Beethoven

Today I really took the plunge and stepped way beyond the parts of town I had gotten used to.  My first stop of the day was the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetary), where I visited the burial sites of several very famous composers, Beethoven being one of them.

My next stop was to the absolute other side of town, at the Heiligenstadt Park, on my way to the Heiligenstadt Testament House.  In the park there was a memorial of Beethoven which apparently represents him very well.  This park used to be natural baths, where Beethoven would go to in hope to find a cure for his deafness.

I then walked from there to the Heiligenstadt Testament House,  in the suburbs of Vienna, where Beethoven spent some summers in hopes to have peace and quiet to work on his compositions.  It is here, and in the middle of writing his Symphony No. 2, that he realized his deafness was incurable.





It was here where Beethoven wrote this letter to his brothers, but never sent to them.


"Oh you men who think or say that I am malevolent, stubborn, or misanthropic, how greatly do you wrong me? You do not know the secret cause which makes me seem that way to you. From childhood on, me heart and soul have been full of the tender feeling of goodwill, and I was ever inclined to accomplish great things. But, think that for six years now I have been hopelessly afflicted, made worse by senseless physicians, from year to year deceived with hopes of improvement, finally compelled to face the prospect of a lasting malady (whose cure will take years or, perhaps, be impossible)."

You may view the full testament, here:  Heiligenstadt Testament