Economic Circumstances of the Beethoven Household in Bonn

Abstract

A review of contemporary documents suggests that, contrary to wide-spread assertions in the earlier biographical literature, Beethoven did not spend his entire childhood and youth in highly straitened circumstances, let alone in what Alexander Wheelock Thayer and others called "great poverty." His grandfather, as court Kapellmeister and wine dealer, had a substantial income. And Beethoven's father, Johann, earned amounts from his activities as a court musician and teacher normally sufficient to support a family in a modest way. Upon the Kapellmeister's death, on 24 December 1773, Johann became sole heir to a sizable estate, consisting of a legacy in cash, household possessions, accounts receivable, and outstanding loans, advances, and mortgages. In the course of time the inheritance was largely but not entirely dissipated, and, despite the addition of income from Beethoven's own activities as court musician, composer, and virtuoso keyboard performer, the family lived in precarious but not debt-ridden circumstances.