nitsche. Their only son Karl Julius died childless, and thus the Beethoven name died out.

The only contemporary image of Karl van Beethoven - an unsigned miniature portrait - shows him in military uniform, his hair combed forward to hide the gunshot wound. He has a sensitive, almost feminine face, with large dark eyes and full lips.

Nikolaus followed his brother Ludwig to Vienna in December 1795, expressing the wish to be known from then onwards as Johann, in memory of the brothers' late father.

Johann had trained in Bonn as a pharmacist and took a position as pharmacist's assistant in Vienna.

In March 1808 he bought an apothecary shop in Linz in Lower Austria, almost immediately falling into debt to such an extent that he was threatened with bankruptcy.

He first sold the iron gratings of the windows, but the small amount he made quickly ran out. He then had two pieces of good fortune.

First he discovered that the jars and pots on his shelves were made of pure solid English tin. Napoleon's ban on any trade in English goods raised their value enormously - Johann sold them for good money and replaced them with pots made of earthenware.

Then, in 1809, Napoleon invaded Austria and laid siege to Vienna. The French Emperor established his base camp in Linz and it was to there that he shipped his wounded soldiers. Johann van Beethoven was perfectly placed to supply all the French army's medical needs.

Thus Johann made his fortune - at the same time becoming enormously unpopular locally, since he had in effect collaborated with the enemy.

With his new-found wealth, Johann bought an estate at Gneixendorf, a village near Krems on the Danube west of Vienna, which Ludwig visited with his nephew Karl in the last full year of his life.

Ludwig's relationship with Johann was hardly less fraught than with his other brother, Carl. To begin with he simply could not come to terms with the apparently trivial decision of his brother to decide he should be addressed as Johann after his arrival in Vienna. In the famous Heiligenstadt Testament of 1802, addressed to his brothers, Ludwig could not bring himself to write the name 'Johann'. It is difficult to understand Ludwig's reasoning, other than as an awakening of a deep-seated resentment towards his father.

In 1812 Johann announced his intention of marrying his housekeeper in Linz, Therese Obermeyer. Ludwig was in the Bohemian spa resort of Teplitz, in the months following his own ill-fated love affair with the 'Eternally Beloved'. When he learned of Johann's intention, he left immediately for Linz to confront his brother and convince him of the unsuitability of his housekeeper as wife - a woman who would carry the name 'Beethoven'.

Johann, in no uncertain terms, told Ludwig to mind his own business; his choice of wife was his own. Ludwig, in characteristic fury, first tried to persuade the local Bishop to refuse to marry the pair, on the grounds - as he had discovered - that Therese already had a small daughter by another man. The Bishop refused to intervene. Beethoven then applied to the civil authorities to have Therese expelled from Linz on the grounds that she had no right to be living there. The authorities took no action.

Finally, it is said, the two brothers had a furious row and came to blows, after which Ludwig left Linz for Vienna. On 8 November Johann married Therese.

But this marriage - as with that of Carl and Johanna - was to be unhappy; the couple had no children. The American Beethoven scholar Maynard Solomon says that the three Beethoven brothers were simply ill-equipped for marriage.

Johann van Beethoven was not, by general recognition, a man of great intellect. When, after purchasing the estate in Gneixendorf, he signed a letter to Ludwig, 'From your brother Johann, landowner', Ludwig signed his reply, 'From your brother Ludwig, brain owner'.

Carl Czerny gives us a description of Johann as terse as that of Carl: 'Johann: large, dark, a handsome man and complete dandy.'

Gerhard von Breuning, son of Ludwig's best friend, Stephan von Breuning, gives a more voluble - and devastating - critique of Johann, which I quote (almost) in full.

'For some years after the death of the great "brain owner", his brother, the "landowner", played a strange, naive role. During Ludwig's life Johann's interest in his works was limited to possible gain from them; now he tried to present himself as an appreciative admirer. At concert performances of music by his deceased brother he would sit in the first row, all got up in a blue frock coat with white vest, and loudly shriek Bravos from his big mouth at the end of every piece, beating his bony white-gloved hands together importantly. These oversize gloves, with their flapping fingers, could often be seen elsewhere as well, in the elegant drives in the Prater ...

'All this pretentiousness and in general the overall appearance of Johann - who bore no physical resemblance to Ludwig: he had a long face, big nose, one eye squinting outwards, giving his face an expression of perpetual self-satisfaction - earned him the nickname of "Archduke Lorenz", from the familiar proverb about people who endeavour to put on a great show and conduct themselves ridiculously in the process. Johann died in Vienna in January 1848. He proved to be as preposterous after his brother's death as he had been contemptible during his brother's life.'