An Unknown Incident in Mozart’s Life in 1791

Mozart: New Documents is pleased to announce the posting of two documents that bring to light a previously unknown incident in Mozart’s life in 1791, and to welcome Michael Lorenz as a guest contributor.

At some point during that year, the playwright Johann Friedrich Jünger (Hoftheaterdichter to the Viennese court theaters) and actor Johann Franz Hieronymus Brockmann (the director of the theaters) asked Mozart to write a piano piece for Jünger's new comedy Er mengt sich in Alles, which would be premiered in the Burgtheater on 23 August 1791. It remains uncertain whether Mozart eventually composed anything for them, but all early sources for Jünger’s play (including the original prompter's copy and the earliest editions) retain a reference to Mozart. In Act 5, scene 2, one of  the characters asks his daughter to play his "favorite sonata." When she feigns not to remember which one he means, he responds: "The one by Mozart that I like so much. You’ve played it for me a hundred times." This is followed by a stage direction indicating that she should play something on the piano at that point (although exactly what is left unspecified).

Er mengt sich in Alles was performed six times in all in the Burgtheater before the end of the season 1791/92, and it was performed twice in Prague during the festivities surrounding the coronation of Leopold II in late summer 1791. The play was quickly taken into the repertories of German ­language theater companies elsewhere, and it went on to become one of Jünger’s most popular and frequently performed plays. Er mengt sich in Alles remained in the repertory of the Burgtheater until 1853, and performances elsewhere are documented as late as 1875.

The reference to Mozart in Er mengt sich in Alles was discovered by Dexter Edge, and the reference to Mozart in Jünger's letter was discovered by Michael Lorenz. Edge and Lorenz are coauthors of the commentaries, which are written by Edge, incorporating additional archival research by Lorenz. The commentaries are accessible on the website Mozart: New Documents.

1791 (between 12 March and 23 August) Johann Friedrich Jünger asks Mozart for a keyboard piece

In an undated letter to Brockmann, Jünger writes that he has been to see Mozart repeatedly with a request that he write a short new piano piece for the planned production of Er mengt sich in Alles. Our commentary discusses in detail the dating of the letter, and shows how contextual clues suggest that it may have been written as early as the middle of March 1791, several months before the play’s premiere. We then consider whether any of the four known piano pieces by Mozart that certainly date from 1791 (K. 613 and the fragment K. 357) or may possibly date from that year (the fragment K. 312 and the minuet K. 355) could have anything to do with Jünger and Brockmann’s request.

Folios 1v and 2r of Jünger's undated letter to Brockmann from 1791 in which Jünger refers to his request that Mozart write a short piano movement for the play Er mengt sich in Alles. The passage quoted below begins with the new paragraph on the left page (A-Wst, H.I.N. 1207).

Johann Friedrich Jünger to Johann Franz Hieronymus Brockmann, undated letter (1791), Vienna, Wienbibliothek, H. I. N. 1207

[1v]

[...]

       Der Vorwurf den du mir machst, ich habe die Aufführung von
"Er mengt sich in Alles" selbst durch meine Nachlässigkeit verzögert,
ist ungegründet. Dein Gedächtniß hat dir da vermuthlich einen
Streich gespielt, und du hast vergessen, daß ich das Stück von
dir gehohlt, selbst zu Mozart getragen, und es ihn lesen lassen, und
ihn um Composition eines kleinen Sazzes gebethen habe: So
wie auch, daß ich dir einmahl geklagt habe, ich seÿ zu ver=
schiedenen Mahlen ohne Erfolg beÿ M. geweßen, mit der aus=
drücklichen Bitte, du möchtest selbst an ihn schicken, und das
qua Theaterdirektor von ihm verlangen, was ich als Autor
nicht erlangen konnte. Diese Bitte habe ich absichtlich nicht wieder=
hohlt, weil ich auch den allergeringsten Schein vermeide, als woll=
te ich die Aufführung meiner Stücke durch mein Zuthun be=
fördern. Uebrigens glaube ich nach näherer Prüfung, daß diese
Composition gar füglich wegbleiben, und an ihrer Statt das
erste beste liedchen gespielt werden kann, weil mir eine Mu=
sik in welcher sich die Schauspielerin als Flügelspielerin zeigt,
da nicht recht an ihrer Stelle zu seÿn scheint, da die Aufmerk=
samkeit der Zuschauer auf den Ausgang des Stücks gespannt ist.

[2r]

Uebrigens bitte ich dich recht herzlich, künftig nichts von allem dem zu glau=
ben, was dir von mir und über mich gesagt wird. Ich wenigstens habe
mir fest vorgenommen, mich gegen keine einzige Klätschereÿ mehr
zu vertheidigen, weil ich das unter der Würde des Mannes finde. [...]

[translation:]

[...]

Your charge against me, that I myself have delayed the
performance of Er mengt sich in Alles through my neglect, is
unfounded. Your memory has probably played a trick on you
here, and you’ve forgotten that I fetched the play from you to take
to Mozart myself, and to have him read it, and asked him to
compose a short movement: how I also once complained to you
that I had been to M[ozart] several times without success,
with the express request that you yourself might send a note
to him, and as Director of the Theater demand from him what
I as Author could not obtain. I intentionally did not repeat this
request, because I also avoid the very least appearance that
I would want to promote the performance of my play through my
own action. Besides, I think on closer examination that this
composition can even be omitted with justification, and in its
stead any little song can be played; because it seems to me that
a musical piece in which the actress shows herself off as
a keyboard player is not right for this scene, as the attention
of the spectator is in suspense over the outcome of the play.

[2r]

In addition, I ask you quite sincerely in the future not to believe
everything that is said of me and about me. I at least have
firmly resolved to myself not to defend myself against any
gossip at all, because I find that beneath a man’s dignity [...]

The actor Johann Franz Hieronymus Brockmann with his dog (probably "Petiterl"). Portrait by Joseph Lange (Wien Museum, I.N. 33075)

23 August 1791 A piano sonata by Mozart in Jünger's Er mengt sich in Alles

Jünger's Er mengt sich in Alles is a thoroughly reworked adaptation of Susanna Centlivre’s 1709 play The Busie Body, with the action transplanted to Vienna. Our commentary summarizes the plot of Jünger’s play, and places in context the scene referring to Mozart. We then discuss the cast of the premiere and the play’s reception, and we consider what music might have been played on stage in the early performances. We also explore whether Mozart might have attended any of the performances that took place while he was still alive. The main commentary is followed by a new biographical sketch of Jünger, incorporating many newly discovered sources on his life.

Johann Friedrich Jünger, mezzotint by A. O. Lállée from 1795 after a painting by Johann Heinrich Ramberg (A-Wn, PORT_00091591_01)

Jünger's seal and signature on his will dated 5 December 1792 (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 118/1797)

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© Dexter Edge.& Michael Lorenz 2017. All rights reserved.

Wolfgang von Mozart

On 26 June 1770, Mozart was awarded the Order of the Golden Spur by pope Pope Clement XIV. By receiving this honor, Mozart was appointed Comes palatinus Lateranus, i.e. Papal Count Palatine who in his home country had the right to use the predicate of nobility and to claim the social status that was connected with knighthood. Being a recipient of the first grade of the Papal Order, Mozart had more right to consider himself a nobleman than his colleague Gluck who had only received the second grade of that order. During his later life, Mozart never claimed his status as nobleman. A trace of his title only appears in his signature which he graced with the syllable "Ca" for the Italian word "Cavaliere".

In my article "Mozart's Apartment on the Alsergrund", which I published in June 2009, I pointed out that there are a number of primary sources from Mozart's Viennese years where the composer appears as "von Mozart", suggesting that he either was addressed with a predicate of nobility or even claimed this status as nobleman himself. The following six documents (all of which I listed back in 2009) bear Mozart's name with the predicate "von".

The baptismal entry of Mozart's first child Raimund Leopold

A transcription of this document (which is not transcribed and only referred to in Deutsch's, Dokumente) was first published in 1919 by Emil Karl Blümml and copied from Blümml by Walter Hummel for his 1956 book W. A. Mozarts Söhne. Since Blümml's transcription is flawed and incomplete (for instance he ignored the "Maria" in the mother's name), the complete entry (Am Hof, Tom. 1, fol. 3) is published here for the first time.

(Namen des Taufenden.) Johann / Herbst / Koop.[erator]
(1783. Jahr Monat Tag Junÿ Julÿ) 17 Jun.
(Wohnung und Nro. des Hauses.) N. 244. / i.[n] d.[er] St.[adt]
(Namen der Getauften.) Reÿmundus / Leopoldus
(Religion)
(katholisch) |
(Protestantisch) —
(Geschlecht)
(Knab) |
(Mädchen) —
(Ehelich) |
(Unehelich) —
(Todtgebohrne.)
(Aeltern.)
(Vaters Namen und Kondition oder Karakter.) Wolfgang v. / Mozart / K[a]pell= / meister
(Mutters Tauf= und Zunamen.) M.[aria] Konstanzia / geb. Weber
(Pathen.)

(Namen) Raÿmund / Freÿh.[err] v / Wezlar

(Stand) in dessen Na= / men: Philipp / Martin
(Anmerkungen.) Franziska Sidlerin

As is well known, Mozart's first child died on 19 August 1783, at the home of a foster mother while its parents were still in Salzburg. On the occasion of the inspection of the child's body by the municipal coroner, it turned out that the foster mother at Oberneustift No. 250 did not know Mozart's first name. Thus, the entry in the Totenbeschauprotokoll (which was first published in its entirety by Dexter Edge in 2001) begins with "Mozart H[errn] N: Musiko, sein Kind Reimund". Because the entry in the parish records of St. Ulrich concerning the child's burial is a special case and because (to nobody's surprise) it has never been published completely, it is addressed in this post. Like in the official death records, Mozart's first name is missing, but has been added at some later time with blue crayon with the abbreviated attribute "v[on]".

 

The entry concerning the obsequies and the burial of Mozart's son Raymund Leopold on 21 August 1783 (St. Ulrich, Tom. 23, p. 307)

(den 21. dito [Augustus])

                                    Eodem

St:[arb] dem H:[errn] N:[escio] Wolfgang v. Mozart, Musico
s:[ein] K:[ind] Reÿmund, in rothen Pfauen Ob:[er]
N:[eu] St:[ift] alt 9. Wochen.       Orth ― 30 x.

It is difficult to determine when the first name "Wolfgang v" was added. As a matter of fact, the "von"  speaks against its having been written in the late 19th century, when the public interest in Mozart's family started to grow. Nobody at that time considered Mozart a nobleman who deserved to have his name completed with a "Wolfgang von". In his incomplete transcription, Blümml simply ignored the addition which does not mean that it had not been written yet. Blümml seems to have considered it irrelevant.

Mozart's name in the 1787/88 Josephinische Steuerfassion

On 8 June 2009, I published the following entry in the tax register of the Vienna magistrate concerning the spacious apartment that Mozart rented in 1788 in the house Alsergrund No. 135.

Zu ebener Erde, […]

N° 5:/ Die Gartenwohnung mit 7 Zimer,
1 Küche, Keller, und Holzgewölb, nebst Stal-
lung auf 2 Pferde, 1 Wagenschupfe[n], und
den Garten des H:[err]n v:[on] Mozart . . . . .

p:[er] . 250 –       5. d° [kein Anstand] - - - 250" –

Here is a picture of the same entry on folio 218 of the tax register (A-Wsa, Steueramt B34.27) with the printed headers on top and the additional entry in the column on the right page.

Of course, Mozart's appearance as "Herr von Mozart" could be a gesture of courtesy by the revenue officer who was careful not to deny a well deserved status to an obviously well off tenant of a spacious abode. The documents related to the death of Mozart's daughter Theresia, who died in this apartment in summer of 1788, also show Mozart as being addressed with the predicate of nobility

The sources concerning Theresia Mozart's death and burial in 1788

Mozart's first daughter Theresia died on 29 June 1788, at Alsergrund No. 135. The official (never completely published) entry in the death register of the Vienna magistrate reads as follows.

 

The entry concerning the death of Theresia Mozart in the municipal death records (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 90, M, fol. 30r) 

den 29tn

von[!] Mozart, Wohledlgebohrner[!] Herr Wolfgang von[!] Mozart, / Kail: Königl. Kapellmeister, sein Kind Theresia, ist bei / den 3. gold:[enen] Stern N° 135. in der Währingergasse, an / der Gedärmfrais versch.[ieden] Alt 1/2 Jr.  M:[atthäus] R:[auscher]

von Mozart, nobly born Sir Wolfgang von Mozart, imperial and royal capellmeister, his child Theresia, died from intestinal spasms at the Three Golden Stars No. 135 in the Währingergasse, aged half a year. Matthäus Rauscher [coroner]

The entry in the death register (Rossau, Tom. 1, fol. 108) of the Servite Church in the Rossau concerning the child's burial on the following day has never been published correctly. It reads as follows.

den 29ten / Abends 7 Uhr. Wahringergasse / N. 135. des Hrn von[!] Mozart Wolfgang, / K.K. Kapellm[ei]st[e]rs, Kind Theresia [Katholisch / Weiblich] 6 Mon[at] [Krankheit und Todesart.] Gedärmfrais. Ib.[idem] den 30ten. Idem (P. Ludovicus M.[aria] Pirnbaum Coop.[erator]) sep.[eluit] [numerus currens] 26.

On [August] 29th, at 7 p.m. in the evening. Währingergasse No. 135, Sir Wolfgang von Mozart, imperial and royal capellmeister, his child Theresia, [catholic female], aged six months, [cause of death] intestinal spasm, [in the] same [cemetery, i.e. the "Allgemeiner Friedhof außerhalb der Währinger Linie"] on [August] 30th, the same [priest, i.e. P. Ludovicus M.[aria] Pirnbaum [cooperator] buried [number] 26.

The name of Ludwig Birnbaum in the death register is a telling example of Emil Karl Blümml's dubious expertise in transcribing eighteenth-century handwritten sources. In his 1919 article "Mozarts Kinder", in Mozarteums Mitteilungen, Mai 1919, Heft 3, p. 4, he managed to mistranscribe the priest's name as "Ludovicus Maria Grabner".

In his article "Wieviel Kinder hatte Mozart" (Neues Wiener Tagblatt, 2 November 1923, p. 8), Otto Erich Deutsch only had high praise for Blümml's work. In my opinion, Deutsch was in no position to judge it.

The three documents related to the death and burial of Anna Mozart in 1789

Mozart's fifth child Anna Mozart died shortly after her birth on 16 November 1789. Because the child was baptized by the midwife (most likely Maria Anna Koudelka), there is no entry in the baptismal records of the parish Am Hof. In the entry in the municipal death records (which I published in my article "A Child named Christian Mozart") Mozart is given as "Mozart Wohledler H:[err] Wolfgang" (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 92, lit. M, fol. 48v):

The word "wohledler" (truly noble) was generally used to address individuals of noble birth. Mozart is also addressed as "Herr Wolfgang von[!] Mozart K. / K. Käpelmeister" in the entry in the death register of the parish Am Hof which I also published in the aforesaid post.

The entry concerning the obsequies of Mozart's daughter Anna in the parish church "Zu den Neun Chören der Engel" Am Hof on 17 November 1789: "Dem Herrn Wolfgang von Mozart K. / K. Käpelmeister sein Kind Anna [Lebensjahre] 1 Stund" (Am Hof, Tom. 1, fol. 48r).

The entry in the Bahrleihbuch (the register of burial fees) of St. Stephen's concerning Anna Mozart's burial on 17 November 1789, was first published on 8 June 2009, in my article about Mozart's apartment on the Alsergrund, which in 2010 also appeared in print in the Newsletter of the Mozart Society of America, Vol. XIV, No. 2). In this document Mozart is again addressed as "imperial and royal capellmeister Wolfgang von Mozart".

Mozart, 4th category, 2nd class, parish Am Hof, the girl baptized in emergency of Herr Wolfgang von Mozart, imperial and royal capellmeister, at the Judenplatz at St. Nicholas No. 245 was inspected [having died] of spasms after her birth. In the cemetery beyond Matzleinsdorf, paid 1 f 20 x [the personnel] 30 x [the church] [overall sum] 1 Gulden 50 Kreuzer. (A-Wd, Bahrleihbuch 1789, fol. 377r)

Of course, there is no absolute proof that Mozart's nobility was universally acknowledged by his Viennese contemporaries. But the above documents make it very likely that at some time Mozart actually passed himself off as a nobleman.

© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013

Updated: 26 April 2025

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In his article "Mozart: In und vor der Stadt" in the journal Wiener Geschichtsblätter (2/2012), Walther Brauneis plagiarized parts of my article "Mozart's Apartment on the Alsergrund" and presented a number of supposedly unknown Mozart sources that I had already published more than three years earlier. Among those sources were the documents presented above. Because Brauneis could not cope with the fact that in 2009 I had published within two weeks what was to take him several years, he staged a childish "revenge", taking advantage of the gross negligence of the Verein für Geschichte der Stadt Wien whose incompetent editor was not willing to invest only ten minutes into reading my article. On the other hand, what else is to be expected from a historical society whose then general secretary (and current president) distinguished herself with the inane statement: "Who is interested in Mozart anyway?"

In 2013, Brauneis repeated his theft of intellectual property by republishing his article in "In Signo Wolfgang Amadé Mozart", the journal of the Mozart-Gesellschaft Zürich, whose board members did not realize the scam.

Who was Michael Klorf?

On 26 July 1791, Mozart's last child Franz Xaver Wolfgang (whom his parents called Wolfgang) was born in the house Rauhensteingasse 970 and baptized in St. Stephen's Cathedral. The baptismal entry in the official records of the parish was first published in 1919 by Emil Karl Blümml (and again in 1923).

Blümml's transcription is marred by two basic flaws: a) it is not complete and b) it is based on a copy that is at odds with the original baptismal entry (A-Wd, Tom. 100, fol. 96). This copy, which in 1956 also Walter Hummel used for his book Mozarts Söhne, was written about a decade later, because the handwriting in the 18th-century books was obviously considered not to be fair enough. The previously unpublished and undigitized original 1791 entry (A-Wd, original Taufrapular 1790-96, fol. 75), written by the officiating priest Ignaz Thonhauser, looks as follows.

(Namen des Taufenden.) [Ignaz] Thonhauser
([1]791. Jahr Monat Tag) 26 Julü
(Wohnung und Nro. des Hauses.) N 970
(Namen der Getauften.) Franciscus Xav.[erius] / Wolfgangus
(Religion)
(katholisch) |
(Protestantisch) —
(Geschlecht)
(Knab) |
(Mädchen) —
(Ehelich) |
(Unehelich) —
(Aeltern.)
(Vaters Namen und Kondition oder Karakter.) Amadeus / Wolfgangus / Mozart / kk. Hofkapell- / meister.
(Mutters Tauf= und Zunamen.) Constantia / gebohrne / Weber
(Pathen.)

(Namen) Johann / Thomas / Edler von / Trattner / kk. Hofbuch- / drucker und / Händler

(Stand) dessen / Stelle / vertrat / Michael / Klorf / Buchhändler
(Anmerkungen.) Maria Anna / Kautelkin.

The printer Johann Thomas von Trattner, who in 1784 had already officiated as godfather of Karl Thomas Mozart, could not attend the baptismal service, because he usually spent the summer in his country house Altlerchenfeld No. 12 (today about Josefstädter Straße 71). This estate, which had originally been built by Count Franz Sigmund von Lamberg (1663–1713), was purchased by Trattner in 1785, for 80,000 Gulden. His second wife Maria Theresia, née Nagel, the dedicatee of Mozart's piano sonata K. 457, died there on 12 July 1793 (A-Wsa, Totenbeschreibamt 98, DT, fol. 23v). Trattner's second suburban office at Josephstadt 145 (today Albertgasse 35), which was built in 1768 (A-Wsa, Unterkammeramt, B2.8, Nr. 995), was used for the housing of workers and the storage of paper and its raw material (the so-called "Strazzen") (A-Wsa, Steueramt, B34/25, fol. 317f.).

 The two suburban facilities of Johann Thomas von Trattner's printing business on Joseph Daniel von Huber's 1778 map of Vienna: on the left Altlerchenfeld 12, on the right, across the Kaiserstraße (today's Josefstädter Straße), the house Josephstadt 145 (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan).

Trattner's factory building at Josephstadt 145, listed in the 1788 tax register. Apartment No. 6 on the first floor is given as "Hadermagazin" (rag depot) (A-Wsa, Steueramt, B34/25, fol. 317).

Trattner's seal and signature from 1767

The names of the prominent godfather and his substitute, the bookseller "Michael Klorf" were duly copied into the later baptismal register with the words "dessen Stelle vertrat" translated into "Loco illius".

The second page of the later copy of Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart's baptismal entry with the Latin variants "Constantia ux:" and "Loco illius" (A-Wd, Tom. 100, fol. 96)

The mysterious bookseller "Michael Klorf" has never been identified. As a matter of fact, this person has achieved a somewhat special status, because (as of 2013) searches on Google Books and in Viennese archival records show that the name "Klorf" is absolutely unique and appears only once, namely in Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart's 1791 baptismal entry whence it entered the Mozart literature. The explanation for this strange phenomenon is surprisingly simple: the entry in the baptismal register is flawed and a person named "Michael Klorf" never existed. The real name of Trattner's employee and substitute was Michael Klopf and he was not a bookseller, but the head accountant at Trattner's printing company.

Michael Klopf was born on 28 March 1764, in Vienna's Kontumaz-Armenhaus, son of the common soldier of the Regiment "Ritter" Georg Klopf and his wife Gertrud.

The entry concerning Michael Klopf's baptism on 28 March 1764 (Schotten, Armenhaus 4, 3)

The banns for the wedding of Michael Klopf's parents were published on on 12 October 1760, at St. Ulrich (St. Ulrich 27, fol. 148v). The banns were also published at the Schotten parish (Schotten, Armenhaus 2, 183) where on 26 October 1760 the wedding took place. Michael Klopf's mother was Gertrud Rauscher, daughter of Mathias Rauscher from St. Christophen. The father Johann Georg Klopf, who in 1760 was described as "Invalit", had been born on 19 April 1716, in Sitzmanns (Großschönau 3/1, 182). Michael Klopf's grandparents Mathias Klopf (b. 5 Feb 1683 [Großschönau 1, 364]) and Eva Maria, née Krauss had married on 30 January 1714, in Großschönau (Großschönau 3/2, 83). Michael Klopf's great-grandfather Simon Klopf had lived in Motten, when on 2 November 1672, he married a Susanna Lauterbäck from (Großschönau 2/1, 84). Simon Klopf's father could have been a Mathias Klopf who in 1654 lived in Thaures near Großschönau.

Michael Klopf's earliest appearance in the records is the entry concerning his wedding on 28 October 1787 with Magdalena Holzinger (b. 30 Sep 1763 [Maria Treu 3, 327]) in the Piarist Church of Maria Treu. 

The entry concerning Michael Klopf's wedding on 28 October 1787 (Maria Treu, Tom. 3, fol. 197)

Klopf's best man was Joseph Kestner, the executive director of Trattner's printing company. The bride was the daughter of Klopf's landlord, the Bavarian butcher Johann Georg Holzinger (1709–1801) who owned the house Josephstadt No. 34 (A-Wsa, Steueramt, B34/25, fol. 77), "Zum Römischen Kaiser" (The Roman Emperor, today Lange Gasse 36, torn down in 1891).

Three of Michael Klopf's four documented residences: on the left the house Josephstadt 95, "Zum Weißen Hahn" (The White Rooster, where Klopf died in 1811, in the foreground Josephstadt 34 where he lived at the time of his marriage in 1787, and above that Josephstadt 100, "Zum goldenen Kranz", where Klopf lived in December 1801 at the time of the death of his father-in-law. The Piarist Church of Maria Treu is at the upper right (W-Waw, Sammlung Woldan). That Michel Klopf in 1785 lived at Trattner's printing office at Altlerchenfeld 12 (see above) is documented by the baptismal entry of the child Michael Khun, whose godfather Klopf was on 11 January 1785 (Altlerchenfeld 1, fol. 108).

Michael and Magdalena Klopf had only one child, Joseph Ignaz, who was born on 28 July 1788 (Maria Treu 6, fol. 58), but already died of hydrocephaly on 7 August 1789 (Wiener Zeitung, 12 Aug 1789, 2059). On 1 April 1788, Joseph Holzinger, an employee of Vienna's tobacco tax office, married at St. Peter's Church in Vienna. His brother-in-law, the "Rechnungsführer in der v. Tratt[nerischen] Hauptbuchdruckerei" Michael Klopf signed as best man.

Michael Klopf's signature in the original marriage records of St. Peter in Vienna (St. Peter, [original marriage registers] Tom. I)

After Johann Thomas von Trattner's death on 31 Juli 1798, Michael Klopf stayed with the firm which was taken over by Trattner's grandson Johann Thomas (1776–1845). On 19 August 1808, we encounter Klopf together with his boss Johann Thomas Trattner junior as godfather of a child of Peter Johann Henckel, an accounting official of the Trattner printing house (Wien, Reformierte Stadtkirche 1, fol. 78). On 11 April 1805, Klopf and his wife Magdalena signed a belated marriage contract which amounted to an agreement of conjugal community of property and mutual inheritance.

Michael and Magdalena Klopf's marriage contract (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 140/1811)

Michael Klopf's last appearance in the archival records of the Trattner company is his signature as a witness on a certificate of indemnity, issued on 5 January 1811 by the Viennese merchant August Mathes who, for 25,000 Gulden, had bought Trattner's paper mills in Ebergassing.

Michael Klopf's signature on a document dated 5 January 1811 (A-Wsa, Serie 3.1.5.4.A60 - IV/60)

Seven weeks later, on 27 February 1811 (on the same day as the horn player Joseph Leitgeb), Michael Klopf died of "Lungenbrand" (pulmonary gangrene, a symptom of tuberculosis) (Wiener Zeitung, 9 Mar 1811, 954) in the house Josephstadt No. 101, "Zum Weißen Hahn" (today Josefstädter Straße 22, torn down in 1879).

The cover page of "Großhandlungskassier" Michael Klopf's Sperrs-Relation (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A2, 699/1811)

Klopf's estate was estimated at 2,513 gulden. It consisted of 2,020 gulden in cash, a silver watch worth 25 fl., 219 fl. in clothing and linen plus 249 fl. in "Hauswäsch" (table clothes and sheets), and furniture. On 1 March 1811, Michael Klopf was buried in the Schmelzer Friedhof. It was not possible to determine the date of death of Klopf's widow. She probably married again after the death of her first husband.

Until now, it was not possible to determine Klopf's genealogical relation to several other individuals of that name who lived in Vienna in the eighteenth century. The most interesting among them is the violinist and dancing master Lukas Thomas Klopf (20 May 1724 – 17 Feb 1780 [Wiener Zeitung, 19 Feb 1780]), brother of the musician Mathias Klopf (1722–1798), and son of the chocolate maker, confectioner, and musician Johann Andreas Klopf, who died on 4 March 1752, leaving behind a widow and ten children aged between 5 and 29 years (A-Ws, Patrimonialherrschaften, 2.1.1.16.A1/2.2108).

The entry concerning the baptism of Lukas Thomas Johann Klopf on 20 May 1724, at St. Ulrich. The father's address "in d Eÿl" refers to the house St. Ulrich 9 (The Golden Owl) where the hornist Joseph Leitgeb was to live 40 years later (St. Ulrich 19, fol. 28v).

The entry concerning the publications of the banns at St. Ulrich (St. Ulrich 21, fol. 278r) for the musician Lukas Klopf's wedding to Anna Maria Kreischer which took place on 20 May 1748, at St. Michael's (A-Wstm 6, 462).

The entry concerning Lukas Klopf's second wedding on 1 July 1764 at St. Ulrich to Catharina Schott (St. Ulrich 25, fol. 161r)

Since Lukas Klopf's son and grandson were printers by profession, a family relationship with Michael Klopf seems likely. Lukas's son Ulrich Klopf, born 5 September 1768 (St. Ulrich 32, fol. 302v) died as "privilegierter Buchdrucker" (privileged printer) at the age of ninety on 27 May 1858 (Wiener Zeitung, 31 May 1858, 591), at Spittelberg No. 130.

Ulrich Klopf's birth certificate from the file of his printing company in the holdings of the commercial court (A-Wsa, Merkantil- und Wechselgericht, Fasz. 3, 1. Reihe, K 483).

A certificate, issued on 21 February 1792, by the printer Johann Martin Weimar, stating that Ulrich Klopf has learned the printing craft and as Weimar's employee has a secure monthly income of five gulden (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A3, 637/1792). This document was issued on the occasion of Ulrich Klopf's upcoming wedding on 24 April 1792 (A-Wd, Tom. 78, fol. 15).

The name of Ulrich Klopf's print shop at the bottom of the poster of the premiere of Nestroy's Einen Jux will er sich machen on 10 March 1842 at the Theater an der Wien (Wienbibliothek)

Ulrich Klopf's son Franz Xaver (b. 1806), who owned a printing office, died on 10 January 1864 (Wiener Zeitung, 24 Jan 1864, 154), at Mariahilf No. 134.

 Franz Klopf in Adolph Lehmann's allgemeiner Wohnungs-Anzeiger of 1864.

To figure out Michael Klopf's relationship to the family of Lukas Klopf will be the task of future research.

Michael Klopf's seal and signature on his 1805 marriage contract (A-Wsa, Mag. ZG, A10, 140/1811)

© Dr. Michael Lorenz 2013. All rights reserved.

Updated: 23 December 2025

Mozart in the Viennese Council of War

On 21 October 1786, Mozart's name ("Mozard Capellmeister") appears in the protocol of the k.k. Hofkriegsrat (I. & R. council of war) – of all places. Mozart stood bail for his friend Franz Jacob Freystädtler who was accused by the Bavarian captain David Haißer of having stolen a piano . In the last fifteen years nobody has discovered more handwritten Mozart documents from the composer's lifetime than yours truly.

Part of the entry in the protocol of the I. & R. council of war concerning Mozart posting bond for his friend Freystädtler (OeStA, KA, ZSt HKR HR 2026, fol. 1067). The file related to this case does not survive.

This discovery was published the article "Mozarts Haftungserklärung für Freystädtler. Eine Chronologie". Mozart-Jahrbuch 1998. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 2000, 1-19.

Updated: 6 October 2018