Wien, Heiligenstadt, Grinzingerstraße 64, Wohnung von Ludwig van Beethoven - Radierung von Lila Gruner nach einer eigenen Zeichnung, Wien, 1910

Like Ludwig van Beethoven, the writer Franz Grillparzer also usually spent the summer months outside of Vienna. It was during one such stay in Heiligenstadt that the young Grillparzer met Beethoven in 1804/05, when they were both staying in the same house. Later Grillparzer wrote of this summer:

"Our lodgings faced the garden, Beethoven had rented the rooms to the street. Both sections were linked by a common passageway which led to the staircase. My brother and I did not take much notice of the strange man - his figure had in the meantime become fuller and he dressed in a most negligent, indeed even slovenly manner - when he shot past us mumbling to himself. My mother, who was passionately devoted to music, let herself become enraptured, whenever she heard him in the passageway playing the piano. She would then immediately step not towards his door, but to ours, and listen reverently. This had probably happened several times when one day Beethoven"s door was flung open, he stepped outside, saw my mother, hastened back inside, returning immediately with his hat on his head, and stormed down the stairs into the open. From this moment on he never again touched his piano. In vain my mother let him he be assured through his manservant, as all other opportunities had been cut off, that not only would no-one eavesdrop any more but that our door to the passageway would remain closed and all members of her party would no longer use the common staircase but would make a long detour to use the exit through the garden. Beethoven remained unmoved and did not touch his piano again, until the autumn occasioned our return to the city." (From Grillparzer"s Collected Works in 20 Volumes. Edited by August Sauer. Vol. 20 p. 206 - German version) (S.B.)