Anton Schindler (1795-1864) - photo 1
Anton Schindler (1795-1864) - photo 2
Anton Schindler (1795-1864) - photo 3
Anton Schindler (1795-1864) - photo 4
Anton Schindler (1795-1864) - photo 5

Anton Schindler (1795-1864)

Lot 62
11.12.2024 14:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
£ 1 260
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1349723
Lot 62 | Anton Schindler (1795-1864)
Estimate value
£ 1 000 – 1 500
Anton Schindler (1795-1864)
Autograph letter signed ('A. Schindler') to Gerhard von Breuning, Bockenheim, 6 May 1860
In German. Four pages, 230 x 145mm, bifolium, on blue paper. Envelope. Provenance: Antiquariat Hans Schneider, catalogue 308 (May 1988), no.267.

'Nothing should be preserved that could subsequently give rise to incorrect interpretations': a revealing letter on Schindler's manipulation of biographical information relating to Beethoven. Schindler refers to a question relating to Beethoven's friend Ignaz Sonnleithner: 'the information given is completely sufficient, accordingly I have already consigned the sheet with the conversation between the two Beethoven brothers to the flames. Nothing should be preserved that could subsequently give rise to incorrect interpretations. I believe that it is our mutual duty to ensure this as far as possible, so that Wawruch's very "medical insight" has no successor'; he discusses Beethoven's friend Karl Bernard and documentation of Beethoven's legal proceedings against his sister-in-law, and of Beethoven's will and that of his brother, going on to remark scornfully on a pamphlet by Ludwig Nohl which aims to 'glorify Mozart at the expense of Beethoven ... Mr Nohl predicts that perhaps in a hundred years only the researcher in cultural history will ask after Beethoven and his works, while Mozart, like Raphael, will live in everyone's heart'. The remainder of the letter discusses politics and foreign affairs in the wake of the Austro-Sardinian War, and also the current musical scene, which he describes as 'a terrible desert in which only the large singing societies in Germany and England form the oases'.

Schindler had been Beethoven's unpaid secretary in the 1820s, and later gained possession of a large part of the composer's estate, including many of his conversation books. His biography of Beethoven, published in 1840, had its third edition in 1860: it has become notorious for Schindler's manipulation of sources, including inserting spurious entries into some conversation books and destroying others. In his childhood Gerhard von Breuning (1813-1892) was a close friend of Beethoven's during the composer's last two years: Beethoven nicknamed him 'Ariel' and 'Hosenknopf' (trouser button). He later became an eminent physician in Vienna, and in 1870 published an important memoir of Beethoven. Andreas Ignaz von Wawruch (1782-1842) was Beethoven's doctor at his death, and published a report on his terminal illness.
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