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Read on to discover what drove Beethoven’s nephew to attempt suicide… <\/strong><\/p> On 29 July 1826, a young man climbed up to the hillside ruins of Castle Rauhenstein in Baden, a spa town 20 miles south of Vienna. Arriving at his destination, he drew two pistols from his pocket. Aiming one at his head, he pulled the trigger, but the bullet either missed or misfired in the chamber.<\/p> The second pistol, however, partially found its target. The bullet gouged the left-hand side of the shooter\u2019s skull without entering his brain, leaving him slumped and barely conscious.<\/p> Who was the unfortunate individual? It soon emerged his name was Karl van Beethoven, nephew of the famed composer Ludwig, and that his attempted suicide was anything but a spur-of-the-moment decision.<\/p> Just days earlier Karl\u2019s landlord, Schlemmer, had warned Beethoven<\/a><\/strong> that the 19-year-old \u2018intended to shoot himself next Sunday at the latest\u2019. Schlemmer found two pistols in Karl\u2019s room, but Karl had pawned his watch to buy replacements.<\/p> What pushed him to such a desperate situation? Karl himself had no doubt what had caused it. His uncle Ludwig had \u2018tormented him too much\u2019, he told police investigating the incident. \u2018I became worse because my uncle wanted me to be better\u2019.<\/p> Posterity has tended to agree with the unfortunate Karl\u2019s analysis. Beethoven\u2019s fraught involvement with his nephew began 11 years earlier, when the composer\u2019s younger brother Kaspar died, leaving behind his wife Johanna and nine-year-old Karl.<\/p> Kaspar\u2019s will originally made both Johanna and Beethoven Karl\u2019s guardians, but Johanna\u2019s name was subsequently deleted, seemingly at Beethoven\u2019s insistence. \u2018I did not wish to be bound up with such a bad woman in a matter of such importance as the education of the child,\u2019 he wrote.<\/p>
Why did Beethoven’s nephew Karl van Beethoven attempt suicide?<\/h2>