Why Mozart is buried in a common grave. Systemic rheumatic disease
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus (1756-1791) was an Austrian composer. Representative of the Vienna classical school, a musician of universal talent, manifested with early childhood. Mozart's music reflected the ideas of the German Enlightenment and the Sturm und Drang movement, the artistic experience of various national schools and traditions.
The year 2006 was declared by UNESCO as the year of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, because exactly 250 years have passed since the birth of the great composer and 215 years since his death. The "God of Music" (as he is often called) left this world on December 5, 1791, at the age of 35, after a strange illness.
No grave, no cross
The national pride of Austria, the musical genius, the imperial and royal bandmaster and chamber composer, did not receive a separate grave or a cross. He rested in a common grave in the Vienna cemetery of St. Mark. When the wife of the composer Konstanz decided to visit his grave for the first time 18 years later, the only witness who could indicate the approximate place of burial - the gravedigger - was no longer alive. The plan of the cemetery of St. Mark was found in 1859 and a marble monument was erected on the supposed burial site of Mozart. Today, it is all the more impossible to accurately determine the place where he was lowered into a pit with two dozen unfortunate vagabonds, homeless beggars, poor people without family or tribe.
The official explanation for the poor funeral is the lack of money due to the extreme poverty of the composer. However, there is evidence that 60 guilders remained in the family. The burial in the third category, worth 8 guilders, was organized and paid for by Baron Gottfried van Swieten, a Viennese philanthropist, to whom Mozart, out of friendship, gave many of his works free of charge. It was van Swieten who persuaded the composer's wife not to take part in the funeral.
Mozart was buried already on December 6, with incomprehensible haste, without elementary respect and official announcement of death (it was made only after the funeral). The body was not brought into St. Stephen's Cathedral, and Mozart was the assistant conductor of this cathedral! The farewell ceremony, with the participation of a few accompanying persons, was hastily held at the chapel of the Holy Cross, adjacent to the outer wall of the cathedral. The composer's widow, his brothers in the Masonic lodge, were absent.
After the funeral service, only a few people - including Baron Gottfried van Swieten, composer Antonio Salieri and Mozart's student Franz Xaver Süssmayr - went to see the composer off at his last way. But none of them reached the cemetery of St. Mark. As van Swieten and Salieri explained, heavy rain turned into snow prevented.
However, their explanation is refuted by the testimonies of people who well remembered this warm foggy day. And - official certificate Central Institute of Meteorology of Vienna, issued in 1959 at the request of the American musicologist Nikolai Slonimsky. The temperature that day was 3 degrees Réaumur (1 degree Réaumur = 5/4 degrees Celsius. - N.L.), there was no precipitation; at 3 pm, when Mozart was buried, only a "weak east wind" was noted. The archival extract for that day also read: "the weather is warm, foggy." However, for Vienna, fog at this time of the year is quite common.
Meanwhile, back in the summer, while working on the opera The Magic Flute, Mozart felt unwell and became more and more convinced that someone was encroaching on his life. Three months before his death, during a walk with his wife, he said: “I feel that I will not last long. Of course, they gave me poison ... "
Despite the official record in the office of St. Stephen's Cathedral about the death of the composer from "acute millet fever", the first cautious mention of poisoning appeared in the Berlin "Music Weekly" on December 12, 1791: "Since after death his body swelled, it is even claimed that he was poisoned."
Looking for a definitive diagnosis
Analysis of various testimonies and studies of dozens of specialists allow us to draw up an approximate picture of Mozart's symptoms of the disease.
From the summer to the autumn of 1791, he had: general weakness; weight loss; periodic pain in the lumbar region; pallor; headache; dizziness; instability of mood with frequent depressions, fearfulness and extreme irritability. He faints with loss of consciousness, his hands begin to swell, the loss of strength increases, vomiting joins all this. Later, symptoms such as a metallic taste in the mouth, impaired handwriting (mercury tremor), chills, abdominal cramps, bad (fetid) body odor, fever, general swelling and rash appear. Mozart was dying with an excruciating headache, but his consciousness remained clear until his death.
Among the works devoted to the study of the cause of the composer's death, the most fundamental works belong to the doctors Johannes Dalhov, Günther Duda, Dieter Kerner ("W. A. Mozart. Chronicle of the last years of life and death", 1991) and Wolfgang Ritter (Chach was Was he killed?”, 1991). The number of diagnoses in the Mozart case is impressive, which in itself is suggestive, but, according to scientists, none of them withstand serious criticism.
Under the "acute millet fever", designated as an official diagnosis, 17th-century medicine understood an infectious disease that proceeds acutely, accompanied by a rash, fever and chills. But Mozart's illness proceeded slowly, debilitatingly, and the swelling of the body does not fit into the clinic of millet fever at all. Doctors may have been confused by the severe rash and fever in the final stages of the disease, but this characteristics a number of poisonings. We note in addition that in the case of an infectious disease, one should have waited for the infection of at least someone from the close environment, which did not happen, there was no epidemic in the city.
"Meningitis (inflammation of the meninges)", which appears as a possible disease, also disappears, since Mozart was able to work almost to the very end and retained full clarity of consciousness, there were no cerebral clinical manifestations of meningitis. Moreover, one cannot speak of “tuberculous meningitis” – Mozart studies with absolute certainty exclude tuberculosis from the composer’s anamnesis. Moreover, his medical history is practically clean until 1791, the last year of his life, which, moreover, accounts for the peak of his creative activity.
The diagnosis of "heart failure" is absolutely contradicted by the fact that shortly before his death, Mozart conducted a long cantata, which requires great physical exertion, and a little earlier - the opera "Magic Flute". And most importantly: there is not a single evidence of the presence of the main symptom of this disease - shortness of breath. The legs would swell, not the arms and body.
The clinic of "ephemeral rheumatic fever" also does not find its confirmation. Even if we think about cardiac complications, there were no signs of cardiac weakness, such as shortness of breath again - heart-sick Mozart could not sing "Requiem" with his friends before his death!
There is no good reason to assume the presence of syphilis, both because the disease has a clinical picture, and because Mozart's wife and two sons were healthy (the youngest was born 5 months before his death), which is ruled out with a sick husband and father.
"Normal" genius
It is difficult to agree with the fact that the composer suffered from mental pathology in the form of all kinds of fears and mania of poisoning. The Russian psychiatrist Alexander Shuvalov, having analyzed (in 2004) the composer's life and illness history, came to the conclusion: Mozart is "a rare case of a universally recognized genius who did not suffer from any mental disorder."
But the composer had reason for concern. The assumption of renal failure is closest to the true clinical picture of the disease. However, renal failure as "pure uremia" is excluded, if only because renal patients at this stage lose their ability to work and last days carried out in an unconscious state.
It is impossible that such a patient for three last months wrote two operas, two cantatas, a clarinet concerto and moved freely from city to city! In addition, an acute disease develops first - nephritis (inflammation of the kidneys), and only after a long-term chronic stage does a transition occur to the final one - uremia. But in the history of Mozart's illness there is no mention of an inflammatory lesion of the kidneys he suffered.
It was mercury
According to a number of scientists, including toxicologists, Mozart's death was due to chronic mercury poisoning, namely, from repeated intake of mercury dichloride - sublimate. It was given at considerable intervals: for the first time - in the summer, in last time— shortly before death. Moreover, the final phase of the disease is similar to the true failure of the kidneys, which served as the basis for the erroneous diagnosis of inflammatory renal failure.
This misconception is understandable: although in the 18th century a lot was known about poisons and poisonings, doctors practically did not know the clinic of mercury (mercuric chloride) intoxication - then, in order to eliminate rivals, it was more customary to use the so-called aqua Toffana (no name of the famous poisoner who made up the infernal mixture from arsenic, lead and antimony); Mozart, who fell ill, was the first to think about aqua Toffana.
All the symptoms observed in Mozart at the onset of the disease are identical to those of the currently well-studied acute mercury poisoning (headache, metallic taste in the mouth, vomiting, weight loss, neurosis, depression, etc.). At the end of a long period of poisoning, toxic damage to the kidneys occurs with final uremic symptoms - fever, rash, chills, etc. Slow sublimate poisoning is also supported by the fact that the musician maintained a clear mind and continued to write music, that is, he was able to work, which is typical for chronic mercury poisoning.
Comparative analysis death mask Mozart and his lifetime portraits gave, in turn, the basis for the conclusion: the deformation of facial features is clearly caused by intoxication.
Thus, there is much evidence in favor of the fact that the composer was poisoned. About who and how could do it, there are also assumptions.
Possible suspects
First of all, mercury had to be found somewhere. The poison could come through Gottfried van Swieten, whose father, the life physician Gerhard van Swieten, was the first to treat syphilis with “mercury tincture according to Swieten” - a solution of sublimate in vodka. In addition, Mozart often visited the von Swieten house. The owner of the mercury mines, Count Walsegzu-Stuppach, the mysterious customer of the Requiem, a man prone to hoaxes and intrigues, also had the opportunity to supply the killers with poison.
There are three main versions of Mozart's poisoning. However, almost all researchers agree that it was hardly possible for one person to do this.
Version one: Salieri.
When the defenders Italian composer Antonio Salieri (1750-1825) claims that he “had everything, but Mozart had nothing” and therefore he could not envy Mozart, they are cunning. Yes, Salieri had a reliable income, and after leaving court service, a good pension awaited him. Mozart really had nothing, nothing but... GENIUS. However, he passed away not only in the most fruitful year in terms of creativity, but also in the year that was a turning point for the fate of him and his family - he received a decree on admission to a position that gives material independence and the opportunity to create calmly. Simultaneously from Amsterdam and Hungary came significant, designed for for a long time orders and contracts for new compositions.
In this context, the phrase uttered by Salieri in the novel by Gustav Nicolai (1825) seems quite possible: “Yes, it is a pity that such a genius has left us. But in general, the musicians were lucky. Had he lived longer, no one would have granted all of us even a piece of bread for our writings.
It was the feeling of envy that could push Salieri to commit a crime. It is known that strangers creative luck caused Salieri deep irritation and the desire to counteract. Suffice it to mention the letter of Ludwig van Beethoven dated January 1809, in which he complains to the publisher about the intrigues of enemies, "of which the first is Mr. Salieri." Franz Schubert's biographers describe Salieri's intrigue, undertaken by him to prevent the ingenious "king of songs" from getting just a job as a modest music teacher in distant Laibach.
Soviet musicologist Igor Belza in 1947 asked Austrian composer Joseph Marx, did Salieri really commit villainy? The answer was instantaneous, without hesitation: “Which of the old Viennese doubts this?” According to Marx, his friend, music historian Guido Adler (1885-1941), while studying church music discovered in a Viennese archive a recording of Salieri's confession from 1823, containing a confession of this monstrous crime, with detailed and convincing details, where and under what circumstances poison was given to the composer. The church authorities could not violate the secrecy of confession and did not consent to making this document public.
Salieri, tormented by remorse, tried to commit suicide: he cut his throat with a razor, but survived. On this occasion, confirming entries remained in Beethoven's "conversational notebooks" for 1823. There are other references to the content of Salieri's confession and the failed suicide.
The intention to commit suicide matured in Salieri no later than 1821 - by that time he had written a requiem for his own death. In a farewell message (March 1821), Salieri asked Count Gaugwitz to serve a funeral service for him in a private chapel and perform the sent requiem for the salvation of his soul, for "by the time the letter is received, the latter will no longer be among the living."
The content of the letter and its style testify to the absence of Salieri's mental illness. Nevertheless, Salieri was declared mentally ill, and his confession was delusional. Many researchers believe that this was done to avoid a scandal: after all, both Salieri and Sviteny were closely associated with the ruling Habsburg court, which to some extent lay the shadow of a crime. Salieri died in 1825, as is clear from the death certificate, “from old age”, having communed the Holy Gifts (which Mozart was not honored with).
And now is the time to recall Pushkin's tragedy "Mozart and Salieri" (1830) and the angry attacks of some Europeans on the author for "not wanting to present two of his characters as they were in reality", for using an alleged legend that denigrates Salieri's name.
While working on the tragedy, Pushkin wrote an article "Refutation of Critics", in which he spoke unambiguously:
“... burdening historical characters with fictional horrors is neither surprising nor generous. Slander in poems has always seemed to me not commendable. It is known that this work took the poet more than one year: Pushkin carefully collected various documentary evidence.
The Pushkin tragedy served as the strongest impetus for research in this direction. As D. Kerner wrote: “If Pushkin had not captured the crime of Salieri in his tragedy, on which he worked for many years, then the mystery of death the greatest composer The West would never have received permission.”
Version two: Süsmayr.
Franz Xaver Süssmayr, a student of Salieri, then a student of Mozart and an intimate friend of his wife Constanze, after the death of Mozart, again transferred to study with Salieri, was distinguished by great ambitions and was hard pressed by Mozart's ridicule. The name of Süsmayr remained in history thanks to the "Requiem", in the completion of which he was involved.
Constanza quarreled with Süsmayr. And after that, she carefully erased his name from her husband's documentary heritage. Susmayr died in 1803 under strange and mysterious circumstances; in the same year, Gottfried van Swieten also died. Considering Susmayr's closeness to Salieri and his career aspirations, combined with an overestimation of his own talents, as well as his affair with Constanza, many researchers believe that he could have been involved in the poisoning rather as a direct perpetrator, since he lived in the composer's family. It is possible that Constanza also found out that her husband was receiving poison - this largely explains her further behavior.
It becomes clear, in particular, the unseemly role that, according to some contemporaries, Constanza played by “revealing the truth” on the day of the funeral about the alleged love affair between Mozart and his student Magdalena to her husband, the lawyer Franz Hsfdemel, a friend and brother of Mozart in the Masonic lodge . In a fit of jealousy, Hofdemel tried to stab his beautiful pregnant wife with a razor - Magdalena was saved from death by neighbors who heard the screams of her and their one-year-old child. Hofdemel committed suicide by also using a razor. Magdalena survived, but was left mutilated. It is believed that in this way Constanta tried to switch the suspicions of poisoning her husband to a poor lawyer.
Indeed, this gave grounds to a number of researchers (for example, the British historian Francis Carr) to interpret this tragedy as an outbreak of jealousy by Hofdemel, who poisoned Mozart.
Be that as it may, the youngest son of Constanta, musician Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart, said: “Of course, I won’t become as great as my father, and therefore there is nothing to fear and envious people who could encroach on my life.”
Version three: the ritual murder of the "rebellious brother".
It is known that Mozart was a member of the Masonic lodge "Charity" and had a very high level dedications. However, the Masonic community, which usually provides assistance to the brethren, did nothing to help the composer, who was in a very constrained financial situation. Moreover, the Masonic brothers did not come to see Mozart on his last journey, and a special meeting of the lodge dedicated to his death took place only a few months later. Perhaps a certain role in this was played by the fact that Mozart, being disappointed with the activities of the order, planned to create his own secret organization - the Grotto Lodge, the charter of which he had already written.
The ideological differences between the composer and the order reached their peak in 1791; it is in these discrepancies that some researchers see the cause of Mozart's early death. In the same 1791, the composer wrote the opera The Magic Flute, which was a resounding success in Vienna. It is generally accepted that Masonic symbols were widely used in the opera, many rituals are revealed that are supposed to be known only to the initiates. That could not go unnoticed. Georg Nikolaus Nissen, Constanza's second husband and later Mozart's biographer, called The Magic Flute "a parody of the Masonic Order".
According to J. Dalkhov, “those who hastened the death of Mozart eliminated him with a poison “befitting the rank” - mercury, that is, Mercury, the idol of the muses.
…Maybe all versions are links of the same chain?
The Central Cemetery in Vienna or St. Mark's Cemetery has long been firmly included in the list of city attractions and must-see places. It is worth going here for many reasons. First, the location. The 11th arrondissement of Vienna is a mixture of Turkish and Arabic colors against a European background. Small Chinese shops filled with tinsel can please you with some souvenir trinket.
Secondly, the cemetery is the second largest in Europe. I will give only the figures - 3 million graves. This place has long turned into a huge park with old mighty trees, smooth paths sprinkled with gravel, clearings, flower beds, with roe deer walking around, jumping squirrels. Thirdly, very respectable people, famous all over the world, lie here.
Thus, even if you are not a tafophile (lover of cemeteries), it is worth a look here. At the central gate number 2 you can get a printed plan-map. On a large stand, burial sites are painted - Jewish, Buddhist, Catholic, Orthodox, Bulgarian, Serbian and many others. There is enough space for everyone, regardless of religious beliefs, occupation and nationality.
musical alley
The most picturesque monuments are located along the main avenue. On the site of composers, you can stand near each monument, admire the sculptures, greet everyone. Here is Ludwig Beethoven with a beautiful golden bee (the symbol of the Masons) on the obelisk. How not to remember that on the day of the funeral of this great man in Vienna, all educational institutions were closed as a sign of respect for the composer. Two hundred thousand people followed his coffin. The grave of Johann Brahms is also nearby. And another Johann - Strauss, whom the Viennese dubbed the king of waltzes. And Strauss the father. In the very center of this site is the symbolic burial place of Mozart. After all, once he was thrown into a mass grave for the poor. Therefore, the exact location is unknown.
Sometimes you can get to a concert here, because musicians often come here to bow to teachers and idols. Therefore, the Vienna cemetery is called the "musical" cemetery of Europe.
By the way, Salieri's grave is also in this cemetery, only it is located near one of the fences.
Sometimes a bus travels around the cemetery, delivering it to the sites. But you can also travel by fiacres. Enough to book a tour. Looks very romantic. A fiacre rolls along the cemetery, the charioteer (or what to call him, I don’t know) waves his whip, pointing around.
Orthodox part
The cemetery also has a small Orthodox Church. Around the grave with Russian inscriptions, with "yats". Entire families lie side by side.
Not only tourists walk around the cemetery, but whole family groups can also be found on the alleys. The air here is clean, birds sing on the branches, squirrels, sitting on marble or granite slabs, sedately gnaw nuts. Ready-made sketches for rural pastorals.
Where was Mozart buried, how did it happen?
- Mozart was buried in the cemetery of St. Mark in Vienna in 1791. That's just where exactly the maestro's grave is, no one still knows: the funeral was very modest, the inconsolable widow on the way to the cemetery became so ill that she was returned home, and Mozart was buried in a common grave, and no one thought to mark the place even as the cheapest cross.
- At the age of 35, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in poverty, hastily writing down the last notes of his "Requiem" with a weakening hand, which he considered a funeral mass in itself.
According to another version, Franz Xavier Süssmeier, a student, Mozart's secretary and lover of his wife, was involved in the poisoning of Mozart. At the same time, Mr. Süssmeier was a student not only of Mozart, but also of Salieri. It is believed that mercury (mercurius) fell into Süssmeier's hands from another "hero" of the tragedy - Count and musician Walsegg zu Stuppach, the same one who ordered Mozart's "Requiem". It was in his possessions that mercury was mined.
After the death of Mozart, the words of one of the composers were retold in musical circles, who allegedly remarked: “Although it is a pity for such a genius, it is good for us that he is dead. For if he had lived longer, truly, no one in the world would have given us a piece bread for our works." The following story has been passed down among Viennese musicians for a long time. As if the coffin with the body of Mozart was buried not in the church of St. Stephen, but at the entrance to the Cross Chapel, adjacent to the northern unfinished tower of the temple. And then, when the escorts left, the coffin with the body was brought inside and, having passed in front of the Crucifixion, they carried out the ashes of the great musician through another exit, leading straight to the catacombs, where people who died during the plague were buried. These strange rumors have various confirmations. For example, it is known that, while examining Beethoven's archive, the composer's executors found, among other papers, a curious picture depicting the funeral of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The drawing depicted a wretched hearse driving through the gates of the cemetery, behind which a stray dog trotted dejectedly.
In the 60s of the twentieth century, in Salzburg, at one of the sessions of the Institute of Mozart Studies, experts came to the conclusion that, in all likelihood, there was no poisoning, and Mozart died from an incurable rheumatic disease at that time. These arguments were confirmed and notable work Carl Baer "Mozart. - Illness. - Death. - Burial".
In 1801, an old Viennese gravedigger accidentally dug up a skull, which, it was suggested, could belong to Mozart, whose skeleton has disappeared without a trace. It was only in 1859 that the ancient plan of the cemetery of St. Mark in Vienna was discovered and a marble monument was erected on the alleged burial place of Mozart. - Until now, Mozart's biographers are at a loss: how could it happen that the composer, who literally made the librettist and theater entrepreneur Schikaneder rich with his opera The Magic Flute, died in poverty? How could it happen that he was buried according to the lowest rank in a common grave along with a dozen vagabonds?
In the interpretation of the fate of the Austrian musician, you can find anything - mysticism and intrigue, revenge and conspiracy. There are probably too many versions about the predestination of fate and the mysterious death of Mozart to choose one.Some biographers of Mozart claim that the whole life musical genius- from birth to the grave - manipulation of fate, and refer to a secret system of numbers that speaks of the alchemical connection of the date of his birth with a deadly poison given to Mozart: "His birth at 8 pm on the eve of Wednesday, the height of the Sun on his birthday was 8 degrees in the constellation of Aquarius and, finally, the sum of the digits of his full years of life - 35, again, a pure eight. If you believe numerology, then "the figure eight symbolizes the inevitability of fate, justice, sometimes even death. This number says - there is a reaction to any action, you will have to answer for any act."
The most common version of the composer's death is poisoning, and it appeared immediately after Mozart's death. His wife Constanza claimed that her husband was haunted by the thought of death by poison. The son, Karl Thomas, in turn, recalled: "The body of the father was strangely swollen, like that of poisoned with mercury." Opponents of this version believe that mercury could have appeared in the body for a completely different reason: it was used to treat the dorsal tabes that Mozart suffered from.
Suspect N 1 for a long time was his rival - the composer Antonio Salieri. Despite rumors, Vienna celebrated its 50th anniversary with pomp creative activity"suspect". They say that the Viennese public did not listen too much to gossip, moreover, after the death of Mozart, his wife Constanza sent her youngest son to study with Salieri. However, Mozart's son believed that "Salieri did not kill his father, but truly poisoned his life with intrigues", and Mozart's father wrote to his daughter Nannerl on March 18, 1786: "Salieri with his minions is again ready to turn heaven and hell, if only to fail production" ("The Marriage of Figaro"). And yet, intrigues are by no means the slow poison of the "aquatophane" with which Mozart was allegedly poisoned. However, other supporters of this version claimed that Mozart was poisoned with mercury.
According to another version, Franz Xavier Süssmeier, a student, Mozart's secretary and lover of his wife, was involved in the poisoning of Mozart. At the same time, Mr. Süssmeier was a student not only of Mozart, but also of Salieri. It is believed that mercury (mercurius) fell into Süssmeier's hands from another "hero" of the tragedy - Count and musician Walsegg zu Stuppach, the same one who ordered Mozart's "Requiem". It was in his possessions that mercury was mined
- in a common grave .... piled up and that's it .... forgotten .... (
- Mozart died on December 5, 1791 from an illness possibly caused by a kidney infection.
He was buried in Vienna, in the cemetery of St. Mark in a common grave, so the burial place itself remained unknown
At that time in Vienna it was customary to bury more than one person, this was due to many things, for example rampant epidemics. In 1801, under mysterious circumstances, Mozart's skull was found, this happened when his grave found new residents, but that's a completely different story. - The cemetery is one of the main attractions of the Austrian capital. Tourists sometimes call it Musical, because here you can find the tombstones of most famous composers Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Christoph Willibald Gluck, Franz Schubert, Johann Strauss (both father and son) and, of course, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Although in fact, when Mozart died, his body was thrown into a mass grave for the poor in the cemetery of St. Mark in a completely different area of Vienna, and where exactly he is buried is still unknown. Nevertheless, the Austrians allocated a place to the genius of music in their honorary Pantheon-necropolis.
There are 350 real celebrity graves in the cemetery, and more than 600 honorary commemorative graves (dedicated).
- Mozart was buried in the grave of the poor in the suburbs of Vienna - St. Marks. His supposed remains were then transferred to Vienna's Zentralfriedhof Central Cemetery.
Beethoven, Brahms, Strauss, Suppe are buried on the famous "Composers' Alley" in the Vienna Central Cemetery, and a monument was erected on the symbolic grave of Mozart.
The area of the central cemetery is 2.5 square meters. km. The cemetery was designed by Frankfurt architects Karl Jonas Milius and Friedrich Bluntchli. Further disruption took place on the Feast of All Saints (November 1) in 1874. Since then, about 3 million people have been buried in the central cemetery in 300.00 graves.
http://www.vienna.cc/english/zentralfried...
http://austria.report.ru/default.asp?pagebegin=1pageno=19
http://answer.mail.ru/question/12803146/#87597217
Complete scientific research is Baer's book, The Illness, Death, and Burial of Mozart: C.BKr, Mozart: Krankheit, Tod, BegrKbnis, 2nd Ed., Salzburg. Considering the surviving evidence, the patient's medical history, and the medical report on the cause of Mozart's death ("Inflammation with millet eruption" (see Deutsch, pp. 416-417)), Baer concludes that Mozart died of rheumatic fever, possibly complicated by acute cardiac insufficiency. From the words of Dr. Lobes, we can conclude that in the autumn of 1791 there was an epidemic of inflammatory infectious diseases in Vienna. Mozart died on the night of December 5, 1791. There was a funeral. The efforts were undertaken by Mozart's friend and philanthropist, his fellow Masonic lodge Baron van Swieten (Swieten, Gottfried, Baron van, 1733(?)-1803).
One can refer to Brownbehrens' monograph Mozart in Vienna and to an interesting article by Slonimsky (Nikolas Slonimsky, The Weather at Mozart Funeral, Musical Quarterly, 46, 1960, pp.12-22). Brownbehrens specifically cites the texts of the burial rules established by Emperor Joseph as part of his general reforms. First of all, for hygienic reasons, cemeteries were removed from the city limits. Further, the funeral procedure itself was extremely simplified. Here, Joseph's enlightened utilitarianism, the central line of his reforms, was manifested, preferring sincere modest piety to pompous ostentation. Almost all burials were made in common graves for five or six deceased. Separate graves were rare exceptions, a luxury for the very rich and nobility. No memorial signs, tombstones, etc. were not allowed on the graves (in order to save space), all these signs of attention could be installed along the cemetery fence and on the fence itself. Every 7-8 years the graves were dug up and used again. Thus, there was nothing unusual in Mozart's funeral for that time. It definitely wasn't a "beggar's funeral". It was this procedure that was applied to 85% of the dead from the sufficient classes of society.
About three o'clock in the afternoon Mozart's body was brought to St. Stephen's Cathedral. Here, in a small chapel, a modest religious ceremony took place. Which of the friends and relatives was present at the same time, how many people the ceremony gathered in general, will remain unknown. The hearse could go to the cemetery only after six in the evening (after nine in the summer), i.e. already in the dark. The cemetery of Saint Mark itself was about three miles from the Cathedral, and a country road led to it. It is not surprising that the few who accompanied the coffin did not follow him outside the city gates. It was not accepted, it was difficult to do, and it was pointless. There were no ceremonies at the cemetery, there were no more priests, only gravediggers. The coffin was placed overnight in a special room, and in the morning the gravediggers took it away. Today it is difficult and difficult for us to imagine all this. - December 4, 1791.
During the writing of the Requiem, he could not free himself from the thought that he was writing this tragic music for his own funeral. Premonitions did not deceive Mozart, and not having time to finish the Requiem to the end, he died. At his request, friends who gathered at his place on December 4, 1791 performed what he managed to write. Unfortunately, the Maestro has not heard this.
Only a few people came to the funeral, and almost no one came to the cemetery, they were afraid of inclement weather. So quietly and imperceptibly spent on the last journey Mozart is the greatest a genius whose work belongs to mankind.
Oh, and I got scared. But everything ended well. It began with the fact that I was impatient to visit the burial place of Mozart. His grave is in the cemetery of St. Mark in Vienna. It gets dark early in winter, I miscalculated the time a little, and got there at dusk. The place is not very busy in terms of people, the motorway passes by. And that means I'm alone going to the old cemetery.
In general, I'm quite impressionable and can wind myself up. In fact, not everyone dares to go to the cemetery in the dark. But since I got to it, it's stupid not to go. The gravestones and monuments are beautiful, the place is very peaceful. I did not feel any anxiety about people buried underground. Until I heard footsteps from behind...
Now imagine back a man is walking. There is no turning back, the path to retreat is closed. There is a wide passage ahead, rows of graves to the right and left. I don't know how big the cemetery is. Around the silence and calmness, no one. Goosebumps ran down my back, and I turned sharply to the side.
If a person followed me, it would become clear that he was not interested in Mozart, but in me. You never know what maniacs go to cemeteries in the evenings. Suddenly he has a knife, what should I do then? I calculated different variants development of events. But now I had a chance to run to the exit between the graves. Suddenly, I saw him walking by. Phew. Still a fan of Mozart, cheers. But that means we'll meet at his grave. Crap. This was not part of my plans. Therefore, I walked a little more around the cemetery, and then began to look for the object I needed. I walked and was surprised that I was not at all afraid, on the contrary, calmly. I remembered the words of my grandmother: do not be afraid of the dead, be afraid of the living.
In vain I feared that I would not be able to find Mozart's grave. A white path leads from the main alley to the grave. Solemn and pompous. But now, it used to be very different.
This is the approximate burial place of Mozart. IN last years In his lifetime, the composer found himself in a difficult financial situation and was buried in a common grave along with the poor. The researchers compared known facts and limited the possible area. A marble monument was erected at the proposed site. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in December 1791, before the age of 36.
Saint Mark's cemetery is one of oldest cemeteries Vienna. It was opened in 1784. The last burial dates back to 1874. I wandered between the tombstones and headed for the exit until it was completely dark.
What are these covers? There was a thought that there were urns with ashes. Cremation in Europe began in the second half of the 18th century, so in principle it is possible.
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The composer's widow taught her son music from Salieri, and his contemporaries lost his grave
For my short life Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created masterpieces of symphonic, concert, chamber, opera and choral music and immortalized his name. From early childhood, the personality of a little genius aroused constant public interest, and even the death of a virtuoso musician at the age of 35 became the basis for artistic myths and cultural speculation.
Unnecessary genius
The four-year-old Amadeus struck first his parents, and a few years later his native Austria with a phenomenal musical memory, a desire to improvise on the harpsichord and a passion for writing.
Incredible fame at the time little Mozart received through touring. For more than ten years, Amadeus and his father traveled to noble houses and courts of royal dynasties in search of a rich patron. The often ill boy patiently endured all the hardships of travel, but as a result he got a number of chronic diseases, including articular rheumatism.
Mozart was incredibly popular during his lifetime and earned decent money, but he was buried in a common grave along with six other dead. The money for the burial (at the current rate of about two thousand rubles) was allocated by the patron of musicians, Baron van Swieten, because on the day of the death of the favorite of the public, the Austrian miracle child and an outstanding representative of the musical Vienna classical school, there was not a ducat in the house.
Fact: One winter, a family friend found the dancing Mozarts in a cold house. It turned out that the firewood had run out, and the married couple, known for their frivolous attitude to life, warmed up in this way.
In those days, tombstones were placed not at the burial site, but near the walls of the cemetery. The widow was not present at the funeral and first came to the cemetery 17 years after her husband's death. Constanza Mozart believed that the church should erect a monument to her husband, and did not worry about it. 68 years after Mozart's death, the children of the composer's friends indicated the alleged burial place, where the famous xenotaph with an angel was installed. The actual burial place of the classic of world music is not exactly known.
Reference: It is believed that Mozart did not receive recognition during his lifetime and barely made ends meet. But in fact, he was very much in demand and he was paid a lot for writing. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the musical virtuoso, together with his wife, led a wasteful lifestyle, adored balls, masquerades and instantly lowered decent fees.
Who is the requiem for?
The halo of mysticism around the death of the composer arose after the story of the mysterious customer of the funeral mass. Indeed, shortly before his death, a man in a black cloak came to Mozart and ordered a requiem - a funeral oratorio. Rumors circulated after the funeral that at the time of its writing, Mozart spoke of a bad feeling and that a funeral mass would be dedicated to his own death. In addition, Mozart had an obsession that they were trying to poison him.
However, in fact, Mozart received this order through an intermediary and undertook to work on condition of anonymity. The customer was a widower, Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach- a well-known lover of giving out strangers musical works for their own, buying copyrights. He planned to dedicate mass to the memory of his wife.
The composer's widow was afraid that the customer would demand the return of the fee already spent by the Mozarts, so she asked her husband's assistant Süssmeier to finish the unfinished mass according to Wolfgang's latest instructions.
Revenge of Freemasons and Cuckold
Most scholars believe that Mozart died naturally, but there is whole line versions about the violent nature of the death of a musical genius. Rumors of Mozart's poisoning appeared a few days after the funeral. The widow did not believe them and did not suspect anyone.
But some believed that Mozart was punished by the Freemasons for revealing the secrets of "freemasons" in the opera The Magic Flute, which premiered in September 1791. In addition, Mozart allegedly shared with one of his friends the intention to leave the brotherhood and open his own secret society for which he paid with his life. It is assumed that the poisoning of the composer was part of the sacrifice ceremony.
Composer biographer Georg Nisse, Mozart, who later married Constance, wrote that the musician had an acute rash fever, accompanied by terrible swelling of the limbs and vomiting. An autopsy was not performed, because the body quickly swelled up and exuded such a smell that, according to contemporaries, an hour after death, the townspeople, passing by the house, covered their noses with handkerchiefs.
Lawyer unexpectedly commits suicide the day after Mozart's death Franz Hofdemel, whose wife was the last student of the musician. According to one version, out of jealousy, the “lawyer” beat the composer with a stick and he died of a stroke. Hofdemel slashed his pregnant wife's face, neck and hands, and then slit his own throat. Magdalena was saved, and five months later she gave birth to a son, whose paternity was attributed to Mozart.
In addition, Mozart's assistant Süssmeier, who rented a room from him, also attempted suicide after the teacher's funeral by cutting his throat. Rumor immediately recorded the student as a lover to Constanta.
"Ah yes Pushkin, ah yes son of a bitch!"
Years later, the biggest spread of the poisoning legend was due to one of the "Little Tragedies" A. S. Pushkin, in which Salieri, out of envy of Mozart's talent, poisoned him. The indisputable authority of the great poet defeated all available evidence, and fiction- the truth.
Actually italian Antonio Salieri at the age of 24 he became the emperor's court composer Joseph II and served for several decades at court. He was the leading musician of the Austrian capital and a talented teacher, who taught Beethoven, Schubert, Sheet and even, after the death of his father, the youngest son of Mozart. The imperial favorite worked with talented children from poor families for free, and famous students even dedicated their works to the teacher.
Once, during a lesson, Salieri expressed his condolences to Mozart Jr. on the death of his father and added that now other composers would be able to earn a living: after all, Wolfgang Amadeus's talent interrupted others to sell their music.
In 1824, all of Vienna celebrated the 50th anniversary of Salieri's appointment as court composer, but the elderly hero of the day had already been in a mental hospital for a year. Every time he swore honor to his former students, who rarely visited the mentor, that he was not to blame for the death of Mozart, and asked "to pass this on to the world." The unfortunate man suffered from hallucinations caused by accusations of the death of the great Austrian, and even tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat.
In the 19th century, the Italians explained these accusations by the usual national idea, in which Austria contrasted the Italian and Viennese music schools.
Nevertheless, Pushkin's artistic version became the basis for many others. literary works. When in the 90s of the last century on tour one English theater performance based on the play P. Schaeffer"Amadeus", the Italians were furious. In 1997, in the Palace of Justice of Milan, as a result of an open litigation Italian judges acquitted fellow countryman - the founder of the Vienna Conservatory.
Reference: In 1966, a Swiss doctor Carl Baer established that the musician had articular rheumatism. In 1984 Dr. Peter Davis based on all available memories and evidence, he concluded that Mozart was killed by a streptococcal infection in combination with kidney failure and bronchopneumonia. In 1991 Dr. James from the Royal Hospital in London suggested that the treatment of malarial fever and melancholy with antimony and mercury was fatal for a genius.
