The Marriage Letters of Joseph Deym and Josephine Brunsvik-Deym

Countess Josephine Brunsvik-Deym-Stackelberg was the woman Beethoven loved, his only beloved, his everything, and the angel of my heart. Nowhere does she come more vividly to life than in the 108 surviving letters that Josephine and her first husband, Count Joseph Deym exchanged between 1800 and 1803. They reveal the day-to-day concerns and social circumstances of a young wife and mother of noble birth, highly intelligent and musical, in the early nineteenth century. Joseph was a famous entrepreneur and wax-figure artist, and the Deym house on Rotenturmtor was Viennas largest tourist attraction. The richly annotated first edition of the marriage letters is rounded off by official documents and letters concerning the Deyms wedding and Josephs death. Beethoven, who was Josephines piano teacher for several years and often performed in her Viennese home, is mentioned repeatedly in other Brunsvik family letters of these years, here edited in English translation together with the memoirs of Josephines elder sister Therese. Two final chapters provide detailed biographical material on Joseph Deym and his wax museum, and on the Brunsvik family.

Rita Steblin (1951-2019) studied musicology in Canada and the U.S.A., and harpsichord and performance practice at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Vienna. Her research centred on the life and works of Schubert and Beethoven. Her books include Die Unsinnsgesellschaft. Franz Schubert, Leopold Kupelwieser und ihr Freundeskreis" and Beethoven in the Diaries of Johann Nepomuk Chotek".