The self-effacing little house on Grinzinger Straße experienced one of those coincidences history likes to throw out at us now and then: a meeting of two greats (one slightly more great than the other).
- 18th-century house where Beethoven lived
- Franz Grillparzer lived there at the same time
- Close to other Beethoven sites around the Heiligenstadt suburb
- Book a concert experience* for Vienna
- See also:
The story
(Now a private house, which means you can’t go inside)
Austria regards Franz Grillparzer (1791-1872) as one of the country’s greatest writers and, perhaps, its greatest poet. Which is why he gets a monument, and you can see his office and living room in the Literature Museum and Wien Museum respectively.
For a short while in 1808, Grillparzer actually lived in the same house as Ludwig van Beethoven. We know this because our literary genius wrote about the experience.
Apparently, Beethoven’s lodgings faced the street, while Grillparzer and family had rooms looking over the back garden.
(An 1823 drawing of Grillparzer by Carl Anton Goebel; Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 62000; excerpt reproduced with permission under the terms of the CC0 licence)
As Grillparzer tells it, his mother liked to sit on the corridor between the two sets of rooms and listen to Beethoven play. A little like having a private concert of sorts with one of the world’s greatest ever musicians.
However, it seems the maestro eventually noticed. Rather than enjoying the attention, he was none too pleased to have an eavesdropper while he worked.
As a result, Beethoven stormed out of the house and never touched the piano there again until the Grillparzers left for town in the autumn.
Oops.
(Photo of the rear courtyard of the house, as printed on a postcard sometime after 1904; Wien Museum Inv.-Nr. 105275/200; excerpt reproduced with permission under the terms of the CC0 licence)
Who knows how different the composer’s oeuvre might have been if Mrs Grillparzer had been a little more circumspect about her love of music?
A plaque on this private house commemorates the coming together of two creative minds. It simply says (my translation):
Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Grillparzer lived here in the year 1808
Interestingly, Grillparzer and Beethoven would see more of each other in the future, the poet even writing the eulogy for the latter’s funeral.
(The plaque outside the house)
The house in question went up in the late 18th century. It’s one of many Beethoven addresses in and around Heiligenstadt, formerly a country village outside the city and a favourite haunt of the composer. For example, the excellent Beethoven Museum is a short walk away.
How to get to the house
The address is out in the leafy suburbs, reachable by Bus 37A, which goes up Grinzinger Straße soon after leaving Heiligenstadt station (which is on the U4 subway line).
Get off at the Armbrustergasse stop and walk up past the church (St. Michael’s), which traces its roots back to at least the 13th century: Beethoven may even have played the organ in there.
Note that as a private residence, the house is not open to the public.
Address: Grinzinger Straße 64, 1190 Vienna