Adventures with Beethoven
Scene Three
Josephine Brunsvik
Josephine Brunsvik, miniature drawn by pencil, before 1804, from Wikipedia
Beethoven had a close connection to the Brunsvik family, especially with two of the daughters, Josephine and Therese, who took piano lessons from Beethoven. Therese also had a piano piece dedicated to her, Sonata No. 24, and some scholars think that she was the inspiration for Für Elise. Beethoven seemed to have a closer connection to Josephine and she apparently reciprocated the feelings. Josephine’s social status, and her family’s financial need after her father’s death, required her to enter into a marriage with someone of a better social standing. She married Joseph Count Deym and the pair seemed to have a happy marriage. Beethoven continued teaching Josephine piano lessons after her marriage and was a regular visitor to the family home, which soon included three children. Unfortunately, Josephine’s husband died suddenly of pneumonia in 1804.
After her husband’s death, Beethoven was a frequent visitor at Josephine’s home, which was questionable behavior according to Josephine’s sister Charlotte. Between 1804-09 the pair exchanged a series of love letters, fifteen of which written by Beethoven survive and were published in 1957; none of Josephine’s actual letters survive but there are a few drafts that were found among her papers. Beethoven wrote two pieces with Josephine in mind, the song “An die Hoffnung” (“To Hope”) and the piano piece Andante favori. Although they tried to keep their relationship hidden from most people, Josephine’s family knew and did not approve; they encouraged her to end the relationship and move on. Josephine knew that marriage to Beethoven was not a realistic outcome because since he was a commoner, she would lose guardianship of her children since they would retain their aristocratic status.
By 1807 Josephine began to pull back from the relationship, largely due to the pressure from her family. Josephine and Theresa embarked on an extended trip in 1808 to find a teacher for Josephine’s two older sons. They met an Estonian baron Christoph von Stackelberg who was interested in Josephine. By the time the sisters returned, Josephine was pregnant and her family was aghast because they did not know this man, he was of a lower rank, and he was not Catholic. After the birth of the child, Maria Laura, Josephine’s mother consented to the marriage which ended up being an unhappy union. The couple frequently fought over money and were brought to financial ruin after they bought an expensive estate. Stackelberg left Josephine and their two young children in the summer of 1812. In her diary, Josephine wrote that she planned to go to Prague; the timing of this trip would have matched the “Immortal Beloved” rendezvous on July 3.
Josephine did try and reconcile with Stackelberg and they agreed to a new marriage contract in August 1812, in which Stackelberg promised not to leave again. He did leave, however, after the birth of a third child in April 1813 (there is some minor speculation that the child, a girl named Minona may have been fathered by Beethoven). The next year Stackelberg returned and took his three children, leaving them in the care of a deacon in Bohemia. Josephine, who was suffering from illness, began a relationship with a mathematics teacher, Karl Eduard von Andrehan-Werburg (known as Andrian), with whom she had a child in 1815. Stackelberg returned one final time to try and reconcile his marriage with Josephine; however, she was not interested in trying to make things work out. She also broke things off with Andrian who took their daughter into his custody.
In the midst of all this tragedy and turmoil, there is evidence that Josephine saw Beethoven again: both were in the city of Baden in 1816; Josephine requested a passport to travel to the city; and Beethoven wrote about the trip in his diary. The end of Josephine’s life was horribly sad: she never saw her three children with Stackelberg again after he took them away; her four children from her first marriage all set out on their own; her child with Andrian died shortly after their relationship ended; and her siblings and mother all withdrew from Josephine, with her mother writing in a letter that Josephine was at fault for the mess she had made of her life. Josephine died March 31, 1821, the same year Beethoven wrote his last two piano sonatas, Nos. 31 and 32. Some listeners hear bits of the Andante favori in these works, the tune which he wrote as a love letter to Josephine.
In the midst of all this tragedy and turmoil, there is evidence that Josephine saw Beethoven again: both were in the city of Baden in 1816; Josephine requested a passport to travel to the city; and Beethoven wrote about the trip in his diary. The end of Josephine’s life was horribly sad: she never saw her three children with Stackelberg again after he took them away; her four children from her first marriage all set out on their own; her child with Andrian died shortly after their relationship ended; and her siblings and mother all withdrew from Josephine, with her mother writing in a letter that Josephine was at fault for the mess she had made of her life. Josephine died March 31, 1821, the same year Beethoven wrote his last two piano sonatas, Nos. 31 and 32. Some listeners hear bits of the Andante favori in these works, the tune which he wrote as a love letter to Josephine.