Internet Tips and Tricks: Ludwig Van Beethoven Love Letter: Immortal Beloved

This post is afollow-up to the previous publication on some interesting facts from LudwigVan Beethoven life. One of the reader of this blog sent inquiry related tothe noted mysterious fact from the Beethoven biography, related to his loveletter written to unknown addressee, Immortal Beloved. While there is nodefinite answer from historians, who this woman was, I would like to give someinsights on the topic.

Immortal Beloved Letters

The Immortal Beloved (German Unsterbliche Geliebte) is the mysteriousaddressee of a love letter which composer Ludwig van Beethoven wrote on 6-7July, 1812 in Teplitz. The apparently unsent letter was in found in thecomposer's estate after his death, after which it remained in the hands of AntonSchindler until his death, was subsequently willed to his sister, and was soldby her in 1880 to the Berlin State Library, where it remains today. The letteris written in pencil and consists of three parts.

The sole documentary evidence for the "Immortal Beloved" is asoul-searching and impassioned letter Beethoven wrote in the Bohemian spa ofTeplitz on 6/7 July 1812 (though the year and place are not given) addressed toan unnamed woman whom he must have met on 3 July 1812 in Prague. The wording ofthe letter suggests an existing love relationship of long standing. SinceBeethoven did not specify a year, nor a location, an exact dating of the letterand identification of the addressee was speculative until the 1950's, when ananalysis of the paper's watermark yielded the year, and by extension the place.Scholars have since this time been divided on the intended recipient of theImmortal Beloved letter. The two candidates favored most by contemporaryscholars are Antonie Brentano and Josephine Brunsvik. Other candidates who havebeen conjectured, with various degrees of mainstream scholarly support, areJulie ("Giulietta") Guicciardi, Thér�se von Brunswick, Anna-MarieErdödy, and Bettina Brentano, among several others.

The 1994 film Immortal Beloved has a fictional plotcentered on the mystery of who the letter was addressed to, ultimatelydeclaring Beethoven's lover to be his sister-in-law Johanna van Beethoven.

Text of theLetter

Part 1

July 6th, in themorning
My angel, my all, my very self. - Only a few words today, and, what is more,written in pencil (and with your pencil)-I shan't be certain of my rooms hereuntil tomorrow; what an unnecessary waste of time is all this--Why thisprofound sorrow, when necessity speaks--can our love endure without sacrifices,without our demanding everything from one another, can you alter the fact thatyou are not wholly mine, that I am not wholly yours?--Dear God, look at Naturein all her beauty and set your heart at rest about what must be--Love demandsall, and rightly so, and thus it is for me with you, for you with me-- but youforget so easily that I must live for me and for you; if we were completelyunited, you would fee this painful necessity just as little as I do--My journeywas dreadful and I did not arrive here until yesterday at four o'clock in themorning. As there were few horses the mail coach chose another route, but whata dreadful road it was; at the last state but one I was warned not to travel bynight; attempts were made to frighten me about a forest, but all this onlyspurred me on to proceed--and it was wrong of me to do so.. The coach brokedown, of course, owing to the dreadful road which had not been made up and wasnothing but a country track. If we hadn't had those two postillions I shouldhave been left stranded on the way--On the other ordinary road Esterhazy witheight horses met with the same fate as I did with four--Yet I felt to a certainextent that pleasure I always feel when I have overcome some difficultysuccessfully--Well, let me turn quickly from outer to inner experiences. Nodoubt we shall meet soon; and today also time fails me to tell you of thethoughts which during these last few days I have been revolving about mylife--If our hearts were always closely united, I would certainly entertain nosuch thoughts. My hear overflows with a longing to tell you so manythings--Oh--there are moments when I find that speech is quite inadequate--Becheerful-- and be for ever my faithful, my only sweetheart, my all, as I amyours. The gods must send us everything else, whatever must and shall be ourfate--
Your faithful Ludwig

Part 2

Monday evening,July 6th
You are suffering, you, my most precious one--I have noticed the very momentthat letters have to be handed in very early, on Monday--or on Thursday--theonly days when the mail coach goes from here to K[arlsbad].--You aresuffering--Oh, where I am, you are with me--I will see to it that you and I,that I can live with you. What a life!!!! as it is now!!!! without you--pursuedby the kindness of people here and there, a kindness that I think-that I wishto deserve just as little as I deserve it--man's homage to man--that painsme--and when I consider myself in the setting of the universe, what I am andwhat is the man--whom one calls the greatest of me--and yet--on the other handtherein lies the divine element in man==I weep when I think that probably youwill not receive the first news of me until Saturday--However much you loveme--good night--Since I am taking the baths I must get off to sleep--DearGod--so near! so far! Is not our love truly founded in heaven--and, what ismore, as strongly cemented as the firmament of Heaven?�

Part 3

Good morning, onJuly 7th
Even when I am in bed my thoughts rush to you, my eternally beloved, now andthen joyfully, then again sadly, waiting to know whether Fate will hear ourprayer--To face life I must live altogether with you or never see you. Yes, Iam resolved to be a wanderer abroad until I can fly to your arms and say that Ihave found my true home with you and enfolded in your arms can let my soul bewafted to the realm on blessed spirits--alas, unfortunately it must be so--Youwill become composed, the more so as you know that I am faithful to you; noother woman can ever possess my heart--never--never--Oh God, why must one beseparated from her who is so dear. Yet my life in V[ienna] at present is amiserable life--Your love has made me both the happiest and the unhappiest ofmortals--At my age I now need stability and regularity in my life--can thiscoexist with our relationship?--Angel, I have just heard that the post goesevery day--and therefore I must close, so that you may receive the letterimmediately--Be calm; for only by calmly considering our lives can we achieveour purpose to live together--Be calm--love me--Today--yesterday--what tearfullonging for you--for you--you--my life--my all--all good wishes to you--Oh, docontinue to love me--never misjudge your lover's most faithful heart.

ever yours
ever mine
ever ours

AntonieBrentano (von Birkenstock)

Antonie Brentano was the daughter of Johann-Melchior von Birkenstock. Shewas born in Vienna on May 28,1780, thus 10 years younger than Beethoven. She underwent education with the Ursulineorder in Pressburg.

On July 23, 1798 shemarried the Frankfurt merchant Franz Brentano, 15 years her senior. Her firstchild was born in 1799 but died a year later. She then had four survivingchildren. Maynard Solomon states inhis research that her marriage was seemingly unhappy one.

Antonie'shusband, Frankfurt banker Franz Brentano, became a close friend of Beethovenduring the family's short stay in Vienna, and his half-sister, Bettina vonArnim née Brentano, may have introduced them in 1810. After moving with herhusband to Frankfurt (after their wedding in 1798), Antonie had returned toVienna to minister to her dying father and remained for two years afterwards tosettle his estate, during which time the Brentanos' friendship with Beethovenwas established.

The Brentano's remained in Vienna until late in 1812 - she didn't likeFrankfurt much and was ill most of the time. During her illnesses Beethovenwould often play the piano for her. The Immortal Beloved letters were writtenat a time when it was evident that she would be leaving Vienna. After herdeparture at the end of 1812 she and Beethoven never met again. AntonieBrentano died in 1869 at the age of 89.

Maynard Solomon suggested that Antonie Brentano might have been the"Immortal Beloved" in his research:

She must be awoman well known to Beethoven in Vienna; she must have been in Prague in the firstweek of July 1812; and she must have been in the Bohemian spa town of Karlsbadin the weeks following.

There is an indirect fact, supporting the Somolon's theory of AntonieBrentano been the woman, Beethoven addressed these love letter. There is a diary entry in 1812 on thesubject: "Submission, the most devoutsubmission to your fate, only this can give you the (self-) sacrifice -- for yourobligation. O hard struggle!... You must not be a man, not foryourself, only for others. For you there is no more happiness except inyourself, in your art. -- O God, give me the strength to conquer myself;nothing must chain me to life. In this way with A. everything goes toruin." Whether the "A." is indeed Antonie (it is not clearly an "A'),the important thing here is that Beethoven is feeling rueful after anotherrelationship, perhaps his most intense yet, has gone adrift, but he is rationalizingthis as the price he has to pay for his composing. Some years later, hewould dedicate the Diabelli Variations (opus 120) to Antonie. There is evidence he intended dedicating histwo final Piano Sonatas Opp 110 & 111 to her. There is also a possibilitythat he wrote his song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte [To the Distant Beloved],with her in mind.

On learning ofBeethoven's death, Antonie began noting down the names of her friends who haddied. By the end of her long life the list ran to many pages. The first entryread: "Beethoven, 26 March 1827".