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The van Beethoven family was a family which included a number of musicians, only one of whom was a notable composer: the world-famous Ludwig van Beethoven.
Origins of the surname
The exact origins of van Beethovens surname are unknown, various theories have been proposed. The Meertens Institute, an authoritative body on Dutch surnames, notes it as being a derived from a toponym, supported by the tussenvoegsel "van", which could point towards the village of Beets, in the Dutch province of North Holland.Other theories are that it derives from an old spelling variant of Betuwe, a region in the Eastern Netherlands, while others claim 'Beethof' (plural: Beethoven) was a poetical term for a kind of public orchard. The name seems to have died out in the Netherlands, as it was not noted in the most recent national census, but some people still bear the name in the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. In Germany the name disappeared in 1917, when the last great great grandchild of Karl van Beethoven (Ludwigs brother) died.
Ancestors of Ludwig van Beethoven
- Jan van Beethoven (born 1470 - died ?) his place of birth or residence are unknown, but is likely to have been the area currently included within the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant, possible Kampenhout, as most of his descendants lived there and in the province of Antwerp until they relocated to Bonn in the Archdiocese of Cologne, now Germany. It is unknown whom he married but has been recorded to have had at least one child
- Marck van Beethoven (born 1505 - died ?) married Anna Smets (born 1510 - died ?) had at least one son.
- Hendrick van Beethoven (born 1572 - died 1652) married Josyne Cathlyne van Boevenbeeke (born 1575 - died 1638).
- Markus van Beethoven (born 1601 - died 1672) married Sara Haesaerts (born 1606 - died 1653).
- Cornelius van Beethoven (born 1641 - died 1716) married Catharina van Leempoel (born 1642 - died 1729).
- Michiel van Beethoven (born 1684 - died 1749) married Marie Louise Stuyckers (born 1685 - died 1749). Michiel was a master baker in Mechelen; he also dealt in lace and property speculation. He was the last direct ancestor of Ludwig van Beethoven to marry a Flemish wife.
- Lodewijk van Beethoven (born January 5th 1712, Mechelen - died December 24th 1773, Bonn) married Catharina Maria Josepha Poll . He was first in the Van Beethoven family to take up a professional interest in music. Ludwig was named in his honour, "Ludwig" being German variant of the Dutch name 'Lodewijk'. Lodewijk moved to Bonn just before or after the birth of his son, possibly making him the last Van Beethoven born in the Low Countries, and the first Van Beethoven to marry a German wife. On November 2nd 1727, when he was 16 years old, he was appointed vice-conductor of the church choir of Saint Lambert Cathedral in Liege. There the Archbishop of Cologne is said to have seen him work and took him to Bonn where he was appointed a bass singer in the court choir with a salary of 400 guilders a year. On September 17th 1733 he married a local girl from Bonn called Maria-Jozef Poll. They had three children, of which only Johann van Beethoven reached maturity.
- Johann van Beethoven (born 1740 - died 1792) married Maria Keverich (born 1746 - died 1787). He was the only one of 3 children to survive, and became a tenor in the court chapel at Bonn and married the 21 year old widow Maria Keverich on November 12th 1767. He had 3 sons, one of which was Ludwig van Beethoven, and of which only one, Karl van Beethoven, had any children.
Beethoven's Flemish ancestry
Despite his surname, Ludwig van Beethoven was only a quarter Flemish; indeed, his grandfather Lodewijk was the last van Beethoven to be fully Flemish. Most of van Beethoven's most recent family came from what is now Germany, mostly the Rhineland Palatine area. Ludwig is considered to be German, and people occasionally spell his name as 'von Beethoven', which is incorrect. The last German of the Lodewijk van Beethoven line to bear the name Van Beethoven was Karl Julius Maria van Beethoven.
The Nazis were especially interested in Beethoven's background: "After making sure that Beethoven had no suspicious racial or national tinge of the non-Germanic in his background (clear evidence of his Flemish ancestry was denied in a series of articles), the masters of the Nazi propaganda and cultural machinery promoted his works as the essence of Germanic and Aryan strength".
Beethoven himself showed less interest in his ancestors' Flemishness, unless - as Maynard Solomon suggests- it played a role in his composing incidental music for Goethe's play Egmont, "which tells of the eponymous hero, a sixteenth-century Flemish aristocrat, who is arrested and condemned by the Spanish conquerors". Solomon writes: "The subject had great resonance for Beethoven as an expression of his faith in the 'bon prince' and in the ideals of national liberation and individual freedom - perhaps also because it intersected with his own Flemish ancestry".
Descendants of Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven never married and most likely never had any children. Hence a direct family connection to Beethoven is impossible today. One of his 2 brothers however did have children. None of their descendants bear the name van Beethoven.
Notes
- See Meertens Nederlandse Familienamen Databank: Beethoven
- (Dutch) 'van-namen zijn bijna zonder uitzondering van aardrijkskundige oorsprong' ('van'-names are almost without exception of topographical origins.
- Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands; "Beethof/Boomgaard"
- All other decendants of Karl van Beethoven (great great great grandchildren) use the name 'Weidinger'.
- ^ R. Capell, Beethoven, in Music & Letters, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1938), pp. 375-390
- Ernest Closson and Gustave Reese, Grandfather Beethoven, in The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 19, No. 4 (Oct., 1933), pp. 367-373
- TF Howell, Beethoven's nationality, in The Musical Times, 1915. "The chief hereditary character of Beethoven was Flemish, and all else was what we now label German."
- Lewis Lockwood: Beethoven: the Music and the Life (W.W.Norton, 2005) p.419
- Maynard Solomon: Beethoven (Schirmer, 2001) p.273-4
External links
- Ludwig Van Beethoven: Family Tree
- "The 'Van' of Beethoven" by Herbert Antcliffe in The Musical Times, Vol. 77, No. 1117 (Mar., 1936), pp. 254-255 - Article explains how "A certain Ludwig (Lodewijk) van Beethoven was born at Malines as the son of Michiel and the grandson of Cornelius and of Catherina Leempoels..."