The co-organizer of the Schäftlarn concerts, Anja Brandstäter, has now made an exciting discovery.
There is a reference to Ludwig van Beethoven in Schäftlarn Abbey.
Schäftlarn - His 250th birthday was actually supposed to be celebrated last year: Ludwig van Beethoven, born in Bonn in 1770, piano virtuoso and composer.
However, due to the corona, most of the concerts in honor of the great master were canceled.
A point that Anja Brandstäter, co-organizer of the Schäftlarn concerts, more than regretted. But for the 53-year-old, 2020 became, so to speak, her personal Beethoven year, just completely different than expected. During a visit to Schäftlarn Abbey, the prior and archivist Father Norbert Piller pointed out a plaque in the cemetery that the Beethoven Society in Munich had put up. A certain Countess Anna Maria von Erdödy, née Countess von Niczky, born in 1779, died in 1837, had found her final resting place here. During her lifetime, the noblewoman from Hungary was considered a close friend and supporter of Beethoven.
Brandstaetter's curiosity was aroused: “Father Norbert literally put a flea in my ear here.” She began to research, scoured Beethoven biographies for clues about the name Erdödy, inquired in archives, but found only a limited number of items.
"She will not find," the 53-year-old said in retrospect, "the place that would have been worthy of her." Countess Anna Maria von Erdödy, at that time still married to Count Péter von Erdödy zu Monyorokerék and Monte Claudio, and mother of three children, met Beethoven in Vienna.
He even lived in her apartment on Krugerstrasse for a year.
“But it wasn't a love affair,” emphasizes Brandstäter.
When the composer was in trouble
The reason was rather: Beethoven was in financial difficulties. “He always wanted a permanent position at the court. But the state coffers were empty, among other things because of the Napoleonic Wars. ”Three nobles initially agreed to support the musician. "However, one died in 1812 and another went bankrupt because of the inflation in 1811."
Beethoven faced another problem: his hearing deteriorated more and more, over time he became almost completely deaf.
Again the Countess proved to be a generous supporter.
She made her country house in Jedlesee near Vienna available to the composer, even if the coexistence between the great artist, his visitors and the employees was anything but easy.
"Because of his hearing loss, he became more and more harsh and annoyed people," says Brandstäter.
In letters to Countess Erdödy that Alfred Schöne published in 1867, however, he repeatedly apologized verbatim.
"Often they started with five times, dear ... dear ... dear ... dear ... dear Countess' and ended with greetings to the children, your true friend and admirer Beethoven."
Countess suffered from rheumatism
The noblewoman couldn't be angry with him. After the birth of her three children, she suffered from severe rheumatism. “I think”, thinks Brandstäter out loud, “that the illness and the accompanying understanding of the other's weaknesses was a point that connected both of them.” Beethoven also reciprocated in his own way. “He wrote two piano trios and two cello sonatas for the Countess,” says Brandstäter. “Because she played the piano excellently and was able to forget her own pain while listening to the music.” Then the countess was expelled from Austria. She had taken in an artist who could not produce any papers and was caught. Your new address: Munich.
Here, in her apartment on the corner of Damenstiftstrasse and Josephspitalstrasse, Countess Erdödy died - exactly ten years after Beethoven, at the age of 58.
The cause of death, as the arsonist found out after searching death books and death registers, was "paralysis".
Then why was she buried in Schäftlarn?
How did this connection come about?
The researcher explains the offspring
The 53-year-old used modern media and found a descendant: the 80-year-old László Graf von Erdödy. Fire perpetrator laughs. "When he called me back and heard of my request, his first words were, 'You know, Anna Maria was a very famous woman'." He sent copies of a booklet that Erich Krapf published on the occasion of Erdödy's 150th anniversary of death in 1987 . This is where Brandstäter found the answer to their question. At that time Schäftlarn was a spa in which the countess promised to alleviate her suffering and was a returning guest over time. "In her will she ordered to be buried here, because: 'Here I enjoyed my last, happy days, simply and without banter."