Exhibited: The Beethovens on the Rhine (2020). Text label: Beethoven, head of the household The domestic situation in the Beethoven family altered dramatically with the death of Beethoven’s mother in 1787. Beethoven was then sixteen years old, with two younger brothers (Caspar Carl and Nikolaus Johann, aged thirteen and ten) and an infant sister (Maria Margaretha Josepha, who would not live to see her first birthday). Their father Johann had increasingly frequent bouts of drunkenness and his singing career was in jeopardy as his voice began to fail. Beethoven, who was already working full time as a court musician, had to take responsibility for the family since his father was no longer capable of doing so. In 1789, Beethoven petitioned the Elector for his father to retire and for the pension to be paid directly to him, so that he could support the family and pay off his father’s debts. The Elector agreed, initially on the condition that Johann be sent away from Bonn, as often happened in the case of alcoholics. Eventually a compromise was reached: Johann was allowed to stay and keep half of his pension, with the rest going to his oldest son. Beethoven’s experience of becoming head of the household by the age of eighteen shaped his attitude to money and family responsibility. For the rest of his life, he was very careful with money and constantly worried about not having enough, particularly after he became guardian of his young nephew following brother Carl’s death in 1815.
