Ludwig van Beethoven, Brief an Tobias Haslinger, Wien, kurz nach dem 22. August 1825, Autograph

Beethoven justifies himself to his friend Haslinger. Over six months previously he had sent two humorous canons to the publisher Schott in Mainz to be published in their company magazine Caecilia. In an accompanying letter he had at the same time written a biting satire on Tobias Haslinger. The publisher had printed this together with the canons as a "romantic biography" of Haslinger and added Beethoven's signature. So as not to upset Haslinger, Beethoven had sent an explanation to Schott and demanded that they correct the facts. (The Caecilia magazine did not, however, print Beethoven's explanation because they suspected it was merely an attempt to justify himself to Haslinger).

In this letter Beethoven tells Haslinger about the explanation he sent to Schott, which should give Haslinger satisfaction. In addition he promises to send this correction to Berlin and Leipzig so that it can be published in the Allgemeine Zeitung in each place. Beethoven assures him that the whole affair was only a joke and that he had not intended his satire to be published - "it was nothing but a joke". He has never even treated his worst enemies badly - he gives his sister-in-law as an example. He had not had any bad thoughts when doing it, saying "I would rather have thought about my death than about such a terrible misuse of a nothing but a joke".

In addition Beethoven asks Haslinger to make sure that the receipt for Johanna van Beethoven's part of the upkeep payments is signed, either by her or by the appropriate judge Joseph Ecker. Johanna had been obliged to contribute to her son Karl's (Beethoven's nephew) upkeep. Beethoven had waived her contribution in 1824 because of her great financial difficulties, although he still had her write a receipt for the amount.