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• The Origin of Mozart's Serenade K. 375
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• Unknown Documents concerning Oskar Kokoschka's 1912 Marriage Attempts
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Eleven More Godchildren of Joseph Haydn

Three articles on this blog so far have dealt with the topic of Joseph Haydn's role as godfather.

Three Unknown Godchildren of Joseph Haydn (September 2014)
Six More Unknown Godchildren of Joseph Haydn (March 2015)
Josepha Disenni: Haydn's Last Surviving Godchild (February 2018)

In these articles, in which I was able to increase the known number of Haydn's godchildren from 40 to 49, I examined two groups from the composer's social environment: the relatives of his wife and his musician friends. Further research, which I was practically forced to carry out during the lockdown in spring of 2021, has shown that there was a third group in Haydn's surroundings that was able to secure the composer's services as godfather: Haydn's personal physician and his immediate neighbors in the Viennese suburbs of Windmühle, Gumpendorf, and Mariahilf. By scrutinizing the relatives of Haydn's wife more closely, who represented Haydn at these christenings, I found five more grandnephews of Haydn's wife whose godfather was the composer. My recent research in local Viennese sources also had to do with the discovery of the date of death of Haydn's housekeeper Anna Kremnitzer who is already known to have represented her employer at the baptisms of three of Anton Weidinger's children.

In chronological order of their birth, the newly discovered eleven godchildren of Joseph Haydn are the following.

1) Joseph Weisgram

Joseph Weisgram was born on 10 November 1793 in the house Windmühle 72 (next door to Haydn) and baptized on the same day in the Gumpendorf parish church. Haydn was present at the ceremony and officiated as godfather.

The entry concerning the baptism of Joseph Weisgram on 10 November 1793 in Gumpendorf (Gumpendorf 12, fol. 22)

Joseph Weisgram was a son of the civil weaver Ignaz Weisgram from whom, in August 1793, Haydn bought a house in the Windmühle district. The boy died of tracheal inflammation on 27 August 1797 in his father's house on Windmühle 74 (formerly 72, the house beside Haydn's, today Haydngasse 21, new building from 1816) (Gumpendorf 10, fol. 112).

The entry in the municipal death register concerning the death of Haydn's godson Joseph Weisgram on 27 August 1797 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 107, W, fol. 54r)

Weißgraber Herr Ignatz bürgl: Webermeister, s[ein] K[ind] Joseph ist beim römischen Kaiser N° 74. zu Gumpendorf früh 5 Uhr an der Luftröhrenentzündung verschied[en] alt 3 3/4 Jr.           Daubert [coroner]

Haydn's house on the Windmühle

Haydn's house Windmühle 84 (fourth numbering) in 1900, photograph by August Stauda (Wien Museum, I.N. 24480)

The Dienstbuch of the Vienna archbishopric, the authority which was in charge of a part of the Windmühle district, shows the history of the property on which Haydn's house was eventually built. In 1731 this piece of land was a vineyard that had been turned into a field the size of a quarter yoke. At that time it belonged to the Carmelite monastery on the Laimgrube. In 1781 the lot was bought by the Vienna city council and reassigned as building ground. In 1786 the tailor Johann Leyrer (1731–1789) had a one-story house built on a quarter of the property, which, as can be seen from the Dienstbuch, had the very early (previously unacknowledged) number 47 (Fischer 1786, 246). In 1788 Leyrer sold the house to the gardener Franz Joseph Molitor. An entry in the probate file of Molitor's first wife Maria Anna, who died on 22 March 1788 at Windmühle 49 (Wiener Zeitung, 29 Mar 1788, 767), shows that the previously unknown original name of what became the ground-floor of Haydn's house was "Zum grünen Kreuz" (The Green Cross). Shortly after his wife's death, Franz Molitor had already moved to Windmühle 47 and could not be contacted by the Sperrskommissär Johann Baptist Schreiber. This caused Schreiber to refer to this house with its name.

The entry in Maria Anna Molitor's Sperrs-Relation that refers to the widower's new address at Windmühle 47 (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 887/1788)

Löblicher Magistrat!

Unterzeichneter hat laut löbl[icher] Verordnung in A: die Verlassenschaft der zu Gumpendorf [Windmühle] N° 49. den 22t Maÿ [sic!] d[ieses] J[ahres] Ma[ri]a Anna Molitorin herrschaftl: Gärtnersgattin inventiren sollen, da aber der Wittwer, so derzeit zu Gumpendorf in der Steingasse N° 47 beÿ d[em] grünen Kreuz wohnet mehrmalen nicht zu betretten ware, der m Sohn aber gemeldet: daß an Baaren nach dem Tode der Mutter nichts vorhanden gewesen, [...]

[translation:]

According to the laudable ordinance A, the undersigned has made an inventory of the estate of Maria Anna Molitor, a lordly gardener's widow, who died on May 22nd of this year in Gumpendorf [i.e. Windmühle] No. 49. But since the widower, who is currently staying in Gumpendorf in the Steingasse No. 47 at the Green Cross, could not be found there several times, and the full-aged son reported that there was no cash after the mother's death, [...]

In a directory from 1789 the house Windmühle 47 is listed as "newly built" and given as belonging to Molitor (Hofer 1789, 200) who had moved into the house in May 1788 and died there on 12 September 1788, one day after his second wedding which was performed at his sickbed (Schotten 37, fol. 46). In 1788, in the Dienstbuch, Molitor's minor son Karl Joseph appears as owner.

The sequence of guaranteed owners of the vineyard and eventually house Windmühle 47 (71, 73, 84) from 1731 until 1793 in the Dienstbuch of the archbishopric (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B123.3, fol. 245r). This document reveals that the house's earliest number was different from its previously supposed first number. A Dienstbuch does not list all the house owners, but only the owners who actually received the Gewähr, i.e. the guaranty of ownership.

On 29 October 1793, Haydn's purchase was approved by the Vienna magistrate, and on 2 November 1793, the Gewähr of Haydn and his wife was written into the archbishopric's land register. This entry reads as follows.

The entry concerning the guaranty of ownership of the house Windmühle 71 to Haydn and his wife (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften, B123.8, fol. 105). The note before the entry refers to a mortgage of 6,000 gulden that was related to the purchase of the house by Ludwig Maisch and his wife in 1810. Pohl erroneously calls Haydn's neighbor Johann Georg Bossenius (1723–1797), a court agent of Prince Waldeck and Pyrmont, "Bossewius" (Pohl 1927, 72).

      N° 463.
Der Joseph Haydn, fürstlich Esterhazi[scher] Capellmeister, und dessen Frau Ehewirthin Anna empfangen mit magistrat[ischer] Bewilligung vom 29ten October dieses Jahrs zugleich die Gewähr um ein Haus und Grund N° 71. in der unteren Steingassen bey Gumpendorf, zwischen des Paul Habsperger, und Herrn Georg Bossenius Häusern gele= [fol. 105v] gen; so in der Breite vorwärts in der Gassen sowohl als rückwärts an der Wasserrunse zehn Klafter, in der Länge neben dem Habsperger achtzehn Klafter drey Schuh, und neben dem Herrn Bossenius achtzehn Klafter fünf Schuh sechs Zoll enthält. Davon dient man der Stadt Wien jährlich zehn Kreutzer zum Grunddienst. Darum vorhin in diesem Buche Fol: 103 Ignaz Weißgram allein vergewähret gewesen, welcher dieses Haus nun dem Herrn Haydn und seiner Frau Ehewirthin vermöge des den 14ten August dieses Jahrs errichteten Kaufkontraktes käuflich überlassen, und mittelst schriftlicher Aufsandung eigenthümlich übergeben hat. Mag demnach hiemit Nutzen geschaffet werden, wie Grundbuchsrecht ist; jedoch der Grundobrigkeit an ihren Rechten und Gerechtigkeiten nichts benomen. Wien den 2ten November 1793.

[translation:]

Joseph Haydn, princely Esterhazian capellmeister, and his wife Anna, with the approval of the magistrate of October 29th of this year, both receive the guaranty of ownership of a house and property No. 71 in the Untere Steingasse near Gumpendorf, situated between the houses of Paul Habsperger, and Mr. Georg Bossenius; so in breadth forwards to the street as well as backwards along the water channel ten fathoms, in length next to Habsperger eighteen fathoms, three feet, and next to Mr. Bossenius eighteen fathoms, five feet, six inches. The annual property tax to be paid to the City of Vienna is ten kreutzers. According to fol. 103 in this book, sole ownership of this house had been granted to Ignaz Weißgram who has now given this house to Mr. Haydn and his wife on the basis of the purchase contract drawn up on August 14th of this year, and has handed it over into their property by means of a written assent of conveyance. Accordingly, benefits may be created with this, as is the land register law; however, the authority of the land is not deprived of its rights and justice. Vienna, November 2nd, 1793.

On the day of the purchase, Haydn initiated the addition and enlargement of his house by having the master builder Johann Michael Adelpodinger submit a request to the magistrate. In 1793, in Haydn's Vienna, every house owner who wanted to renew or alter his property, had to have a professional builder submit an application to the Unterkammeramt (the municipal building authority) to be granted an official building permit. These applications always constisted of two documents: 1) the written request which specified the intended structural modification, and 2) the plan of these alterations which had to marked in red and drawn along a scale of Viennese Klafter (fathoms). Today these documents (which suffered massive obliteration) are held by the Municipal Archives as Serie 1.1.2.A33/A - Alte Baukonsense: Akten, and Serie 1.1.2.A33/P - Alte Baukonsense: Pläne. This material is completed by a stock of addenda filed as Serie 1.1.2.A33N/A - Alte Baukonsense: Akten: Nachträge, and Serie 1.1.2.A33N/P - Alte Baukonsense: Pläne: Nachträge. Today Haydn's application, whose original shelfmark was A-Wsa, Unterkammeramt, A33, alte Baukonsense 4234/1793, is missing from these holdings. When in 1932 this document was on display at the Haydn memorial exhibition in Vienna, it was still held by Vienna's municipal planning and building control office (Katalog 1932, 10). When it was displayed at the 1982 Haydn exhibition, it had already become property of the Wiener Stadt- und Landesbibliothek (Mraz 1982, 546). Today it is in the manuscript collection of this library (I.N. 99475) as part of a set of documents entitled "Joseph Haydn" of which not a single one was written by the composer. Among these documents is the estimate (Hausschätzung) of Haydn's house from 1809 (I.N. 131749) which was stolen from Haydn's probate file in the court archive and came to the library from the estate of Fritz Brukner.

Haydn's application for a building permit to the Vienna magistrate written by one of the builder's employees (A-Wst, H.I.N. 99475). This document has repeatedly been mistaken for an autograph. In the catalog of the 1982 Haydn exhibition Michael Ladenburger writes: "[Haydn's] application to the Vienna magistrate bears the proud[sic!] signature: 'Franz Heiden, fürstl. Esterhaz. Capellmeister und Hausinhaber in der Klein Stoingasse No. 71'." (Mraz 1982, 545). The facsimile of this document, which (according to Bartha) was once on display at the Haydnhaus Museum, has by now been replaced by a facsimile of the ground plan.

[3 Kreuzer Gebührenstempel]

Löbl[icher] Magistrat der k.k. Haupt Stadt Wienn

Unterzeichneter gedenket seine in der zum Grund Windmihl folglich zu dero löbl[ichem] Grundbuch gehörigen kleinen Stein Gasse nächst Gumpendorf sub N° 71 besitzende Behausung nach Ausweiß anliegenden Grundriß A in etwas zu vergrössern und ein Stockwerk auf das alte Gebäu setzen zu lassen, da aber hierzu dero hohe Konsens vor allen erforderlich ist, also Bittet der Unterzeichnete ihme solchen zu ertheillen, zu Unterstützung seiner Bitte führet er an, daß er
1mo dieses aufführende Gebäu von guten Materialien, überhaupt aber nach der bestehenden Bau Ordnung, und zu Verschönerung der dasigen Gasse werde herstellen lassen, er hofte also, dß in dise seine Bitte auch um so ehender werde gewilliget werde, als
2do durch Vergrösserung des Gebäudes dem allerhöchsten ærario ein grösserer Nutzen zuflüssete, Wien den 14t August 793

                                  Franz Heiden Fürstl[ich] Esterhazi[scher]
                                  Capellmeister und Haußinhaber
                                  in der kleinstoin Gasse N° 71

Haydn's application was first published in an English translation in 1959 (Robbins Landon 1959, 141). The source reference "Copy in an unknown hand in the Vienna City Files", given by Robbins Landon, shows that he never saw the original. Because his edition is flawed – Robbins Landon misread a few words and had no knowledge of the document's context – a better translation is presented here.

[3. kreuzer revenue stamp]

           Laudable Magistrate of the I. & R. capital City of Vienna

According to the attached construction plan A, the undersigned intends to slightly enlarge his house and to have a floor added to the old building in the Kleine Steingasse No. 71 near Gumpendorf which is part of the Windmühle district, and therefore belongs to your laudable land register. Because your high permission is required for all this, the undersigned requests to give it to him; in support of his request he states that he 1) will have this building be made of good material, but in general, according to the existing building regulations, and to beautify the local street he hopes that this request will be approved all the sooner, as 2) the highest treasury will receive increased benefit from the enlargement of the building, Vienna, August 14th, 1793

                                  Franz Heiden princely Esterhazian
                                  capellmeister and house owner
                                  in the Kleinstoin Gasse No. 71

The German text of the application was first published by Dénes Bartha (Bartha 1965, 296). The flawed source reference in this edition: "O[riginal] verschollen. Quelle: alte Archivkopie im Haydn-Museum der Stadt Wien" (Bartha 1965, 297) is based on ignorance of the filing situation in the holdings of the municipal Unterkammeramt. An original application written by Haydn never existed, because such requests were always written by the office of the builder in charge. The word "Gebäu" (building), which appears twice in this document, reveals baroque master builder vocabulary which was used into the late 19th century. The backside of Haydn's application has so far never been published. The big Roman numeral and the stamp "Einl Nro."are not original and come from Brukner's collection or the library. The number "4234" is the original shelfmark from the Unterkammeramt holdings. On the lower right quarter is the rubrum of the application, the rest of the page deals with the approval of Haydn's request.

The backside of Haydn's 1793 application (A-Wst, H.I.N. 99475).

                                ps 20t Aug: 793
Stadt Magistrat
N°. 4234.
Franz Heiden fürstl Esterhazi[scher] Kapelmeister und Haußinhaber in der klein Stein Gasse No. 71
     84 Windmühl Zl

Bittet zu Aufführung inberührten Gebäudes um den erforderlichen Consens

14. Aug. 793.         W.

Der Magistrat der K:K: Haupt= und Residenzstadt Wien, will dem Bittsteller den angesuchten Konsens gegen dem hiemit ertheilet haben: daß er das Dach mit Ziegeln einzudeken, den Boden darunter mit einem Ziegelpflaster zu belegen, die Rauchfänge 18 Zoll weit zu verfertigen, die Stiegen, wie auch den Komunikationsgang von Stein herzustellen. Letzteren aber falls er von Holz würde, mit eisernen Stützen zu unterfangen               O 698
O alle Ausschallungen Riegel= und Pfostenwände sorgsamst zu vermeiden die Stallung zu gewölben, die Holzlagen zu ebener Erde von Gemäuerwerk und mit Ziegel eingedekt zu verschaffen, einen Wasserbrunn zu graben, sich nach dem eingelegten Riße zu benehmen, zu diesem Bau nicht nur ein gutes Materiale, sondern auch unter einer Geldstraffe von 12 R[eichs]th[alern] befugte Arbeitsleute zu gebrauchen, alles dieses unter seiner eigenen, und des Baumeisters Dafürhaftung in Vollzug zu setzen, und übrigens vor aller Unternehmung noch vorläufig die Erlaubniß bey der hohen Landesstelle zu bewirken schuldig seyn solle. Dessen das Steuer= und Unterkameramt durch Rathschl[ag] ex offo zu verständigen, die Akten hingegen dem Oberkameramte zur Aufbewahrung zuzustellen sind.
         Ex Cons[ilio] Mag[istrati] Vien[nensis]
         den 20t August 793.
         z[ur] R[egistratur] exp[ediert] d[en] 23t August 793.  L. Pöltingermp

[translation:]

City Magistrate
No. 4234.
Franz Heiden princely Esterhazian capellmeister and house owner in the Kleine Steingasse No. 71
[last numbering] Windmühle 84

Asks for the required consensus for the construction of the building mentioned here

August 14th, 1793.

The magistrate of the I. & R. capital and residential city of Vienna wants to have given the petitioner the requested consensus with the following conditions: that he should cover the roof with tiles, cover the floor below it with brick paving, make the chimneys 18 inches wide, and make the stairs as well as the connecting corridor of stone. To underpin the latter, if it were made of wood, with iron supports, carefully avoiding all formwork, transom and post walls, to vault the stables, build the wood storage room on the ground floor from masonry and with a brick ceiling, to dig a water well, to follow the attached ground plan, not only to use good material for this building, but also, under a fine of 12 Reichstalers, to use authorized workers, to carry out all this under his own and the builder's liability, and incidentally, prior to any undertaking, to be obliged to provisionally request permission from the high federal authority. The tax and lower chamber office are to be informed ex officio, the files, however, are to be sent to the superior chamber office for safekeeping.

August 20th, 1793.
sent to the registry on August 23rd 1793. [Franz] Pöltinger mp

Haydn's application was accompanied by the following plan that shows the ground floor (with the existing structure in black and the projected one in red) on the left, and the projected additional floor on the right. Owing to the plan's long exposure to daylight, the red color of the newly planned sections has strongly faded. An example of a typical Viennese 18th-century plan in its original colors can be seen here. The ground floor is underwritten "Zu Ebner Ert" by Adelpodinger, the projected additional floor is underwritten "der Stock darauf". At the bottom left is the mandatory scale in Wiener Klafter (1,896484 m).

The plan of the modification of Haydn's house drawn and signed by Johann Michael Adelpodinger (A-Wst, H.I.N. 99475). The circles are ovens. the black and white squares are chimneys.

As can be seen from the current condition of the house, this plan was not exactly implemented. The windows on the first floor are evenly spaced which is not the case on the 1793 ground plan. The following entry in the Repertorium of the municipal building authority concerning the decision about Haydn's application is not yet known.

The entry in the repertory of the municipal Unterkammeramt that refers to Haydn's application (A-Wsa, Unterkammeramt; Bauamt, B2/9).

4829 Rathschlag dd° 23tn August 793. über das Gesuch des H[errn] Franz Haiden
         Haußinhaber Nro 71 zu Gumpendorf angesuchten Baukonsens.

Although, according to the building consensus, Haydn had a floor added to the old building, the entry in the register of building permits related to the house Windmühle 84 refers to this modification as "Neuerbauung" (new building). The Baukonsensbuch in question lists all modifications from 1793 until 1826, when the building belonged to the weaver Johann Urner (1784–27 Dec 1830). The first one is Haydn's ("Franz Heiden Neuerbauung"). The plan from the second one (A-Wsa, Unterkammeramt, A33, alte Baukonsense 9097/1820), related to an addition and modification ("Zubau und Abänderung") commissioned in 1820 by Anton Justus Brauer (5 May 1787– 12 Apr 1839), was on display at the 1932 Haydn exhibition in Vienna (Katalog 1932, 10). Today this plan is missing from the holdings of the Unterkammeramt.

The list of early building permits in the Baukonsensbuch of the Unterkammeramt related to the house Windmühle 84 (A-Wsa, Unterkammeramt; Bauamt, B11).

On 13 December 1809 Haydn's house was officially valued at 5100 gulden.

The second page of the appraisal of Haydn's house which was done on 13 December 1809 (A-Wst, H.I.N. 131749). This document was stolen from Haydn's probate file and is now held by the Wienbibliothek.

On 30 April 1810 Haydn's house was put up to auction and bought by the art dealer Ludwig Maisch and his wife from Haydn's universal heir Mathias Fröhlich (A-Wsa, Hauptarchiv, A1.H9.2.). Maisch did not pay the full price of 17,100 gulden, but only 11,100. The remaining amount was paid with a promissory note for 6000 gulden in banco bills (Bancozettel), with 5 percent annual interest. Until 1813 the 5% interests from this mortgage were used to finance the annual pension of 300 gulden that Haydn had left to Luigia Polzelli. This is proved by the relevant entry in the Satzbuch (mortgage register) of the Seidlhuber land register (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B137.7, fol. 294), and by paragraph 39 in Mathias Fröhlich's "Ausweis über das Testament des Herrn Joseph Haydn" which on 1 June 1811 he submitted to the municipal court.

The paragraph in Mathias Fröhlich's statement concerning the payment of Luigia Polzelli's pension with the interests of Ludwig Maisch's debt of 6000 gulden (A-Wsa, Hauptarchiv, Persönlichkeiten H9.2).

Maisch's debt of 6000 gulden was fully repaid only on 11 May 1813 (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B137.7, fol. 294v), after Maisch and his wife had already sold the house to the factory associate Anton Justus Brauer (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B137.7, fol. 38r). The surprising increase of the house's value was probably caused by the galloping inflation which heralded the monarchy's imminent sovereign default in 1811. The issuance of the Finanzpatent on 15 March 1811 reduced the value of the gulden in banco bills to a fifth.

Ignaz Weisgram

Ignaz Weisgram, who in 1793 sold Joseph Haydn a house, was born around 1765 in the Lower Austrian village of Reinberg (today Reinberg-Heidenreichstein), and baptized in the parish church of Heidenreichstein (owing to incomplete church records, his exact date of birth cannot be determined). Ignaz Weisgram's parents, the weaver Mathias Weisgram from Eggern and Rosalia Flicker from Pengers had married on 22 November 1763 in Heidenreichstein (Heidenreichstein 3, 404). On 14 January 1788, in Gumpendorf, Ignaz Weisgram married Katharina Kaltenböck, the daughter of the weaver Johann Michael Kaltenböck (Gumpendorf 12, 429f.).

The second page of Ignaz Weisgram's and Katharina Kaltenböck's marriage contract wich was signed on 20 January 1788 (A-Wsa, Klosterneuburg, A1, Neustift 140/1839)

In 1789, Ignaz Weisgram, a soon-to-be master weaver, already owned the house No. 52 (last number 91) in the Kleine Steingasse (in Hofer 1789, 200 his name is misspelled "Weiskron"). On 10 May 1793, Weisgram bought the house Windmühle 71 from Karl Joseph Molitor (see above).

The entry in the land register concerning Ignaz Weisgram's purchase of the house Windmühle 71 on 10 May 1793 (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften, B123.8, fol. 103r)

As described above, on 14 August 1793, Weisgram sold this house to Haydn for 1370 gulden (170 fl earnest money and 1200 fl purchase price) (Pohl 1927, 72). Weisgram immediately invested the proceeds of this purchase in the purchase of another house. On 19 August 1793, he bought the building next to Haydn's house, Windmühle No. 72, "Zum römischen Kaiser",  (last number 85). Because Weisgram's Gewähr of this house was never officially entered into the land register, his ownership is only documented in the entry concerning the guaranty of ownership which on 10 September 1802 was given to the next owners, the master weaver Anton Meilinger (1767–1831) and his wife Anna, née Stutz (1766–1825). Anton Meilinger was Haydn's neighbor who was present when Haydn died, and on 7 February 1809 signed Haydn's last will as witness.

The seal of Haydn's neighbor Anton Meilinger (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 615/1825)

The passage in Meilinger's Gewähranschreibung concerning Weisgram's temporary ownership of Windmühle 72 reads as follows.

The entry in the land register which documents Ignaz Weisgram's ownership of the house Windmühle (as of 1795) 74 (formerly 48 and 72, last number 85) from 19 August 1793 until 27 June 1801 (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften, B123.8, fol. 285v). This source is yet more proof that a sequence of ownership of a house can never be deduced from a Dienstbuch alone. In 1830 the house Windmühle 85 was still owned by Anton Meilinger's son Peter Meilinger.

Um dieses Haus waren vorhin in diesem Gewährbuche Fol 36. Paul Habsperger, und Anna seine Ehewirthin vergewähret. Nachdem das selbe im Wege der Execution gerichtlich feilgebothen worden ist, so ist solches zufolge der Lizitazionsrelation vom 2ten April 1793. an den Angelo Antonio Bettini als Meistbiethenden gekomen, von welchem das selbe vermöge eines unterm 19t[en] August 1793. gefertigten Kaufbriefes dem Ignatz Weißgram bürgerl: Webermeister, von diesem aber sodann mittels einem unterm 27ten Juny 1801. geschlossenen Kontraktes den anfangs gedachten Meilinger[ischen] Eheleuten käuflich überlassen und durch schriftliche Aufsandung eigenthümlich übergeben worden ist.

With his first wife Katharina, Ignaz Weisgram had the following six children.

1. Maria Anna, b. 23 Oct 1788 (Gumpendorf 12, fol. 58), d. before 1826
   
2. Josepha, b. 5 Mar 1790 (Gumpendorf 12, fol. 112), d. 11 Sep 1790 (Gumpendorf 9, fol. 131)
   
3. Josepha, b. 18 Mar 1792 (Gumpendorf 12, fol. 174), d. 17 Nov 1792 (Gumpendorf 9, fol. 184)
4. Joseph (godson of Haydn), b. 10 Nov 1793 (see above), d. 27 Aug 1797 (Gumpendorf 10, fol. 112)
5. Catharina, b. 26 Jul 1796 (Gumpendorf 13, fol. 81), d. 23 Aug 1796 (Gumpendorf 10, fol. 82) 
6. Ignaz Franz, b. 9 Jul 1806 (Mariahilf 3, fol. 275), d. 4 April 1892 (Alservorstadt 26, fol. 50)
   

The first child, Maria Anna, was the "Tochter Nannerl des Herrn Weißgerb meinen Nachbar" to whom Haydn in 1801, in his first will, bequeathed 50 gulden (Nohl 1866, 163).

As of 1805, Weisgram, now already a manufacturer of high-quality "English" cotton cloth, member of the Äußerer Rat, and honorable k.k. Armenvater (patron of the poor), owned the house Mariahilf 28, "Zur Weintraube", (today Barnabitengasse 5) (Ziegler & Vasquez, 1830, 209). In this house, on 20 December 1826, Weisgram's first wife Katharina died of induration of the viscera (Wiener Zeitung, 28 Dec 1826, 1291). In his late years Weisgram moved to Neustift am Walde near Vienna where he bought the houses Neustift No. 6, and  Salmannsdorf No. 16. In Neustift am Walde, on 2 March 1829, he married the 25-year-old Maria Wimmer from Salmannsdorf (Neustift am Walde 01a, fol. 16). Ignaz Weisgram died on 2 December 1839 in Neustift and was buried in the local cemetery (Wiener Zeitung, 17 Dec 1839, 1827). He was survived by his second wife, two minor children from his second marriage, and his son Ignaz Weisgram, a municipal chancellery practitioner, who on 22 November 1830 had married Anna Flaschge, daughter of the noted Viennese clockmaker Tobias Flaschge (1767–1842) (Neustift am Walde 1a, fol. 17).

The cover sheet of Ignaz Weisgram's probate file (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 6667/1839). A Sperrs-Relation for Weisgram was also drawn up by the Klosterneuburg dominion in Neustift am Walde. Weisgram's ownership of real estate in Vienna caused the involvement of the municipal court.

The seal of Ignaz Weisgram (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 697/1826)

2) Joseph Scheiger

Joseph Scheiger was born on 16 October 1795 in the house Mariahilf 62 ("Weißer Schwan", last number 64, today Mariahilfer Straße 46) and baptized by the Barnabite vicar Jakob Forchtner (1730–1799) in the Church of Mariahilf. Haydn was present at the ceremony. In the register he is given as "Joseph Heÿden fürstl Kappelmeister".

The entry concerning the baptism of Haydn's godson Joseph Scheiger on 16 October 1795 (Mariahilf 2, fol. 245)

Joseph Scheiger was the second child of the silversmith Carl Scheiger and his wife Theresia, née Pinzner. This Carl Scheiger was a nephew of Haydn's wife (Lorenz 2014). He was born on 13 August 1755 (A-Wd, Tom. 81, fol. 246v), son of the wigmaker Carl Scheiger (1715–1803) and Barbara, née Keller (Haydn's sister-in-law). His parents had married in February 1752 in Vienna (A-Wd, Tom. 55, fol. 91v). Carl Scheiger's wife Theresia was born on 13 November 1769 in the suburb of Spittelberg (St. Ulrich 32, fol. 457v), daughter of the "Lizenztandler" (licensed dealer) Paul Pinzner from Pressath in Oberpfalz and his first wife Maria Anna, née Werkmeister who had married on 15 May 1763 in Vienna (A-Wd, 61, fol. 69r). Carl Scheiger and Theresia Pinzner got married on 25 May 1794 (St. Ulrich 31, fol. 174). Their first child Barbara was born on 1 November 1794 at Spittelberg 41 and baptized at St. Ulrich with its grandmother Barbara Scheiger (Haydn's sister-in-law) officiating as godmother (St. Ulrich 38, fol. 189). Carl Scheiger and his wife were always in close contact with Haydn and his copyist Johann Elßler. On 10 February 1800, Carl Scheiger served as best man at the wedding of Johann Elßler and Theresia Prinster (Gumpendorf 13, 323f.). Haydn's godson Joseph Scheiger died on 20 October 1797 of smallpox at Mariahilf 75 ("Weißer Schwan", last number 64, see above). He was buried on the following day in the Hundsturm cemetery (Mariahilf 2, 29).

The entry in the municipal death register concerning the death of Joseph Scheiger on 20 October 1797 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 67)

Scheiger Carl, Silberarbeiterges[elle] sein K[ind] Josepha, ist bei der weissen Schwanne N° 75. zu Mariahilf, nachmittag 2 Uhr an bösart[igen] Blatt[ern] verschied[en] alt 2 Jr. Pibitz.

The boy Joseph Scheiger had apparently infected his older sister Barbara with smallpox, because on 11 November 1797, she also died of this disease (Mariahilf 2, fol. 32).

3) Joseph Rammler

Joseph Rammler was born on 28 December 1797, in Haydn's house at Windmühle 73 and baptized on the same day at the Gumpendorf parish church with Haydn being present as godfather. The baptismal register refers to him as "Joseph v: Haydn / Fürst Esterhaz[ischer] Capellmeister".

The entry concerning the baptism of Haydn's godson Joseph Rammler on 28 December 1797 (Gumpendorf 13, fol. 128)

Since this child's father Anton Rammler is referred to as a "Kammerlaquey" in the above entry and he lived in Haydn's house, it can be assumed that at that time he was employed as Haydn's valet.

Anton Rammler was born on 7 May 1744, in the Lower Austrian village of Wantendorf, son of the mason Peter Rammler and his wife Katharina. He was baptized in the parish church in Ober-Grafendorf (Obergrafendorf 4, 391). Rammler's presence in Vienna is first documented on the occasion of his wedding in 1780 in the parish of Maria Treu. At that time, Rammler was already a chamberlain of Prince Johann Adam von Auersperg. On 9 January 1780, Rammler married Antonia Friedl, daughter of Wenzel Friedl, house administrator of Prince Auersperg. The bride had been born in Prince Auersperg's castle in the Bohemian community of Žleby. The couple lived at the Palais Auersperg. Their witnesses were Rammler's colleagues, the princely chamberlains Claude Lesage and Lean Louis Sorbée.

The left half of the entry concerning the wedding of Anton Rammler and Antonia Friedl on 9 January 1780 (Maria Treu 3, fol. 70).

During the next 13 years, the Rammlers had ten children whose baptisms in the church of Maria Treu document their father's employment with Prince Auersperg and the family's residential addresses near the princely palace. These children – of whom none survived their parents – and their dates and birth addresses were the following.

1. Andreas Franz, b. 3 Oct 1781 (Maria Treu 5, fol. 28), Josephstadt 2, "Goldene Birn" (today Trautsongasse 2), d. 18 Feb 1782 (MT 3, fol. 119)
   
2. Joseph Andreas, b. 3 Mar 1783 (Maria Treu 5, fol. 76), Josephstadt 2, d. 16 Mar 1787 (MT 4, fol. 30)
   
3. Eleonora Rosa, b. 30 Aug 1784 (Maria Treu 5, fol. 146), Josephstadt 2
4. Andreas, b. 18 Jul 1787 (Maria Treu 5, fol. 360), Josephstadt 75, "Zwei Löwen" (today Lange Gasse 11), d. 22 Jul 1787 (MT 4, fol. 39)
   
5. Jakob, b. 18 Jul 1787 (see above), d. before 1824
   
6. Theresia Eleonora, b. 16 Aug 1788 (Maria Treu 6, fol. 62), Josephstadt 63, "Blaues Schiff" (today Trautsongasse 6), d. before 1824
   
7. Wenzel Andreas, b. 18 Aug 1789 (Maria Treu 6, fol. 120), Josephstadt 63, d. 17 Nov 1789 (MT 4, fol.108)
   
8. Adam (godson of Prince Auersperg), b. 4 October 1790 (Maria Treu 6, fol. 179), Josephstadt 63. d. 16 Jan 1791 (MT 4, fol. 145)
   
9. Marianna, b.14 Jul 1792 (Maria Treu 6, fol. 270), Josephstadt 60, "Goldene Kanne" (today Lange Gasse 14), d. 25 Nov. 1792 (MT 4, fol. 201), d. before 1824
10. Josepha, b. 3 Nov 1793 (Maria Treu 6, fol. 341), Josephstadt 60, d. 6 May 1794 (MT 5, fol. 9), d. before 1824
    

Although the musical patronage of Prince Auersperg has been well researched, our knowledge so far mainly extends to the performance of Mozart's Idomeneo in 1786 in the prince's private theater (Edge 2018). Considering the fact that Anton Rammler entered the service of Haydn after the prince's death in 1795, it seems possible that Haydn had already made Rammler's acquaintance while attending an opera performance at Auersperg's palace theater.

Among his siblings the child Joseph Rammler was a relative latecomer. There could be other children of the Rammler family, e.g. Antonia Rammler's date of birth still has to be determined, but no further baptisms of Anton Rammler's children could be found in the books of the Gumpendorf parish.

Haydn's godson Joseph Rammler died on 25 March 1798 in Haydn's house (Gumpendorf 10, fol. 130). The entry in the municipal death register concerning the child's death is interesting, because it shows that in 1798 Haydn's house apparently was already named "Zum Haydn". The coroner did not know what to do with this name (and only knew a house of this name in the city) which is why he called the house "Haidenschus".

The entry in the municipal death register concerning the death of Haydn's godson Joseph Rammler on 25 March 1798 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 108, R, fol. 14v)

Ramler Anton Bedienter, s[ein] K[ind] Joseph, ist beim Haidenschus N° 73 auf der Windmühl, an Durchfall abends 6 Uhr gestorben, alt 3 Monat.     Daubert

Rammler seems to have left Haydn's household before 1800, because he is not considered in Haydn's first will. In his later years Anton Rammler entered the service of Count Anton Joseph von Batthyány as an office clerk. He died a retiree on 1 June 1824 in Count Batthyány's house Leopoldstadt 367 (today Taborstraße 52) and was buried on the following day in the St. Marx cemetery (St. Leopold 8, fol. 87).

The entry in the municipal death register concerning the death of Anton Rammler on 1 June 1824 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 155, R, fol. 18r)

Ramler Anton, pens[ionierter] herrschaftl[icher] Kanzleÿdiener, verheurath von St. Pölten  gebürtig, im Gräfl. Badÿanisch = H[aus] N. 367 in d. Leopoldstadt, an der Wassersucht, alt 80. Jr.       Kerndl.

Anton Rammler's probate file shows that he was survived by his wife Antonia and a daughter Antonia Friedrich, widow of a lottery official.

The cover sheet of Anton Rammler's Sperrs-Relation (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 2341/1824)

Rammler's widow Antonia died five months after her husband on 30 October 1824 in Count Batthyány's house in the Leopoldstadt (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 155, R, fol. 44v, and Mag. ZG, A2, 2341/1824).

4) Joseph Scheiger

Joseph Scheiger was born on 29 March 1799 at Mariahilf 75, third child of Carl and Theresia Scheiger. He was baptized by the priest Johann Lochi in the Mariahilf parish church with Haydn officiating as godfather.

The entry concerning the baptism of Haydn's godson Joseph Scheiger on 29 March 1799 (Mariahilf 2, fol. 415). The mother is mistakenly referred to as "Schneiderstochter".

The fact that Joseph Scheiger was given the same name as his deceased older brother shows the attitude at the time not to see the death of children as a bad omen and to relentlessly give subsequent children the same first name. This is reminiscent of Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Jakob Freystädtler, and Jakob Dont who received the first names of brothers who had died before them. The choice of names was reduced anyway, as long as there was such a prominent godfather available. Joseph Scheiger died of "bösartige Blattern" (malignant smallpox) on 24 July 1802 in his parents' apartment at Marialhilf 75. He was buried on the following day in the Hundsturm cemetery (Mariahilf 2, fol. 170).

The entry concerning the death of Haydn's godson Joseph Scheiger on 24 July 1802 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 114, S, fol. 88r).

Scheiger Karl, Silberarbeitergesell, sein Kind Joseph, ist bey der weißen Schwanen N° 75. zu Maria Hilf, an bösart[igen] Blattern besch[au]t. word[en]. alt 3. Jr:   Pibitz.

5) Carl Scheiger

Carl Scheiger was born on 26 March 1801, at Mariahilf 75, fourth child of Carl and Theresia Scheiger and baptized in the Mariahilf parish church. Haydn officiated as godfather and was present at the ceremony.

The entry concerning the baptism of Haydn's godson Carl Scheiger on 26 March 1801 (Mariahilf 3, fol. 11).

Carl Scheiger became a goldsmith's apprentice. At the time of his father's death in 1820, he was still living with his parents at Neubau 224 (today Neubaugasse 58). The entry in Karl Scheiger's Sperrs-Relation concerning his two surviving children reads as follows: "Karl Scheicher 17 J: Goldarbeiterlehrjung im Sterborte Joseph Scheicher 14 J: Gürtlerlehrjung bei H: Fels am Schottenfeld.".

The entry in Karl Scheiger's probate file concerning his two minor sons (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 550/1820)

Since Carl Scheiger is not listed anymore in his mother's 1836 probate file, he must have died between 1820 and 1836.

6) Josepha Strasser

Josepha Strasser was born on 29 October 1802, in the house Mariahilf 74 ("Goldener Adler", last number 63, today Mariahilfer Straße 48) and baptized by her uncle, the Barnabite friar Severin Strasser (1757–1824) in the Mariahilf parish church. Haydn was present at the ceremony. In the register he is given as "Joseph Heyden Docktor der Tonkunst und Fürst Esterhasischen[sic] Kappelmeister".

The entry concerning the baptism of Haydn's goddaughter Josepha Strasser on 29 December 1802 (Mariahilf 3, fol. 90).

Josepha Strasser was the fifth child of Karl Strasser, the Regenschori of the Mariahilf parish and his wife Rosina, née Wendl. The musician Karl Strasser has not appeared in Haydn's biography so far. It was not previously known that Haydn had a personal relationship with the choirmaster of Mariahilf.

Karl Strasser

Karl Strasser was the last and most important representative of a family of church musicians that consisted of three generations. The first documented musician of this family was Johann Georg Strasser (born around 1700), who was a choir musician in the parish of St. Ulrich and died on 2 April 1770 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 64, S, fol. 15v) at the house "Zum Goldenen Pelikan" in St. Ulrich (today Burggasse 25). His probate file and interesting will survive in the court files of the Patrimonialherrschaft Schotten (A-Wsa, Serie 2.1.1.16.A1/2.18882).

Johann Georg Strasser's son Johann Georg, who was born on 26 April 1736 (St. Ulrich, 22, fol. 219r) at the house "Zum großen wilden Mann" on the Spittelberg (today Breite Gasse 9), also became a church musician. When on 24 August 1756, he married Usula Buchhof from Klosterneuburg, he was referred to as "Chor=Regens in d Kaÿl: Königl: Kriegs=Schull=Kirchen" (St. Ulrich 23, fol. 255r). This so-called "Kriegs-Schull" was the K.K. Ingenieursakademie (also referred to as "K.K. Emanuelisches Stüft", today's Stiftskaserne), and the church of this institution was the Stiftskirche. Strasser's activity as choirmaster at this church is also documented on the occasion of the baptisms of his 16 children. The entry concerning the baptism of his son Georg Philipp (the future above mentioned Barnabite friar) on 24 November 1757, also describes Johann Georg Strasser as choirmaster at the "Kriegs=Schull=Kirchen" (St. Ulrich 29, fol. 135r). Johann Georg Strasser the Younger died on 4 May 1792, at the "Goldener Adler" in Mariahilf (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 97, S, fol. 38v). He was survived by three children: Georg, Karl, and Anna (A-Wsa, Domkapitel A1b, A11/471). His widow Ursula died on 28 August 1802, in Mariahilf (A-Wsa, Domkapitel A1b, A13/814). In the death records she is referred to as "eines Regens=Chori hinterl. Wittwe" (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 114, S, fol. 104r).

Karl Strasser was born his parents' fifth child on 2 November 1763, at the "Goldener Pelikan" in St. Ulrich (St. Ulrich, 31, fol. 109r). His godfather was the lawyer and court official Johann August Romani (1691–1774). Karl Strasser was not only choirmaster at the Mariahilf parish, like his father, and grandfather, he also taught music at the Ingenieursakademie. At the time of his wedding on 18 May 1795, to Rosina Wendl, daughter of a manservant from Parsberg, his profession was given as "Vorstadt Regenschori" (St. Ulrich 31, fol. 221).

The seals and signatures on the second page of Karl Strasser's and Rosina Wendl's marriage contract dated 5 May 1795 (A-Wsa, Domkapitel A1b, A13/865)

Similar to his father, Strasser's professional activity is also documented in the baptismal books of the Mariahilf parish. Once he is described as "Regens Chori und Musickmeister im K:K: Theresiano" (Mariahilf 2, fol. 319), another time he is referred to as "Regens Chori und Musick Meister in der K.K. Inschenieur Academie" (Mariahilf 2, fol. 488). The fact that the godfather of Karl Strasser's first son Franz Sales (b. 10 Jun 1798) was a Count Khevenhüller-Metsch (Mariahilf 2, fol. 373) certainly had something to do with Strassers work at one of these institutions. The birth of Josepha Strasser in December 1802, combined with medical malpractice, led to her mother's death from childbed fever three weeks later. At the time of her death on 20 January 1803, Rosina Strasser was 27 years old. The death register gives her cause of death as "nervöses Kindbettfieber" (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 116, S, fol. 7v). She was survived by her husband and two daughters: "Antonia, aged 5 years" and "Josepha, aged 3 weeks" (A-Wsa, Domkapitel A1b, A13/865). Haydn's goddaughter Josepha Strasser died at the age of three on 19 September 1805, of "Auszehrung" (consumption).

The entry in the municipal death register concerning the death of Haydn's goddaughter Josepha Strasser on 19 September 1805 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 119, S, fol. 96r).

Straßer H[err] Karl, Regenschori, sein Kind Josepha, ist beim golden Adler N° 74. zu Mariahilf, an der Auszehr[ung] versch[iedenj] alt: 3. Jr.                 Pierner

During his later life, Karl Strasser took over choirmaster duties at other churches as well. He became Regenschori at St. Michael's and also worked at the Deutschordenskirche and the Kapuzinerkirche. At the same time, he continued teaching at the Ingenieursakademie. Karl Strasser died of tuberculosis on 26 April 1823, at the house Mariahilf 88 ("Zwey Linden", today Stiftgasse 7). The entry concerning his death in the Totenbeschauprotokoll reads as follows: "Strasser H. Kaspar[sic!], Regens Chorÿ in d. K.K. Hofpfar, zu St. Michael u. zu Mariahilf, Profeßor der Musick, in d. K.K. Ingenieur=Academie, und Hausinhaber, zu Reindorf, Witwer, in 2. Linden, N. 88. zu Mariahilf, an d. Schwindsucht, alt 59. Jr. früh 9. Uhr." (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 153, S, fol. 34v). Karl Strasser was survived by his daughter Antonia and his brother Severin. Although he owned a small country house (Fünfhaus 89, today Fünfhausgasse 7) and a piece of land, the value of his estate was totally offset by debts. On 28 April 1823, Strasser was buried in the Schmelz cemetery (Mariahilf 3, fol. 257).

The cover sheet of Karl Strasser's Sperrs-Relation (A-Wsa, Domkapitel A1b, A17/73).

The seal of Karl Strasser (A-Wsa, Domkapitel A1b, A13/865)

7) Franz Xaver Anton Türkshofer

Franz Xaver Anton Türkshofer was baptized on 28 February 1803, in the Gumpendorf parish church. Haydn was unable to attend the ceremony and was represented as godfather by the city official Franz Xaver Disenni. The entry in the register concerning the godfather reads as follows: "H: Joseph Haydn, Doktor der Tonkunst, u: Fürst Esterhazzischer Kapellmeister e[ius] l[oco] Franz Xav: Dissenni, Kanzellist." Franz Disenni (ca. 1760–1827) was a son in law of Haydn's sister-in-law Barbara Scheiger (b. 1726). On 13 January 1801, in the Paulanerkirche, Disenni had married Barbara Scheiger junior, when Haydn officiated as the bride's witness. Two of Disenni's own children, born in 1801 and 1803, were also godchildren of Haydn (Lorenz 2014).

The entry concerning the baptism of Franz Xaver Türkshofer on 28 February 1803 in Gumpendorf (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 103)

Franz Xaver Türkshofer was a son of Jakob Türkshofer, former administrator of a dominion in north-eastern Lower Austria, who since 1801, together with his wife Anna, owned the house Windmühle 72, left (south) of Haydn's house. Biographically Jakob Türkshofer is still a little difficult to grasp. He was born around 1750, presumably in Lower Austria. On 14 May 1799, in Hauskirchen, he married Anna Maria Dietrich (b. 30 Oct 1776, Hauskirchen 2, 163), daughter of Johann Paul Dietrich from Hauskirchen (Hauskirchen 4, fol. 9). At that time, Türkshofer lived in the village of Zistersdorf and was described as "Gewester Kanzley Beamter" (former office clerk). Around 1800, he moved to Vienna where in March 1801 he bought the house Windmühle 72.

The entry concerning the guaranty of ownership of the house Windmühle 72 decreed on 10 December 1802 for Jakob Türkshofer and his wife (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B123.8, fol. 343r)

Herr Jakob Türkshofer, und Anna seine Frau Ehegattin empfangen zufolge Magistratsverordnung vom 10 Dezember 1802. die Gewähr um das Haus N° 72 auf der Windmühle in der unteren Steingasse bei Gumpendorf, zwischen des Johann Ertl, und Herrn Joseph Heydn Hausern gelegen, welches vermöge des inliegenden Rüsses in jeder Breite vorwärts an der Strasse sowohl, als auch rückwärts an der Wasserunze zehn Klafter, in der Länge neben H: Heydn achtzehen Klafter fünf Schuhe sechs Zolle, und neben den Ertl neunzehen Klaftern fünf Schuhe hält. Davon dienet man der Stadt Wien jährlich zehen Kreuzer zum Grunddienste. Um dieses Haus waren vorhin in diesem Gewährbuche Fol: 341 Frau Helena Bossenius, und ihr minderjähriger Sohn Adolph vergewähret, von welchen das selbe die Anfangs besagten Türkshofer[ischen] Eheleute mit obervormundschaftlicher Begnehmigung vermöge eines unterm 6ten März 1801. geschlossenen Kontraktes erkauft, und durch schriftliche Aufsandung eigentümlich überkommen haben. Mag demnach damit Nutzen geschafet werden, wie Grundbuchsrecht ist; jedoch der Grundobrigkeit an ihren Rechten nichts benommen, und daß zur Erhaltung der Strasse jederzeit verhältnißmässig beigetragen werde.
                      Wien den 13ten September 1804.

[translation:]

According to the municipal decree of 10 December 1802, Mr. Jakob Türkshofer and his wife Anna receive the guaranty of ownership for the house No. 72 on the Windmühle in the Untere Steingasse near Gumpendorf, between the houses of Johann Ertl and Mr. Joseph Haydn which, according to the attached ground plan, in breadth forwards to the street as well as backwards along the water channel has ten fathoms, in length next to Mr. Haydn eighteen fathoms, five feet, and six inch, and next to Mr. Ertl measures nineteen fathoms, and five feet. The annual property tax to be paid to the City of Vienna is ten kreutzers. According to fol. 341 of this land register, ownership of this house had been granted to Ms. Helena Bossenius and her underage son Adolph from whom the said Türkshofer couple, with the guardian's permission, purchased the same by means of a contract concluded on March 6th, 1801, and acquired it by means of a written transfer of ownership. Thus, benefit may be created, as is the land register law; however, the dominion should not be deprived of its rights, and a proportionate contribution should be made for the maintenance of the road at all times.
                       Vienna, September 13th, 1804.

The entry concerning the house Windmühle 72 (last number 83, today Haydngasse 17) in the Dienstbuch of the archbishopric shows the sequence of owners from 1784 until 1806. After the death of Johann Georg Bossenius (one of Haydn's neighbors in 1793) on 20 December 1797 (Wiener Zeitung, 30 Dec 1797, 3877), the house Windmühle 72 went to Helena Bossenius and her son Adolph (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B123.8, fol. 341). On 6 March 1801, with the approval of Adolph Bossenius's guardian, these two sold the house to the Türkshofer couple.

The sequence of guranteed owners of the house Windmühle 72 (83) between 1784 and 1806 in the Dienstbuch of the archbishopric (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B123.3, fol. 245v)

In a directory from 1803 Jakob Türkshofer is listed as Armenvater and described as "gew. herrschaftlicher Wirthschaftsbeamter auf dem Lande, Hausinhaber auf der Windmühle in der kleinen Steingasse bey Gumpendorf Nro. 72, wohnt daselbst" (Verzeichniß 1803, 58). In a house register from 1805 Türkshofer appears right before Haydn as owner of the house Windmühle 72 (Grosbauer 1805, 134).

8) Joseph Karl Scheiger

Joseph Karl Scheiger was born on 12 November 1804 at Mariahilf 75 (see above) and baptized in the Mariahilf parish church. Haydn could not attend the ceremony and was represented by the parish's choirmaster Karl Strasser. The entry concerning the godfather reads as follows: "Joseph Haiden Dr: der Tonkunst statt seiner Karl Strasser Regens Chori".

The entry concerning the baptism of Haydn's godson Joseph Karl Scheiger on 12 November 1804 (Mariahilf 3, fol. 183).

As mentioned above, at the time of  his father's death in 1820, Joseph Scheiger was described as "Gürtlerlehrjung bei H: Fels am Schottenfeld." (belt maker's apprentice with Mr. Fels in Schottenfeld). Joseph Scheiger's master Ferdinand Fels was a very interesting personality. Born on 24 September 1766 in Matzleinsdorf (St. Stephan 86, fol. 240r), son of Friedrich Carl Fels, a perspective maker of Jewish origin  (St. Stephan 60, 182), he first trained as an optician, and in 1795 established a brass and metal goods factory in his house at Schottenfeld 163 (today Westbahnstraße 35), which he had aptly named "Zum Felsen".  In October 1800, Fels took the oath as Viennese citizen. In 1795 he married his second wife Elisabeth Sandler (Schottenfeld 2, fol. 244) whom he divorced in 1807. His first extramarital son Ferdinand Andreas Fels (b. 25 Nov 1804) was a musician in the orchestra of Johann Strauss I in 1835 (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 461/1835) and also worked as music journalist (Wiener allgemeine Musik-Zeitung, 8 Oct 1846, 487). Ferdinand Fels seems to have had some influence on his apprentice, because  Joseph Scheiger also became a manufacturer of metal goods. In 1831 Scheiger fathered a daughter with a certain Maria Hofmeister. This child was born on 28 December 1831, at a midwife's apartment in Mariahilf and was christened Maria (Mariahilf 8, fol. 370). Scheiger later took this child into his household and also appointed her universal heir. On 1 July 1844, Joseph Scheiger married Rosalia Dengler (b. 26 Apr 1823), an innkeeper's daughter from Mariahilf (Mariahilf 7, fol. 367). Scheiger's best man was the painter Franz Ritter (1791–1851) with whom Scheiger was acquainted, because Ritter's wife had also lived at Mariahilf 105. The bride was already eight months pregnant and on 24 July 1844, gave birth to a daughter who was christened Theresia on the following day (Mariahilf 11, fol. 411). Because of the child's premarital conception, Scheiger had to swear an oath of paternity in the presence of two witnesses. This child already died of consumption at the age of 18 days (Mariahilf 6, fol. 182). In the church records Joseph Scheiger is referred to as "Metallwaren-Arbeiter" and "Metallwarenfabrikant", residing at Mariahilf 105 (today Lindengasse 20). In 1850, Scheiger's family was registered on a conscription sheet of this address. In this document Joseph Scheiger is given as "Metallwaren Erzeuger".

 

Joseph Scheiger's family registered on a conscription sheet of Mariahilf 105 in 1850 and 1856 (A-Wsa, Konskriptionsamt, Mariahilf 105/15v) . The daughter's year of birth was changed into 1847 which makes no sense, considering the following note "verheur[at]".

On 13 August 1855, Scheiger's illegitimate daughter Maria Hofmeister married Nikolaus Schwimmer (b. 15 Sep 1827), a goldsmith apprentice from Schottenfeld (Mariahilf 9, fol. 110). On 20 January 1856, Joseph Scheiger's wife Rosalia died of typhus at the age of 32 (Mariahilf 7, fol. 299). At that time, the Scheiger couple's joint assets consisted of a promissory note for 1000 gulden on the house Hernals 360.

The cover sheet of Josef Scheiger's declaration of inheritance in his wife's probate file (A-Wsa, BG VII, A4, 129/1856)

Thus, when in 1856 the conscription officer revised the entry on the above conscription sheet, he added the notes "gestorben" to Rosalia Scheiger's name and "verheu[rat]" to the daughter's. The death of his wife and the wedding of his daughter made Joseph Scheiger have the following will drawn up which he signed on 11 November 1856.

Joseph Scheiger's will which was written and signed on 11 November 1856 (A-Wsa, BG VII, A9, 20/1871)

                             Mein letzter Wille.
Im Namen Gottes habe ich bei vollem gesunden Verstande, reiner Vernunft und reichlicher Überlegung diesen meinen letzten Willen dahin festgesetzt und zu Papier bringen lassen.
1. Überlasse ich die Art und Weise meines Begräbnisses, so wie das Lesen heiliger Messen ganz der Bestimmung und Anordnung meiner Universalerbinn.
2. Da die Einsetzung eines Universalerbens die Grundfeste eines Testamentes ist, so ernenne ich hiemit meine im ledigen Stande mit der Maria Hofmeister erzeugte Tochter, Namens Maria Hofmeister verhelichte Schwimmer Goldarbeiters Gattin zur einzigen und alleinigen Haupt= und Universalerbin meines sämtlichen, wie imer Namen habenden Vermögens und soll daher auch Niemand auf diesen meinen Nachlass einen Anspruch zu machen berechtiget sein.
Zum Abhandlungspfleger meiner Verlassenschaft ernenne ich ausdrücklich meinen Jugendfreund Josef Gerhardt, Magistrats Offizialen, Mariahilf N° 22
Urkund dessen habe ich diesen meinen letzten Willen in Gegenwart dreier zu gleicher Zeit anwesend gewesenen Herrn Testamentszeugen mit ihnen eigenhändig unterschrieben.
                   Wien am 11. November 1856.
                   schreibe Eilften November 1856

Josef Gerhardtmp                        Josef Scheigermp
als gleichzeitig mit den
beiden übrigen Zeugen anwesend
gewesener Testamentzeug               Johan Hajek als ersuchter Zeigner
                                                         Franz Jura.
                                                         als ersuchter Zeugner

[translation:]

                                       My last will.
In the name of God, with full sanity, pure reason and ample consideration, I have made this my last will and had it put down on paper.
1. I leave the manner of my burial, as well as the reading of Holy Masses, entirely to the decision and disposition of my universal heir.
2. Since the appointment of a universal heir is the foundation of a will, I hereby appoint my daughter, whom I illegitimately fathered with Maria Hofmeister, named Maria Hofmeister, married Schwimmer, goldsmith's wife, to be the only and sole main and universal heir of all my assets, whatever name they may have, and therefore no one should be entitled to make any claim to my estate.
I explicitly appoint my childhood friend Josef Gerhardt, Magistrate Official, living at Mariahilf N° 22, custodian of my estate.
As a testament to this, I personally signed this will of mine in the presence of three witnesses who were present at the same time.
        Vienna, on November 11th, 1856.
        written eleventh of November, 1856

On 16 May 1856, Josef Scheiger's first grandchild Adolf Josef Schwimmer was born in the house Altlerchenfeld 118 (today Tigergasse 20) and baptized two days later in the Altlerchenfeld parish church. The child's godfather was its grandfather Josef Scheiger (Altlerchenfeld 23, fol. 39). In 1856 the Schwimmer family was also registered by a municipal conscription officer as living at Altlerchenfeld 118.

 

Nikolaus Schwimmer's family registered in 1856 on a conscription sheet of the house Altlerchenfeld 118 (A-Wsa, Konskriptionsamt, Altlerchenfeld 118). Schwimmer's profession and place of birth are given as "Goldarbeiter Neubau".

Josef Scheiger's second grandchild Otto Schwimmer was born on 9 October 1857 in Altlerchenfeld (Altlerchenfeld 24, fol. 99). The third grandchild Hedwig Schwimmer was born on 10 October 1858, at the house Schottenfeld 353 (today Zieglergasse 35). Josef Scheiger again officiated as the child's godfather (Schottenfeld 54, fol. 267).

Josef Scheiger's signature in the baptismal entry of his granddaughter Hedwig Schwimmer (Schottenfeld 54, fol. 267)

The house Lindengasse 20, "Zum goldenen Hirsch", where Josef Scheiger's metal goods factory was located (A-Wsa, Fotoarchiv Gerlach, FC1.7529M)

As of 1870, Josef Scheiger is documented to have opposite his former workshop lived at Lindengasse 21.

The widower Josef Scheiger in the Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen of the Magistratsabteilung 116 (A-Wsa, 1.3.2.116.K1/KA - Heimatrolle: Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen, Scheiger, Josef)

Josef Scheiger died of tuberculosis on 3 March 1871 in the house Lindengasse 21 (Mariahilf 9, fol. 189). Two days later he was buried in the Schmelz cemetery. His probate file does not survive in the holdings of the Neubau district court.

The entry in the municipal death register concerning Josef Scheiger's death on 3 March 1871 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 311a, fol. 32). The cause of Scheiger's death is only documented in the parish register.

The Schwimmer descendants

Although the genealogy of Josef Scheiger's descendants is not the subject of this study, it is interesting to take a short look at the following generations of the family of Scheiger's son-in-law Nikolaus Schwimmer. Schwimmer's father, the carpenter Kaspar Schwimmer (b. 4 Jan 1800 in Korneuburg), died on 6 February 1866 in Mariahilf (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 291a, fol. 18). Owing to poverty, no probate file was drawn up for him. In 1870, Nikolaus Schwimmer's family is documented as living in the house Bandgasse 11 in the Neubau district. On the relevant catalog card of the Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen, the son Adolf Schwimmer (Josef Scheiger's grandson) is listed as "Goldarbeiter" (goldsmith) and as having received a passport abroad in 1874. The daughter Hedwig Schwimmer is given with the note "Schule" (attending school).

Nikolaus Schwimmer's family in the Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen (A-Wsa, 1.3.2.116.K1/KA - Heimatrolle: Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen, Schwimmer, Nikolaus). The family's two previous addresses were Mariahilf 18 and Altlerchenfeld 118 (see above).

In 1890, Nikolaus Schwimmer was registered as "Pfründner" (recipient of an alimony) in the municipal poorhouse on Spitalgasse 23.

Nikolaus Schwimmer listed as "Pfründner" in the Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen (A-Wsa, 1.3.2.116.K1/KA - Heimatrolle: Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen, Schwimmer, Nikolaus)

Nikolaus Schwimmer, whose last regular address had been Windmühlgasse 25, died in this poorhouse on 22 July 1891 of "Gehirnerweichung" (softening of the brain) (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 429). On 3 February 1883, Nikolaus Schwimmer's son Adolf Schwimmer married Emma Kellner (b. 1 Feb 1854 in Wiener Neustadt) (St. Josef ob der Laimgrube 18, fol. 190). With his wife Emma, Adolf Schwimmer had a son Franz who was born on 25 January 1886 at Windmühle 25 and baptized at St. Josef ob der Laimgrube (St. Josef 42, fol. 171). In 1890 Adolf Schwimmer's family lived in Neulerchenfeld at Fröbelgasse 45.

Adolf Schwimmer and his family in the Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen (A-Wsa, 1.3.2.116.K1/KA - Heimatrolle: Kartei der Ausgeschiedenen, Schwimmer, Adolf)

Adolf Schwimmer's wife Emma died on 21 March 1914 of breast cancer in the Hietzing hospital (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 955). Adolf Schwimmer's son Franz learned the trade of a bookbinder. On 19 December 1920, in the Rudolfsheim parish church, Franz Schwimmer married Rosa Johanna Putzendopler (Rudolfsheim 20, fol. 367), a civil servant who had been born in Fünfhaus on 22 June 1892 (Fünfhaus 17, fol. 143), daughter of Johann Putzendopler from Rablern near Andorf (Andorf 101/8, 256). The couple had a son named Fritz, born in 1922, whose exact date of birth cannot yet be determined because of the restrictions of the Civil Status Act. Franz Schwimmer died of liver cancer on 26 February 1930, in his apartment at Alliogasse 2 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt, 1.1.10.A1, 5056/1930). At the time of his death his profession was given as "Privatbeamter". From two notes in the press we know that at that time he was a district functionary of the Socialist Party (Arbeiter-Zeitung, 2 Mar 1930, 5) and a member of the Austrian society Die Naturfreunde (Der Naturfreund, 1930, 77).

On 9 August 1930, the newspaper Der Wiener Tag reported the suicide of an old man in the district of Fünfhaus.

The report about Adolf Schwimmer's suicide (Der Wiener Tag, 9 August 1930, 4)

Suicide of an old man. Because his retirement pension was discontinued. Yesterday afternoon, the 73-year-old goldsmith Adolf Schwimmer hung himself with a belt on a door hinge in his apartment at Kranzgasse 29, and was found dead when the rescue crew arrived. On the table lay a farewell letter in which he announced that he was ending his life, because he could not bear the suspicion that weighed on him. Schwimmer had been employed by a goldsmith in Mariahilf and the firm had granted him an old-age pension of around 18 Schillings a month. Now he had been accused of stealing a few grams of gold. For this reason, his pension was discontinued. The man took this to heart so much that he committed suicide.

This newspaper report cannot be confirmed by the sources. First, Schwimmer was 74 years of age, second his monthly pension was not 18 Schillings, but 58 Schillings (A-Wsa, BG Fünfhaus, 1A, 687/30). And third, either the suicide note never existed, or it was removed in time. The whole background story about Schwimmer's motive appears to be based on unofficial police information. Adolf Schwimmer's official will, which was filed by the Fünfhaus district court, has nothing to do with the reasons for Schwimmer's suicide. It had already been written in 1922, appointed his friend (and probably housekeeper) Anna Mader sole heir and excluded his son Franz from the inheritance.

Adolf Schwimmer's will (A-Wsa, BG Fünfhaus, A9, 135/30). In 1942, Anna Mader was still living in Schwimmer's former apartment (Lehmann 1942, 483).

According to a note in his probate file, Adolf Schwimmer was survived by his eight-year-old grandson Fritz Schwimmer (i.e. Josef Scheiger's great-great-grandson) who was living with his mother, and whose legal guardian was his uncle, Franz Putzendopler, a Zentralinspektor with the Municipality of Vienna, who lived in a service apartment at Hütteldorfer Straße 188 in what was then the Baumgarten nursing home.

The notes concerning his surviving relatives, his parents and his heir in Adolf Schwimmer's Todfallsaufnahme (A-Wsa, BG Fünfhaus, 1A, 687/30).

Franz Putzendopler (1890–1959) was the man who in 1946 was elected president of the Vienna Football Association, and in 1948, for a few months, was the coach of the Austrian national football team. Rosa Schwimmer, née Putzendopler died of uterine cancer on 4 January 1949 in the Baumgarten nursing home (A-Wsa, M.Abt. 212, A12, 59/49). Her death records from 1949 show that her son Fritz Schwimmer had died in the war in 1944. Before that he had married a certain Marie Büchl with whom he had a son named Fritz who was born in 1944 (A-Wsa, BG Fünfhaus, 2A, 48/49). In 1949, this Marie Schwimmer, née Büchl was living with her five-year-old son (Josef Scheiger's great-great-great-grandson) at Burgstraße 8 in Lendersdorf near Düren.

The entries concerning Rosa Schwimmer's relatives in her Todfallsaufnahme from 1949 (A-Wsa, BG Fünfhaus, 2A, 48/49).

Further research is again forstalled by the Civil Status Act. Fritz Schwimmer junior could still be alive today at the age of 78, or he could have been the Fritz Schwimmer who died on 3 March 2021, in Winden near Düren. But finding that out is not within the purview of Haydn research. We should never forget that exploring the genealogy of peripheral descendants of Haydn's sister-in-law is, for the most part, just a side exercise, a mere genealogical etude.

9) Anna Theresia Türkshofer

Anna Theresia Türkshofer was a child of Haydn's neighbor Jakob Türkshofer. She was born 6 February 1805 at 4 a.m. in the house Windmühle 72 and baptized in the Gumpendorf parish church. This time Joseph Haydn was represented by Theresia Scheiger, the daughter-in-law of Haydn's sister-in-law Barbara Scheiger (see above). In the baptismal entry Jakob Türkshofer's profession is given as "Hausinhaber und Rechnungsführer des Armeninstituts" (house owner and accountant of the institute for the poor). The entry concerning the godparent reads as follows: "Theresia Scheicher bürgl: Silberarbeiterin anstatt H: Joseph Haydn, Dokter der Tonkunst und Fürst Esterhazzischer Kapelmeister".

The entry concerning the baptism of Anna Theresia Türkshofer on 6 February 1805 in Gumpendorf (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 175)

After the death of the owner of the Hauskirchen dominion Moritz Count Kavanagh von Ballyane on 6 April 1801 (Wiener Zeitung, 23 Mar 1805, 1298), the Herrschaft Hauskirchen was sold to Baron Johann Rochus von Dorfleuth in 1803 (Schweickhardt, 1834, 296). Dorfleuth, a former court chamber official, had established a so-called Navigationsentreprise, and on 1 November 1785, had received the commisson and a 20-year-long privilege from Joseph II to make the March river navigable (AT-OeStA/FHKA SUS Patente 306.15). Because Dorfleuth hired Jakob Türkshofer as Rentmeister (commercial steward) for the Hauskirchen dominion, Türkshofer in 1805 sold his house in Vienna and moved back to the country. On 3 October 1805, Türkshofer and his wife sold the house Windmühle 72 to the master weaver Johann Kunert and his wife Barbara.

The second half of the entry concerning the sale of Jakob Türkshofer's house Windmühle 72 (83) on 3 October 1805 to Johann and Barbara Kunert (A-Wsa, Patrimonialherrschaften B123.9, fol. 33r)

[...] Um dieses Haus waren vorhin im erzbischöflichen Gewährbuche N: 4. fol: 343 Herr Jakob Türkshofer, und Anna dessen Ehewirthin vergewährt, welche dasselbe vermögen Kontraktes vom 3ten Oktober 1805 den anfangs benannten Kunertischen Eheleuten verkauft, und durch schriftliche Aufsandung eigenthümlich übergeben haben.[...]

[translation:]

Ownership of this house was previously granted in the archiepiscopal land register No. 4, fol. 343, to Mr. Jakob Türkshofer and his wife Anna who sold it according to the contract of October 3rd, 1805 to the above-named Kunert couple, and handed it over by a written deed.

Jakob Türkshofer's renewed presence in Hauskirchen is first documented by the birth of his daughter Eleonora there on 29 March 1806 (Hauskirchen 4, fol. 47). In the baptismal register this child's father is described as "Renntmeister bey hiesiger Herrschaft Baron v: Dorfleut". On 20 April 1806, Haydn's goddaughter Anna Theresia Türkshofer died in Hauskirchen of Stöckkathar (suffocating catarrh) at the age of 14 months (Hauskirchen 4, fol. 34). Jakob Türkshofer's last child, which was also christened Anna, was born in Hauskirchen on 9 May 1807 (Hauskirchen 4, fol. 49). This girl already died on 14 September 1807 (Hauskirchen 4, fol. 36). Owing to health problem's, Jakob Türkshofer retired from his position as Rentmeister in 1808. He died on 1 December 1808 of "Nervenschwäche" (nervous debility) at the age of 58 (Hauskirchen 4, fol. 38) and was survived by his wife and four minor children. In the entry concerning his burial and in the convocation, which was published in January 1809, Türkshofer is already given as "gewester Rentmeister".

 

The ad in the Wiener Zeitung concerning the convocation of Jakob Türkshofer's heirs and creditors (Wiener Zeitung, 14 Jan 1809, 194). The Vienna office of the Herrschaft Hauskirchen was located at Baron Dorfleuth's house Stadt 978 (Weihburggasse 10-12).

Jakob Türkshofer's former employer baron Johann Rochus von Dorfleuth had already died on 13 November 1806 in Vienna (A-Wd, 38, fol. 234). He is buried in the crypt of the Hauskirchen parish church.

10) Mathilde von Hohenholz

Mathilde von Hohenholz was born on 12 July 1805 in the house Gumpendorf 179 (last numbering 279, where today the Millergasse crosses the Mariahilfer Straße). The child was baptized on the following day in the Gumpendorf parish church where Haydn was represented by his housekeeper Anna Kremnitzer (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 192). The entry concerning the godfather reads as follows: "Anna Kremnitzer Wirthschafterin anstatt H: Joseph Haydn, der Tonkunst Doktor und Fürst Esterhazzischer Kapelmeister".

The entry concerning the baptism of Mathilde von Hohenholz on 13 July 1805 in Gumpendorf (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 192). The date of birth "12. VII. 1808" given by Haan is a reading error (Haan 1957, 70).

Mathilde von Hohenholz was the last of at least ten children of Haydn's physician Franz von Hohenholz and his wife Amalia, née Fischer. Dr. Hohenholz's involvement in Haydn's treatment during the final months of his life is documented by a bill for 234 gulden and 45 kreuzer for medication and Hohenholz's visits between 1 January and end of March 1808, which was presented on 8 April 1808 and approved for payment by Prince Esterházy on 6 June 1808 in Pest (Pohl 1927, 273). About this document Pohl writes: "From this we learn the name of Doctor Hohenholz who treated our master in his last days. This settlement of the medical and pharmacy bills from the princely treasury must have taken place throughout the year." (Pohl 1927, 273). In a letter, which on 22 December 1808 Haydn wrote to the Prince, he expressed his deepest gratitude for paying the medical expenses, and wrote: "Through this new benefaction, Your Princely Highness has relieved me of an carking care and put me in a position to face the end of my earthly career cheerfully and calmly." (Pohl 1927, 273f.). On 30 June 1809, Johann Elßler wrote a letter to Georg August von Griesinger in which he described the exact circumstances of Haydn's death. This letter also mentions the presence of Dr. Hohenholz.

Den 29ten May verlangten wir ein Consilium halten zu lassen mit den willen des H. v. Hohenholz. Da wurde der Medikus Doctor Böhm dazu bestimmt den unser guter Papa dazu verlangte, welcher auch ein sehr geschickter man ist, so worde den 30ten früh Morgens das Consillium gehalten, aber bey allen möglichen angestrengten Mitteln war alles vergebens, und unser guter Papa wurde immer schwächer und ruhiger.

[translation:]

On May 29th, we demanded that a consilium be held with the edorsement of Mr. von Hohenholz. The physician doctor Böhm, who is also a very skilful man and whom our good papa wanted to be present, was also called. Thus the consilium was held early in the morning of the 30th, but in spite of all possible efforts everything was in vain and our good papa became weaker and weaker and calmer.

Franz von Hohenholz

Franz de Paula von Hohenholz was born on 10 October 1763 in his father's house "Zum roten Rössl" (Wollzeile 22), fifth child of Franz Ignaz von Hohenholz, a secretery with the Lower Austrian government, and his wife Josepha, née Cheret. (A-Wd, 85, fol. 101r). Hohenholz's mother (b. 19 Mar 1735) was a daughter of the Savoy-born tradesman Claude Cheret and his second wife Josepha, née Schwanner (A-Wd, 47, 295).

The entry concerning the baptism of Franz von Hohenholz on 10 October 1763 at St. Stephen's Cathedral (A-Wd, 85, fol. 101r)

Franz von Hohenholz's father Franz Ignaz (1731–1810) and Josepha Cheret had married on 3 June 1754 in Vienna (A-Wd, 56, fol. 283v). Franz Ignaz von Hohenholz (b. 17 Feb 1731) was a son of Johann Michael Holzer, a member of Vienna's "äußerer Rat" (outer council), who on 19 July 1746 was to be ennobled with the predicate "Edler von Hohenholz" by Emperor Franz I. In his application for nobilitation Johann Michael Holzer referred to his 30 years of service in the Lower Austrian government where he had been responsible for the sustenance of all regiments. He also pointed out the fact that he was the stepfather of the Austrian ambassador to the Russian court Nikolaus Sebastian von Hohenholz who had already been ennobled in 1727 (AT-OeStA/AVA Adel RAA 189.29) and knighted in 1734 (AT-OeStA/AVA Adel RAA 194.32). The most effective instrument Holzer used in favor of his nobilitation (apart from the fee he had to pay) was a letter of recommendation from his stepson to the Imperial Vice-Chancellor, Count Rudolph Joseph von Colloredo. In this letter, Nikolaus von Hohenholz pointed out that he had no children, but that his stepfather was not only the owner of the house, but also had several children utriusque sexus from his second marriage of whom he intended to raise the sons to become faithful servants of the Imperial dynasty.

Two pages from Nikolaus Sebastian von Hohenholz's letter of recommendation for his stepfather written on 7 June 1746 (AT-OeStA, AVA, Adel RAA 197.17). Nikolaus von Hohenholz died in April 1748 in St. Petersburg. In the 1759 marriage entry of his daughter Anna Maria, Johann Michael Holzer von Hohenholz is referred to as "K:K: Liefferant" (A-Wd, 59, fol. 191v).

For the design of his coat of arms, Johann Michael Holzer copied that of his stepson which also showed a distinctive "pine tree standing upright on a green hill in the second and third quarter".

The coat of arms of Johann Michael Holzer Edler von Hohenholz as proposed to the Obersthofmeisteramt in 1746 (AT-OeStA, AVA, Adel RAA 197.17)

In 1776 Franz de Paula von Hohenholz entered the University of Vienna as philosophus (Mühlberger 2014, 351). On 21 November 1787, at St. Stephen's, he married Amalia Fischer, daughter of a Viennese innkeeper (A-Wd, 76, fol. 193v). At that time, he was still living at Stadt 827, the house owned by his father where he had been born. Because Amalia Fischer was only 19 years of age and her father was already deceased, she needed a marriage consent from her superior guardian which was the Vienna magistrate. On 17 October 1787, Franz von Hohenholz submitted the following application to the municipal authorities.

Franz von Hohenholz's autograph application to the municipal civil court (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A3, 923/1787)

          Löblicher Magistrat der K:K: Residenzstadt Wien.
Endes Unterzeichneter ist Willens sich mit der vaterlosen noch minderjährigen Amalia Fischer bürgerlichen Wirthstochter, über welche der Peter Hofmeister bürg[erlicher] Schuhmacher Meister, wohnhaft in der Leopoldstadt in der Herrn Gaße N° 185 als Vormund bestellet ist, sich zu verehlichen und bittet daher, da er dieselbe von seinen Vermögen zu erhalten im Stande ist, um den obergerhablichen Konsens.

[translation:]

          Laudable magistrate of the I. & R. residential City of Vienna.
The undersigned is willing to marry the fatherless and still underage Amalia Fischer, a civil innkeeper's daughter, over whom Peter Hofmeister, civil master shoemaker, residing in the Leopoldstadt at Herrengasse No. 185, has been appointed guardian, and therefore, because he is able to support her from his assets, he asks for the superior guardian's consensus.

The couple's first child, Joseph Maria Gotthard, was born on 5 May 1788 (A-Wd, 99, fol. 135v). Hohenholz's studies and the beginning of his medical career were marked by problems and delays. During this time, Hohenholz had no income and apparently lived only on his father's fortune. After his son Joseph had died on 12 March 1790, the parish priest of St. Stephen's expressly described the child's father as "ohne Bedienstung" (unemployed) (A-Wd, 36, fol. 72).  In April 1795 Hohenholz was publicly declared a prodigal and placed under his father's guardianship  (Wiener Zeitung, 13 May 1795, 1381). On 6 March 1797, Franz von Hohenholz finished his medical studies with a doctorate (Vienna, Universitätsarchiv, Rigorosenprotokoll der Mediziner, Med 9,5, 256). During the following years Franz von Hohenholz lived in the suburbs of Schottenfeld, Alsergrund (where he obviously worked at the general hospital), and eventually in Gumpendorf where he made Haydn's acquaintance. When on 14 September 1815, his wife Amalia died at Gumpendorf 230 ("Auge Gottes", Mariahilfer Straße 103) (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 138, H, fol. 42v), eight of her children were still alive (Haan 1957, 69). Franz de Paula von Hohenholz died of "Lungenlähmung" (respiratory arrest) on 11 July 1822 in Mariahilf (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 150, H, fol. 38v) and was buried in the Hundsturm cemetery (Gumpendorf 13, fol. 274). He was survived by eight children (Haan 1957, 70).

Mathilde von Hohenholz's children

Haydn's third to last godchild Mathilde von Hohenholz never married, but she had two illegitimate daughters. The first one, Amalia, was born on 28 March 1824 at Landstraße 269 (today Rochusgasse 6), when her mother was not yet 19 years old. The address was probably not the mother's, but that of a midwife, as was the custom in such cases. The girl was baptized in the parish church of St. Rochus and Sebastian (St. Rochus 7, fol. 390). Mathilde von Hohenholz's second daughter Mathilde was born on 27 December 1826 in the house Schottenfeld 449 (today Westbahnstraße 8) and baptized in the Schottenfeld parish church (Schottenfeld 21, fol. 381). In the late 1830s, Mathilde von Hohenolz and her daughter Mathilde were registered by the municipal conscription office as residents of the house Landstraße 556 (today Rennweg 55). To hide her status as a single mother Mathilde von Hohenholz passed herself off as "Med. Dor. Wittwe" (doctor's widow), thereby basically impersonating her own mother. At that time, the first daughter Amalia von Hohenholz was already deceased.

Mathilde von Hohenholz and her daughter Mathilde registered by the conscription office in the late 1830s (A-Wsa, Konskriptionsamt, Landstraße 556/23r)

Mathilde von Hohenholz died on 22 June 1837 of "Zehrfieber" (consumption fever) at Landstraße 556 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 180, H, fol. 25r). Since her probate file burned in 1927, we do not know for sure whether her daughter Mathilde was still alive at that time. In his summary of the file, Friedrich von Haan does not mention any children (Haan 1957, 70), but Haan's Regesten have not always proved entirely reliable. Further research is also impeded by the lack of indexes in the death registers of the Schottenfeld parish.

The entry in the municipal death register concerning Mathilde von Hohenholz's death on 22 June 1837 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 180, H, fol. 25r)

Hohenholz Mathilde Edle v. Med. Drs Tochter, hier geb[ürtig] Landst[raße] N° 556 am Zehrfieber a[lt] 31 J. Lauttn[er]

According to Haan, Mathilde von Hohenholz was survived by her siblings Joseph, Friedrich, and Marie (Haan 1957, 70).

11) Maria Anna Scheiger

Maria Anna Scheiger was born on 11 September 1806 at Mariahilf 75 (see above), sixth child of Carl and Theresia Scheiger, and baptized in the Mariahilf parish church. Haydn was unable to attend the ceremony and – like on many other such occasions – was represented by his housekeeper Anna Kremnitzer. The entry concerning the godfather reads as follows: "Joseph Heyden fürstl Kapellnmeister stat ihm Anna Kremnitzer Wirthschafterin".

The entry concerning the baptism of Maria Anna Scheiger on 11 September 1806 (Mariahilf 3, fol. 283)

As far as we know today, Mara Anna Scheiger was Haydn's last godchild. This girl already died on 22 July 1807 of "Zahnfraisen" (toothing cramps).
 

The entry in the municipal death register concerning the death of Maria Anna Scheiger on 22 July 1807 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 23, S, fol. 87r)

Scheiger Herr Karl bürg[erlicher] Goldarbeiter, sein Kind Maria, ist bey der weissen Schwanne N° 75. zu Mariahilf an Zahnfraisen besch[au]t word[en] alt, 10. Monat. Wolf.

New facts about Anna Kremnitzer

Anna Kremnitzer, whom Haydn in his will calls his "treue und rechtschaffene Köchin" (faithful and righteous cook), was the maidservant whom Haydn repeatedly sent to Gumpendorf and Mariahilf to represent him as godfather. One could say that she even represented Haydn posthumously, when in 1810 she was chosen as Fanny Elßler's godmother (Gumpendorf 15, fol. 160). It was Anna Kremnitzer who held Haydn's hand at the moment of his death (Pohl 1927, 387). In his account of Haydn's death for Griesinger, Johann Elßler refers to Kremnitzer as "Nannerl".

Haydn and Anna Kremnitzer registered in 1805 on a conscription sheet of Haydn's house (A-Wsa, Hauptarchiv, Persönlichkeiten, A1.H9). The attribute "widow" is a mistake.

More detailed research concerning Anna Kremnitzer, based on knowledge of the sources, finally brings to light her place of birth and her family background. Anna Kremnitzer was born on 31 October 1759 in the town of Königlich Neustadt in Prussian Upper Silesia (today Prudnik in Poland), last child of the local citizen Egidius Christoph Kremnitzer and his wife Josepha Agnieta. Two baptismal registers of the parish church of St. Michael's in Prudnik survive from the first half of the 18th century and are accessible via familysearch.org: 1) Register No. 008245345 (1736–65), and 2) register No. 008245346 (1736–65). The sequential numbering of baptisms in these registers shows that these films from 1948 are incomplete, because at the beginning of some years some baptisms are missing. Between 1743 and 1759, the following eight children of the Kremnitzer couple could be found in these records (this list may be incomplete).

1. Maria Theresia Josepha, b. 11 Dec 1743 (Prudnik, Powiat Prudnicki, Województwo opolskie,  Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 92)
2. Maria Renata, b. 24 Mar 1745 (Prudnik, Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 108)
3. Johann Christoph, b. 9 Oct 1746 (Prudnik, Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 125)
4. Georg Joseph, b. 18 Mar 1748 (Prudnik, Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 141)
5. Franz Augustin Joseph, b 27 Aug 1752 (Prudnik, Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 192)
6. Egidius Anton Paul, b. 3 Sep 1754 (Prudnik, Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 216)
7. Johann Nepomuk Franz de Paula, b. 13 Jul 1757 (Prudnik, Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 249)
8. Maria Elisabeth Anna Barbara (Haydn's housekeeper), b. 31 Oct 1759 (Prudnik, Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 274)

The godparents of most of these children were the local merchant Paul Ernst Weidinger and his wife Maria Elisabeth. The curious spelling "Crembßer" of her father's name in Anna Kremnitzer's baptismal entry corresponds with the same spelling in the baptismal entry of her brother Johann Nepomuk Franz on 13 July 1757 (Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 249)

 

The entry in the records of St. Michael's in Neustadt concerning Anna Kremnitzer's baptism on 31 October 1759 (Katholische Kirche Neustadt, 274)

Kremnitzer's elder brother Joseph, a girdle maker, also moved to Vienna where on 11 June 1772, in the parish of St. Ulrich (St. Ulrich 27, fol. 191r), he married a certain Barbara Grabler. He was the father of the bronze worker Johann Kremnitzer who in the 1790s lived in Mariahilf and at that time may still have had contact with his cousin Anna. In 1818, Johann Kremnitzer received permission to run his business in his house at Neubau 250 (last number 164, today Mondscheingasse 4) under the name "Kremnitzer Grabler" (Wiener Zeitung, 28 Feb 1818, 417). This double name was passed on to his descendants who still lived in Vienna in the 20th century as "Kremnitzer-Grabler". Maria Mertz, née Kremnitzer-Grabler (b. 30 Oct 1876 [Hetzendorf 3, fol. 89], one of several children of Alexander Kremnitzer-Grabler [Hetzendorf 2, fol. 1]), who died on 3 July 1965 in Vienna, was a great-great-grandniece of Haydn's housekeeper.

Haydn seems to have hired Anna Kremnitzer in 1801, after the death of his wife. Most Viennese sources give Kremnitzer's age ten years too high, but it makes a lot more sense that Kremnitzer was only 40 years of age when Haydn hired her. Anna Kremnitzer also had godchildren of her own who were baptized in Gumpendorf. The parents of these children were neighbors in Gumpendorf, as well as Johann Elßler and his wife Theresia, née Prinster. These godchildren were the following.

1. Josepha Macho, b. 31 Oct 1802 (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 92)
2. Antonia Hirschmüller, b. 8 May 1805 (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 185), d. 20 Aug 1805 (Gumpendorf 11, fol. 162)
3. Antonia Macho, b. 23 Jun 1805 (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 189)
4. Joseph Schott, b. 20 Oct 1805 (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 203)
5. Anton Elßler, b. 17 Nov 1806 (Gumpendorf 14, fol. 247)
   
6. Theresia Elßler, b. 6 Apr 1808 (Gumpendorf 15, fol. 30)
   
7. Maria Anna Hirschmüller, b. 14 Mar 1809 (Gumpendorf 15, fol. 85), d. 16 Mar 1809 (Gumpendorf 11, fol. 278)
8. Michael Elßler, b. 9 Jul 1809 (Gumpendorf 15, fol. 106)
   
9. Franziska Elßler (the famous dancer), b. 23 Jun 1810 (Gumpendorf 15, fol. 160)
   

The popular claim in the Haydn literature that, as of 1797, Johann Elßler lived in Haydn's house as valet and copyist is not supported by the sources. At the time of his wedding on 10 February 1800, Johann Elßler lived at Gumpendorf 117 (last number 121, today Dominikanergasse 3), and in his marriage entry he is given as having lived there since 1798 (Gumpendorf 13, 323). His first four children Joseph, Johann, Anna, and Anton (born 1800, 1802, 1804, and 1806) were all born in this house. Elßler's other children – Theresia, Michael, Franziska, and Ferdinand – were born at Gumpendorf 38 ("Münzwardein", today Münzwardeingasse 2) and 42 ("Heiland auf der Wiese", today Hofmühlgasse 17). The text on a poster about Anna Kremnitzer in the museum at Vienna's Haydnhaus faithfully repeats the mistake in Haydn's will that I corrected in 2014 (Lorenz 2014). Kremnitzer never lent Haydn 200 gulden. It was Haydn who lent Kremnitzer this amount.

A poster about Anna Kremnitzer in the Vienna Haydnhaus museum. The exhibition at the Haydnhaus presents a true cornucopia of misinformation, because the people in charge of this site lack the necessary expertise and are completely resistant to advice.

After Haydn's death, Anna Kremnitzer's moved to Gumpendorf 38, where Johann Elßler lived, and where she stayed as a subtenant of the family of the harness maker Anton Banschur. An entry in a conscription sheet of this house gives Kremnitzer's year of birth as 1754. Her status was first given as "Wittwe" which was crossed out and replaced with the note "ledig" (unmarried). Her profession is given as "Weisnäderin" (seamstress).

Anna Kremnitzer registered soon after 1809 as tenant of the harness maker Anton Banschur at Gumpendorf 38 (A-Wsa, Konskriptionsamt, Gumpendorf 38/5r)

Anna Kremnitzer died of Schleimschlag" (mucoid impaction) on 1 January 1830 in the house Windmühle 82 (today Schmalzhofgasse 19), not far from Haydn's former house, where out of pity she had enjoyed food and shelter with the master weaver Johann Dobrodinsky. The address "Gumpendorf 82" in the Totenbeschauprotokoll and in the parish death register is incorrect. Only the Sperrs-Relation has the important note "potius Windmühl".

The entry in the municipal death register concerning Anna Kremnitzer's death on 1 January 1830 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 166, CGK, fol. 1r).

1830. Jænner Den 1.
Kremitzer Anna, led[ig] gewes[ene] Dienstmagd v. Neustadt in Preuß[isch] Schlesien geb[ürtig] Gump[en]d[or]f N 82 an Schleimschlag 81 J[a]hr[e].         Ullreich

[translation:]

January 1st, 1830.
Kremnitzer Anna, former maidservant, born in Neustadt in Prussian Silesia, died of mucoid impaction in Gumpendorf No. 82, aged 81 years.    Ullreich [coroner]

Anna Kremnitzer was buried on 3 January 1830 in the Hundsturm cemetery (Gumpendorf 15, fol. 192). Kremnitzer's Sperrs-Relation provides additional information regarding the accommodation in her final days. The Rubrum on the left contains the note "gew[esene] Dienstmagd N° 82 zu Gumpendorf, Kirchengassen potius Windmühl".

The cover sheet of Anna Kremnitzer's Sperrs-Relation. The note concerning her last address reads as follows: "N° 82. bei den Johann Dobrodinsky bürgl Webermeister aus Mitleid in Aufenthalt und Verpflegung gewesen" (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 3533/1830).

Most of the capital that Kremnitzer had inherited from Haydn had obviously been massively reduced by the 1811 sovereign default. A note from the Sperrskommissär in the probate file concerning Kremnitzer's assets reads as follows: "Nothing, and the deceased had been completely supported by the landlord while she was alive, and was buried at the expense of a funeral insurance society after she had passed away. Therefore, no further precautions could be taken. Vienna, January 9th, 1830". It may not be a coincidence that the weaver Franz Raimann, a grandson of Andreas Raimann, a friend of Egidius Kremnitzer in Neustadt, also lived in the house Windmühle 82 (A-Wsa, Konskriptionsamt, Windmühle 82/20r).

Johann Dobrodinsky registered by the conscription office at Windmühle 82 (A-Wsa, Konskriptionsamt, Windmühle 82/1v). Dobrodinsky was born on 15 June 1785 in Schrems (Schrems 4, 21). Anna Kremnitzer is not registered in the conscription records of Windmühle 82. Johann Dobrodinsky died on 6 May 1841 (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 500/1841).

Johann Dobrodinsky may have been commissioned by Johann Elßler to take care of Anna Kremnitzer, who was, after all, the godmother of four of Elßler's children.

The large number of Haydn's godchildren may seem astonishing. On the one hand, Haydn was easily persuaded to take on this task due to his friendly nature and having no children of his own. On the other hand, we must always keep in mind that about 95% of these godchildren died at a very young age. Of course, research concerning Haydn's godchildren is far from over. First, the fragmentary publication of the data of the first 40 godchildren must be updated, because it is rather scattered and does not meet scientific standards. Second, further research in the Burgenland church records, which are not yet fully digitized, is necessary. More discoveries are to be expected.

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Verzeichniß aller Armen-Väter, Bezirks-Directoren, Haupt-Bezirks-Vorsteher, Ärzte und Wundärzte, welche von seiner k.k. Apostolischen Majestät zur allgemeinen Untersuchung aller Armen in dem ganzen Umfange des Wiener-Armen-Institutes allergnädigst benennet worden sind. Vienna: Anton Pichler, 1803.

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© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2022. All rights reserved.

Updated: 8 April 2022