The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume IThayer, Alexander Wheelock
History
The Life of Ludwig van Beethoven, Volume I
Thayer, Alexander Wheelock
Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827
Christoph von Breuning had five sons: Georg Joseph, Johann Lorenz,
Johann Philipp, Emanuel Joseph and Christoph. Lorenz became chancellor
of the Archdeanery of Bonn, and the _Freiadliges Stift_ at Neuss; after
the death of his brother Emanuel he lived in Bonn so that, as head of
the family, he might care for the education of the latter’s children.
He died there in 1796. Johann Philipp, born 1742 at Mergentheim, became
canon and priest at Kerpen, a place on the old highway from Cologne
to Aix-la-Chapelle, where he died June 12, 1831. Christoph was court
councillor at Dillingen.
Emanuel Joseph continued in the electoral service at Bonn; at the early
age of 20 years he was already court councillor (_Conseiller actuel_).
He married Hélène von Kerich, born January 3, 1750, daughter of Stephan
von Kerich, physician to the elector. Her brother, Abraham von Kerich,
canon and scholaster of the archdeanery of Bonn, died in Coblenz in
1821. A high opinion of the intellect and character of Madame von
Breuning is enforced upon us by what we learn of her influence upon
the youthful Beethoven. Court Councillor von Breuning perished in a
fire in the electoral palace on January 15, 1777. The young widow (she
had barely attained her 28th year), continued to live in the house of
her brother, Abraham von Kerich, with her three children, to whom was
added a fourth in the summer of 1777. Immediately after the death of
the father, his brother, the canon Lorenz von Breuning, changed his
residence from Neuss to Bonn and remained in the same house as guardian
and tutor of the orphaned children. These were:
1. Christoph, born May 13, 1771, a student of jurisprudence at Bonn,
Göttingen and Jena, municipal councillor in Bonn, notary, president of
the city council, professor at the law school in Coblenz, member of the
Court of Review in Cologne, and, finally, _Geheimer Ober-Revisionsrath_
in Berlin. He died in 1841.
2. Eleonore Brigitte, born April 23, 1772. On March 28, 1802, she was
married to Franz Gerhard Wegeler of Beul-an-der-Ahr, and died on June
13, 1841, at Coblenz.
3. Stephan, born August 17, 1774. He studied law at Bonn and Göttingen,
and shortly before the end of the electorship of Max Franz was
appointed to an office in the Teutonic Order at Mergentheim. In the
spring of 1801 he went to Vienna, where he renewed his acquaintance
with Beethoven. They had simultaneously been pupils of Ries in violin
playing. The Teutonic Order offering no chance of advancement to a
young man, he was given employment with the War Council and became
Court Councillor in 1818. He died on June 4, 1827. His first wife
was Julie von Vering, daughter of Ritter von Vering, a military
physician; she died in the eleventh month of her wedded life. He then
married Constanze Ruschowitz, who became the mother of Dr. Gerhard von
Breuning, born August 28, 1813, author of “Aus dem Schwarzspanierhause.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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