In the legal proceedings that surrounded the question of the guardianship of Karl van Beethoven, a crucial role was played by paragraph 191 of the Allgemeines Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch für die deutschen Erbländer der österreichischen Monarchie (General Civil Code for the German Hereditary Lands of the Austrian Monarchy; hereafter cited as ABGB). Both when Beethoven was first appointed guardian in January 1816 and again when he was reinstated in April 1820, this paragraph, in one of its provisions, gave an incontestable legal ground for denying Johanna van Beethoven the right to be her own son's guardian: she had been convicted of a crime. According to paragraph 191, persons unfit to be guardians included those 'who have been found guilty of a felony',1 and that invalidated the provision made by the boy's father, Kaspar Karl van Beethoven, in the codicil to his will of 14 November 1815.2 Consequently, according to Paragraph 198 of the ABGB, since the minor's grandparents were no longer living, the charge fell to the
Para. 191 of the ABGB lists several things which might disqualify a person from acting as a guardian. In addition to the one cited in the text, they include being under age, suffering from physical or mental infirmity, and lacking the ability to provide a 'decent education' ('anständige Erziehung', meaning both 'upbringing' in general and 'education' in the scholastic sense) or the 'efficient administration of the inheritance' of the orphan. The age of the prospective guardian, or whether he or she had a criminal record, would be a matter of fact, but in many cases the other causes of disqualification would be hard to prove.
The original clause in Kaspar Karl van Beethoven's will of 14 Nov. 1815 read 'Fifthly, along with my wife I appoint my brother Ludwig van Beethoven co-guardian' ( Wien, Stadt- und Landesarchiv (hereafter WSLA), Hauptarchiv-Akten, Persönlichkeiten B 14, fos. 3-4). After deletions this became 'Fifthly, I appoint my brother Ludwig van Beethoven guardian'. The codicil of the same date ( ibid., fos. 5-6 ) shows him reverting to his earlier wish 'that she [his wife] shall be my son's guardian as well as my brother'. Strictly speaking, this provision was against the law, which did not allow for equal, dual guardianship. When a woman was appointed guardian, the law required there to be a male co- guardian, who was only called on to act in circumstances where legal reasons prevented a woman from representing her own and her ward's interests.
-237-
Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication Information: Book Title: Haydn, Mozart, & Beethoven: Studies in the Music of the Classical Period. Contributors: Sieghard Brandenburg - editor. Publisher: Clarendon Press. Place of Publication: Oxford. Publication Year: 1998. Page Number: 237.
Add a Shared Note
Shared Notes are comments made by Questia users on books,
book pages, or articles that inform other users and enhance
the Questia research community.
This feature allows you to create and manage separate folders for your different research projects. To view markups for a different project, make that project your current project.
This feature allows you to save a link to the publication you are reading or view all the publications you have put on your bookshelf.
This feature allows you to save a link to the page you are reading, which you can later return to from Projects.
This feature allows you to highlight words or phrases on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to save a note you write on the publication page you are reading.
This feature allows you to create a citation to the page you are reading that you can paste into your paper. Highlight a passage to include that passage as a quotation.
This feature allows you to save a reference to a publication you are reading for your bibliography or generate a bibliography you can paste into your paper.
This feature allows you to print the page you are reading,
including your notes or highlights (IE users must have "print background colors and image" setting selected.)
This feature allows you to look up words in encyclopedia.
Questia's powerful research tools allow you to highlight, take notes, bookmark and even create instant citations and bibliographies. To use these features and save hours of work, you must create a Questia account.
Need a Questia account? Sign up for a FREE trial now. Save time, stress and hassle, and get better grades with trusted, online research.
