Immortal Beloved - Timeline

Immortal Beloved - Timeline
AP Photo/Martin Meissner
  • 1770 Beethoven born in Bonn
  • 1774 First version of Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther published; final version in 1787
  • 1789 French Revolution
  • 1792 Beethoven moves to Vienna at the age of 22
  • 1800 Relationship with Countess Giulietta Guicciardi begins; Beethoven by now famous throughout Europe
  • 1801 This year is a candidate for when the Immortal Beloved letters were written
  • 1801 Beethoven’s first intense fears of oncoming deafness
  • 1802 Beethoven writes “The Heiligenstadt Testament”; he is 32
  • 1804 Napoleon proclaims himself Emperor; Eroica Symphony finished
  • 1804 Relationship with Therese and Josephine Brunsvik intensifies
  • 1805 Napoleon occupies Vienna
  • 1805 Fidelio first performed
  • 1807 Relationship with Countess Anna Marie Erdödny (lasts till 1817)
  • 1807 The second year that the letters may have been written
  • 1809 Napoleon again occupies Vienna
  • 1810 Relationship with Antonie and Bettina Brentano begins (they last till 1812)
  • 1812 The third year the letters may have been written (this is most favored). He is 42.
  • 1827 Beethoven dies aged 57
  • 1860 Schindler biography: Beethoven As I Knew Him: A Biography
  • 1866 Alexander Wheelock Thayer’s biography begins publication (through 1879)
  • 1902 Gustav Klimt's Beethoven Frieze
  • 1927 O.G. Sonneck’s The Riddle of the Immortal Beloved
  • 1954 Richard and Edith Sterba’s book, Beethoven’s Nephew
  • 1959 Dana Steichen’s biography, Beethoven’s Beloved
  • 1977 Maynard Solomon biography, Beethoven