Why Mozart was buried in a common grave. So where is Mozart buried? Poisoning during treatment

FROM A COMMON GRAVE TO A MEMORIAL CEMETERY

Many famous women are buried in the Central Cemetery of Vienna A monument is erected in the corner of the cemetery of St.

composers. From left to right - the graves of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert. Mozart - a statue of a weeping angel.

Burial in a common grave

More than two centuries have passed since the death of Mozart, but the flow of visitors who come to his grave monuments in the cemetery of St. Mark and the Central Cemetery of Vienna does not dry out. However, Mozart's remains do not rest under the statue of the weeping angel in the cemetery of St. Mark, nor under the gravestone in the Central Cemetery, where many famous composers, artists and writers are buried. The place where Mozart is actually buried is still unknown.

Although Mozart was a renowned musician, his funeral was modest. No one came to say goodbye to him, except, it seems, Salieri and Süssmeier. After the funeral, even a simple wooden cross was not installed on his grave.

Mozart's wretched funeral was not at all because he died in poverty or was forgotten by his former admirers. In those days, this is how ordinary citizens were usually buried, and only the funerals of aristocrats were magnificent. Mozart was not one of them.

It was proposed to transfer five Viennese cemeteries to one place. The new cemetery was named "Central". There are so-called "honorary graves" on it, where celebrities are buried - politicians, scientists, artists, writers and, of course, composers. There is also Mozart's tombstone among them: it is located between the burials of Beethoven and Schubert, not far from Salieri's grave.

However, unlike other burials, Mozart's grave is empty. Knowing this, many admirers of the composer go to the cemetery of St. Mark, where in 1870 a famous monument was erected in honor of Mozart - a statue of a weeping angel.

The exact burial place of Mozart has not yet been established, but the memory of him by numerous admirers of his talent is the best monument to the "solar genius" of music.

It is known that the composer Gluck, who died four years before Mozart, received a solemn funeral, but he was the court composer of Joseph II for a long time.

A truly loud fame overtook Mozart immediately after his death. On the ninth day after Mozart's death, December 14, 1791, thousands of Prague residents gathered for a funeral mass in memory of the composer. The Magic Flute continued to play in Vienna with great success, and soon this opera was staged in many other cities, including Prague, Berlin and Hamburg.

In the wake of the success of The Magic Flute, performances of other Mozart operas resumed, and publishers vied with each other to print sheet music of his works. Three years after Mozart's death, his name thundered throughout Germany, and in the 19th century the composer's fame spread throughout Europe.

memorial grave

The composer's widow taught her son music from Salieri, and his contemporaries lost his grave

During his short life, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart created masterpieces of symphonic, concerto, chamber, opera and choral music and immortalized his name. From early childhood, the personality of a little genius aroused constant public interest, and even the death of a virtuoso musician at the age of 35 became the basis for artistic myths and cultural speculation.

Unnecessary genius

The four-year-old Amadeus struck first his parents, and a few years later his native Austria with a phenomenal musical memory, a desire to improvise on the harpsichord and a passion for writing.

Little Mozart gained incredible fame for those times thanks to tours. For more than ten years, Amadeus and his father traveled to noble houses and courts of royal dynasties in search of a rich patron. The often ill boy patiently endured all the hardships of travel, but as a result he got a number of chronic diseases, including articular rheumatism.

Mozart was incredibly popular during his lifetime and earned decent money, but he was buried in a common grave along with six other dead. The money for the burial (at the current rate of about two thousand rubles) was allocated by the patron of musicians, Baron van Swieten, because on the day of the death of the public's favorite, the Austrian miracle child and an outstanding representative of the musical Vienna classical school, there was not a ducat in the house.

Fact: One winter, a family friend found the Mozarts dancing in a cold house. It turned out that the firewood had run out, and the married couple, known for their frivolous attitude to life, warmed up in this way.

In those days, tombstones were placed not at the burial site, but near the walls of the cemetery. The widow was not present at the funeral and first came to the cemetery 17 years after her husband's death. Constanza Mozart believed that the church should erect a monument to her husband, and did not worry about it. 68 years after Mozart's death, the children of the composer's friends indicated the alleged burial place, where the famous xenotaph with an angel was installed. The actual burial place of the classic of world music is not exactly known.

Reference: It is believed that Mozart did not receive recognition during his lifetime and barely made ends meet. But in fact, he was very much in demand and he was paid a lot for writing. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the musical virtuoso, together with his wife, led a wasteful lifestyle, adored balls, masquerades and instantly lowered decent fees.

Who is the requiem for?

The halo of mysticism around the death of the composer arose after the story of the mysterious customer of the funeral mass. Indeed, shortly before his death, a man in a black cloak came to Mozart and ordered a requiem - a funeral oratorio. Rumors circulated after the funeral that at the time of its writing, Mozart spoke of a bad feeling and that a funeral mass would be dedicated to his own death. In addition, Mozart had an obsession that they were trying to poison him.

However, in fact, Mozart received this order through an intermediary and undertook to work on condition of anonymity. The customer was a widower, Count Franz von Walsegg-Stuppach, a well-known lover of passing off other people's musical works as his own, buying out copyrights. He planned to dedicate mass to the memory of his wife.

The composer's widow was afraid that the customer would demand the return of the fee already spent by the Mozarts, so she asked her husband's assistant Süssmeier to finish the unfinished mass according to Wolfgang's last instructions.

Revenge of Freemasons and Cuckold

Most scientists believe that Mozart died naturally, but there are a number of versions about the violent nature of the death of a musical genius. Rumors of Mozart's poisoning appeared a few days after the funeral. The widow did not believe them and did not suspect anyone.

But some believed that Mozart was punished by the Freemasons for revealing the secrets of "freemasons" in the opera The Magic Flute, which premiered in September 1791. In addition, Mozart allegedly shared with one of his friends the intention to leave the brotherhood and open his own secret society, for which he paid with his life. It is assumed that the poisoning of the composer was part of the sacrifice ceremony.

The composer's biographer Georg Nisse, who later married Constance Mozart, wrote that the musician had an acute rash fever, accompanied by terrible swelling of the extremities and vomiting. An autopsy was not performed, because the body quickly swelled up and exuded such a smell that, according to contemporaries, an hour after death, the townspeople, passing by the house, covered their noses with handkerchiefs.

The day after Mozart's death, the lawyer Franz Hofdemel, whose wife was the last student of the musician, unexpectedly committed suicide. According to one version, out of jealousy, the “lawyer” beat the composer with a stick and he died of a stroke. Hofdemel slashed his pregnant wife's face, neck and hands, and then slit his own throat. Magdalena was saved, and five months later she gave birth to a son, whose paternity was attributed to Mozart.

In addition, Mozart's assistant Süssmeier, who rented a room from him, also attempted suicide after the teacher's funeral by cutting his throat. Rumor immediately recorded the student as a lover to Constanta.

"Ah yes Pushkin, ah yes son of a bitch!"

Years later, the biggest spread of the poisoning legend was due to one of Pushkin's "Little Tragedies", in which Salieri, out of envy of Mozart's talent, poisoned him. The indisputable authority of the great poet defeated all available evidence, and fiction - the truth.

In fact, the Italian Antonio Salieri at the age of 24 became the court composer of Emperor Joseph II and served at the court for several decades. He was the leading musician of the Austrian capital and a talented teacher, who taught Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and even, after the death of his father, the youngest son of Mozart. The imperial favorite worked with talented children from poor families for free, and famous students even dedicated their works to the teacher.

Once, during a lesson, Salieri expressed his condolences to Mozart Jr. on the death of his father and added that now other composers would be able to earn a living: after all, Wolfgang Amadeus's talent interrupted others the opportunity to sell their music.

In 1824, all of Vienna celebrated the 50th anniversary of Salieri's appointment as court composer, but the elderly hero of the day had already been in a mental hospital for a year. Every time he swore honor to his former students, who rarely visited the mentor, that he was not to blame for the death of Mozart, and asked "to pass this on to the world." The unfortunate man suffered from hallucinations caused by accusations of the death of the great Austrian, and even tried to commit suicide by cutting his throat.

In the 19th century, the Italians explained these accusations by the usual national idea, in which Austria opposed the Italian and Viennese musical schools.

Nevertheless, Pushkin's artistic version became the basis for many other literary works. When in the 90s of the last century, a performance based on P. Schaeffer's play "Amadeus" was shown on tour of an English theater, the Italians were furious. In 1997, in the Palace of Justice of Milan, as a result of an open trial, Italian judges acquitted a fellow countryman - the founder of the Vienna Conservatory.

Reference: In 1966, the Swiss doctor Karl Baer found that the musician had articular rheumatism. In 1984, Dr. Peter Davis, based on all available memories and evidence, concluded that Mozart was killed by a streptococcal infection combined with kidney failure and bronchopneumonia. In 1991, Dr. James of the Royal London Hospital suggested that the treatment of malarial fever and melancholy with antimony and mercury was fatal for a genius.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is a prominent representative of the Vienna classical school. He masterfully mastered various musical forms of his time, had a unique ear and a rare talent as an improviser. In a word, genius. And around the life and death of a genius, there are usually a lot of rumors and speculation. The composer passed away at the age of thirty-five. His early death became the subject of controversy, formed the basis of the plots of literary works. How did Mozart die? What caused his sudden death? And where is Mozart buried?

The composer, whose biography has been of interest to researchers around the world for more than two centuries, died in 1791. It is customary to start the biographies of prominent people from birth. But Mozart's biography is so extensive that any of the periods is worthy of close attention. This article will focus primarily on how Mozart died. There are many assumptions. But according to the official version, the cause of death was a long illness. But before embarking on a description of Mozart's last days, his biography should be briefly outlined.

Childhood

Where was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born? The childhood city of the great musician's youth is Salzburg. Amadeus' father was a violinist. Leopold Mozart devoted his life to children. He did everything to ensure that his daughter and son received a decent musical education. It's the musical. Unique abilities from an early age were shown by both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose biography is presented in our article, and his older sister Nannerl.

Leopold began teaching his daughter how to play the harpsichord quite early. Wolfgang was at that time quite small. But he followed his sister's lessons and repeated individual passages from musical works. Then Leopold decided that his son must certainly become a composer. Wolfgang, like his Nannerl, started performing very early. The audience was fascinated by the game of geeks.

Youth and the beginning of creativity

Since 1781, the hero of this article lived in Vienna. Haydn is a classic. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, along with these great musicians, created works that will never be forgotten. He managed to achieve such heights not only thanks to his innate talent, but also to perseverance and hard work.

At what age did Mozart die? The composer was only thirty-five. And ten years before his death, he settled in Vienna. During this short period of time, Wolfgang turned from a little-known musician into

The house belonged to the Webers, who had three unmarried daughters. One of them is Wolfgang's future wife, Constance. In the same year, when he first crossed the threshold of the Weber house, he began to create the opera Abduction from the Seraglio. The work was approved by the Viennese public, but the name of Mozart still had no weight in musical circles.

Glory

Mozart soon married Constance Weber. After the wedding, his relationship with his father went wrong. Mozart Sr. until the last days was hostile to his daughter-in-law. The peak of Wolfgang's fame falls on the mid-eighties. A few years before his death, he begins to receive huge fees. The Mozarts move into a luxurious apartment, hire servants and buy a piano for crazy money at that time. The musician strikes up a friendship with Haydn, who once even gives a collection of his works.

In February 1785, the public was presented with a piano concerto in D minor. "Why did the great Mozart die in poverty?" - sometimes you can hear such a question. What is the basis of the opinion about the financial troubles of the pianist and composer? Indeed, in the mid-eighties, Mozart was at the peak of his fame. He was one of the wealthiest musicians in Vienna in 1787. Four years before his death, he sent his son to a very expensive and prestigious educational institution. And in the same year, the great pianist joined the Masonic lodge. But in recent years, the composer has somewhat faltered. However, it was still far from poverty.

Financial difficulties

In 1789, Wolfgang's wife fell ill. He was forced to send her to a medical resort, which shook his financial situation. A few months later, Constance began to recover. By that time, The Marriage of Figaro had already had considerable success. Mozart took up writing works for the theatre. He had written operas before. But his early writings were not successful.

The last year of his life for Mozart was very fruitful. He wrote a symphony in G minor, received the post of bandmaster. And, finally, he began to work on "Requiem". It was ordered by a stranger who wants to honor the memory of his wife.

Requiem

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose biography is surprisingly eventful, despite his early death, wrote an uncountable number of works. He had many students, he received during his lifetime good fees from the publication of his works. Shortly before his death, he began to create his last work - "Requiem". The work captured him so much that he stopped accepting students. In addition, his health suddenly began to deteriorate every day.

How Mozart died was told years later by relatives who witnessed the death of the great composer. Among them was the son of a musician. According to the memoirs of relatives, Mozart suddenly became so ill that he had to call a doctor. And not any, but the best in Vienna. Indeed, the healer helped the musician. However, the improvement did not last long. Soon Mozart fell ill completely.

Acute millet fever

According to the memoirs of Sophie Weber, the musician's sister-in-law, after his condition worsened, the relatives decided to call another doctor. The cause of Mozart's death is controversial, because his symptoms were so unusual that they did not allow doctors to come to a consensus regarding the diagnosis.

In recent weeks, the composer's hearing has become more acute. He suffered from unbearable pain, even from touching his body to his clothes. Mozart was getting weaker every day. And besides, his condition worsened due to imperfect methods of medicine. The patient was regularly bled: this therapeutic technique in those days was considered universal. The cause of Mozart's death, perhaps, would have been established if he had lived in the 21st century. In the eighteenth century, the methods of treatment were, to put it mildly, ineffective. The death certificate of the genius was: acute millet fever.

At that time, a good part of the Viennese population suffered from this disease. How to treat him, the doctors did not know. That is why one of the doctors, having visited the dying man, concluded: he can no longer be saved.

General weakness of the body

The life and work of Mozart is the subject of many books, feature films and documentaries. His rare gift was discovered at an early age. But in addition to the unique abilities, Mozart, contrary to popular belief, extraordinary diligence. Much has been said today about how Mozart died. There is a version that the envious Salieri poisoned the great musician. But the composer's contemporaries thought otherwise.

After Mozart's death, some doctors claimed that he died of a serious infectious disease. His body could not fight as a result of general weakness. And Mozart was physically weakened as a result of many years of work without interruption and rest.

Over the years, it has become increasingly difficult for researchers to diagnose a musician. There are many contradictions in the records of Sophie Weber and other relatives. It was these circumstances that gave rise to a lot of versions about the death of Amadeus Mozart. Let's consider each of them.

Salieri

The version that Mozart died at the hands of an envious person is the most common. And it was she who formed the basis of Pushkin's tragedy. According to this version, Mozart's life and work were surrounded by idleness. Nature allegedly endowed the musician with such talent that no effort was required. Everything Mozart managed effortlessly, easily. And Salieri, on the contrary, with all his efforts, was not able to achieve even a miserable share of what Mozart could do.

Pushkin's work is based on fiction. But many readers today do not distinguish the author's fantasies from confirmed facts. Pushkin's heroes argue that genius and evil are incompatible concepts. In the work of the Russian writer, Salieri prevents poison from Mozart, because he does not agree with him. He believes that he is sacrificing an idle but gifted composer to art.

The opinion that Salieri is a murderer is considered to be one of the versions also because at the beginning of the nineteenth century his confession was found in one of the church archives, in which he confessed and repented of his deed. There are no confirmed facts that this document actually existed. However, even today, many admirers of Mozart's work are sure that the genius fell victim to the envy of a "colleague".

Constance

There is another version of poisoning. Its adherents believe that Mozart was sent to the next world by his wife. And one of the musician's students helped her in this. If you believe the rumors, then the passionate romance of Constance and Züssmayr was accompanied by showdowns and extremely emotional reconciliations. The lover of Mozart's wife was a very ambitious man, if not a careerist. And he could well enter into a love affair with Constance solely in order to harass his great teacher. But why did Süssmayr need to get rid of Mozart? What would his death give him?

In addition, this version is less plausible due to the fact that after the death of the musician, his diary was preserved. And he is a testament to the deepest devotion and love that reigned in the Mozart family.

ritual murder

And finally, the latest version. If we take into account only those that talk about violent death, then this one is perhaps the most plausible. As already mentioned, the great musician was in the Masonic lodge. Masons, as a rule, help their "brothers". But they did not help Mozart when he was in severe financial difficulties. They even ignored the death of the composer, not canceling the next meeting as a sign of mourning.

Some researchers believe that the reason for the murder was Mozart's intention to create his own lodge. In one of the latest works - "The Magic Flute" - Masonic symbols are used. Demonstrating something similar to the uninitiated was not accepted. Perhaps Mozart was killed by his Masonic brothers.

burial

It is known where Mozart is buried. In the cemetery of Saint Mark. The date of the burial remains disputed. According to the official version - December 6th. It is widely believed that Mozart was buried in a mass grave intended for the poor. But, according to historians, the burial took place according to the third category. It was not the funeral of a beggar, but also not a magnificent farewell ceremony for the great composer, pianist, teacher. As is often the case, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's true fame came after his death.

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Last illness and death

Mozart's last illness began back in Prague, where he arrived to direct the production of his opera The Mercy of Titus, as evidenced by Franz Xaver Nimechek, the author of the composer's first biography. Upon Mozart's return to Vienna, his condition gradually worsened, but he continued to work: he completed the Concerto for clarinet with orchestra for Stadler, wrote "Requiem", conducted at the premiere of "The Magic Flute" on September 30, 1791.

Nimechek cites the story of his wife, Constance, that shortly before her death, on a walk in the Prater, where she took her husband to distract him from gloomy thoughts, Mozart began to say that he was composing the Requiem for himself, that he would soon die: “ I feel too bad and will not last long: of course they gave me poison! I can't get rid of this thought." According to Nimechek's book (1798), the conversation took place no earlier than the second half of October, but in its second edition (1808) it is indicated that already in Prague the composer had a premonition of death. In 1829 Constance told an English composer Novello and his wife that Mozart talked about poisoning six months before his death, but when she called this idea "absurd", Wolfgang agreed with her.

2 days before finally dying (November 18), Mozart conducted the performance of the "Little Masonic Cantata". On November 20, Mozart's joints became inflamed, he could not move and was in severe pain. The details of Mozart's death are described by his early biographer - and Constance's future husband - Georg Nikolaus von Nissen. Nissen took his information from notes provided to him by Constance's sister, Sophie Weber. According to her, “[the disease] began with a swelling in the arms and legs, which were almost completely paralyzed, later sudden bouts of vomiting began […] two hours before his death, he remained in absolute consciousness.” His body was so swollen that he could no longer sit up in bed and move without assistance.

He was treated by Dr. Nikolaus Closset (German: Nicolaus Closset), the family's family physician from 1789. Klosset invited Dr. Sallaba (German: Mathias von Sallaba), a doctor at the Vienna General Hospital, for consultations. During the last illness of Mozart, all the means available to medicine of that time were used: emetic, cold compresses, bloodletting. As Dr. Güldener von Lobos, who spoke with both doctors, later wrote, Klosset believed that Mozart was seriously ill and was afraid of complications in the brain. According to the decree of 1784, in the event of the death of a patient, the attending physician left a note in his home, written in his native language, and not in Latin, where the duration of the disease and its nature were indicated in an accessible way to a non-specialist. The note was addressed to those who were supposed to examine the body and briefly determine the type of illness. According to Carl Behr, the diagnosis "acute millet fever" (German hitziges Freiselfieber), appearing in the body examination report, comes from Closset.

Mozart died after midnight, December 5, 1791. According to eyewitnesses, his desperate wife threw herself on the bed next to her husband in order to contract the same disease and die after him.

• Constance fell ill and did not attend her husband's funeral. On December 6, the composer's body was taken to St. Stephen's Cathedral, where a church service was held in the Cross Chapel at three o'clock in the afternoon. The ceremony was attended by van Swieten, Salieri, Süssmeier, the servant Josef Diner, Kapellmeister Roser, cellist Orsler. The coffin, before it could be sent to the cemetery, was installed in the "chapel of the dead", since, in accordance with the decrees of Emperor Leopold II, prescribing the preservation of public order, when buried in winter, the dead were transported around the city only after 6 pm. In addition, from the moment of death to the moment of burial, “twice 24 hours” had to elapse, this precaution was taken to prevent accidental burial of those who fell asleep in a lethargic sleep.

  Subsequently, it was no longer possible to determine where Mozart was buried. All this gave rise to further accusations of stinginess of van Swieten, who allegedly failed (or did not want to) organize a worthy funeral for the great composer. Suspicions also fell on him in an effort to hide Mozart's grave, for the same purpose he allegedly kept Constance from visiting the cemetery. But it is unlikely that van Swieten, who died in 1803, is guilty of the fact that she visited there only seventeen years after the funeral, at the insistence of the Viennese writer Griesinger, and could not find the grave. Many years later, Constance, giving an explanation for her absence from the funeral, pointed out that the winter was "extremely severe." However, this is not true: according to the Vienna Central Office for Meteorology and Geodynamics, the weather on December 6 and 7, 1791 was mild, windless, and without precipitation. There was no storm, which, according to the author of the feuilleton in the Vienna newspaper Morgen Post (1855), allegedly scattered the mourners at the Stubentor gate.

  The stories that the composer's grave was immediately lost are not true: Albrechtsberger and his wife, and later their grandson, visited her. Mozart's burial place was also known to his student Freistedtler, the Viennese musicians Karl Scholl and Johann Dolezhalek.

  Hypotheses

  Poisoning

  The first suggestion of poisoning arose shortly after Mozart's death. On December 12, 1791, Georg Sievers, a correspondent for the Berlin newspaper Musikalisches Wochenblatt, wrote from Prague:

  In 1798, in his biography of Mozart, Nimeczek included Constance's story about a conversation with her husband in the Prater and Mozart's words about poisoning. It is difficult to say whether this conversation, which is known only from Constance, really took place, but even if everything was as she said, this cannot serve as evidence of poisoning. Later in the biography of Mozart, written by the second husband of Constance, Georg Nissen(published in 1828), contains extensive information about poisons and at the same time denies that the composer was poisoned.

  Salieri

  Almost thirty years after the death of Mozart, the poisoning version is supplemented by the name of the poisoner - Salieri. By that time, the once brilliant composer, known not only throughout Austria, but also in Europe, suffering from a mental disorder, was living out his days in a hospital. Rumors that he killed Mozart were apparently known to Salieri as well. The latter's student, Ignaz Moscheles, visited him in October 1823. The widow of Moscheles included the story of this visit in his biography:

  In Salieri's obituary written Friedrich Rochlitz and published by the Leipzig "General Musical Gazette" of June 27, 1825, told about the last days of the deceased's life:

  However, Rochlitz does not mention the name of Mozart in connection with the confessions to the "crimes" allegedly made by Salieri.

  In May 1824 the poet Calisto Bassi, an Italian, scattered leaflets in the Vienna concert hall (or handed it out in front of it), where Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was performed. In an ode glorifying Beethoven, Bassi inserted stanzas dedicated to Mozart, and a rhyme about a certain unnamed old man, about “pale sickness ... on the side of the one who holds a goblet of poison in his hand”, about “envy, jealousy and black crime” . The rhyme was seen as a trick against Salieri, but Bassi, summoned for explanations to the director of the Court Chapel, claimed that he had no intention of offending the composer. Nevertheless, he was given a rebuke in the press. The only copy of this leaflet, kept in the Palace of Justice in Vienna, perished in a fire in 1927. It is not known whether anyone took a copy of it before 1927.

  As early as 1824, Giuseppe Carpani spoke in a Milanese magazine with a refutation of the rumors. In his article "Letter from Mr. G. Carpani in defense of Maestro Salieri, falsely accused of poisoning Maestro Mozart," he praised Salieri's human qualities, argued that he and Mozart respected each other. Carpani's article was accompanied by the testimony of Dr. von Lobes, who received information about Mozart's illness and death directly from the doctors who treated him.

  To date, there is no information that Salieri made any confessions. In a certificate dated June 5, 1824, confirmed by Dr. Rerik, Salieri's attending physician, the orderlies, who have been inseparable from the old composer since the onset of his illness, claim that they have never heard such confessions from him.

  In the event that Mozart was given a single lethal dose, then Salieri could not do this: the last time he saw Mozart was at the end of the summer of 1791, and, as Ephraim Lichtenstein noted: “... such chemicals are not known, the hidden period of action which would last such a long time on the body after a single dose of a massive (lethal) dose.

  If we assume that Mozart received poison for quite a long time in small portions, then only those who were constantly near him could give it to the composer.

  The legend of the murder of Mozart by his colleague Salieri formed the basis of Pushkin's little tragedy Mozart and Salieri (). In Pushkin, Salieri - an unconditional talent who achieved fame through hard work - cannot bear how easily everything goes to a brilliant rival, and decides to commit a crime. Initially, Pushkin intended to name the little tragedy Envy. During the life of Pushkin, the play was staged twice as a benefit for the actors, but was not successful. P.A.Katenin, noting the "dryness of action" as a failure, found in this work of Pushkin "the most important vice":

  Pushkin depicts people of the 18th century, using the ideas of his contemporary era. He creates a hero-genius, characteristic of romanticism, lonely, misunderstood, who is opposed by the enemy. But both Mozart and Pushkin's Salieri are far from the real-life Mozart and Salieri. Nevertheless, in the Soviet Union, and later in Russia, where Pushkin's authority was indisputable, fiction turned out to be stronger than life facts (S. Fomichev). According to musicologists, it was Pushkin's work that contributed to the spread of the poisoning legend.

  In 1898, on the basis of Pushkin's tragedy, the libretto of Rimsky-Korsakov's opera of the same name was written. In his book Mozart and Salieri, Pushkin's tragedy, Rimsky-Korsakov's dramatic scenes, dedicated to the works of Pushkin and Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor Belza reported on the recording of Salieri's dying confession, confessing to Mozart's poisoning and even when and where he "poisoned him." The recording was allegedly made by his confessor. According to Belza, in 1928 Guido Adler found it and copied it in the Vienna archive and told Boris Asafiev, who was in Vienna at that time, about it. However, no such document was found either in the Vienna archives or in the archive of Adler himself. “Osterreichische Musikzeitschrift” in November 1964 wrote about this: “But even in Vienna itself, no one has ever known that, it turns out, there is a written confession of Salieri, where he confesses to a crime!” There were no reports of Salieri's confession in Asafiev's papers either. As Korti notes, Igor Belza, reporting this entry, referred exclusively to Adler and Asafiev, who had died by that time.

  Masons

  The version of the poisoning of Mozart by Freemasons was first expressed by Daumer in a series of stories about the death of Mozart. The libretto of Mozart's last opera, The Magic Flute, uses the symbolism of the "brotherhood of freemasons" (the composer and his father have been members of the Faithfulness Masonic Lodge since 1784) and depicts the confrontation between Christianity and Freemasonry. But Mozart was not sure of the truth of the Masonic way. The composer decided to create his own Masonic society - "The Cave" - ​​and shared these plans with the musician Anton Stadler. Stadler allegedly informed the Masons, who gave him the task of poisoning Mozart. Supporters of the version accuse the Freemasons Van Swieten and Puchberg of organizing a "hasty funeral", attribute to them the initiative to bury the composer in a common grave, allegedly in order to hide the traces of the crime.

  The hypothesis was further developed in 1910 in the book Mehr Licht by Hermann Alvardt, who claimed that the Jews were behind the Masons who killed Mozart. In 1926 Erich and Matilda The Ludendorffs repeated this version. In 1936, Mathilde Ludendorff, in Mozarts Leben und Gewaltsamer Tod, argued that the assassination of the German composer Mozart was orchestrated by "Judeo-Christians" (or "Judeo-Romans") as well as "Judeo-Masons", Jesuits and Jacobins. Mozart became a Freemason under pressure from his father and was persecuted by the Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg Hieronymus von Colloredo(also a Freemason), because he refused to compose "Italian cosmopolitan music". The story of Stedler and the plan for creating the "Cave" also found their place in Ludendorff's book.

  Freemasons poisoned Mozart and according to the doctors of medicine Johannes Dalchow, Günter Duda and Dieter Kerner. Having revealed the secrets of the Order in The Magic Flute, Mozart doomed himself to death. Masons allegedly made a sacrifice in honor of the consecration of their new temple. The famous Requiem for Mozart was ordered by the Freemasons, so they let the composer know that he had been chosen as a victim.

  The absurdity of this version lies in the fact that the content of The Magic Flute rather presented the ideas of Freemasonry, echoing the ideals of Voltairianism and the great French Revolution, in the most favorable light. Confirmation that the Viennese Freemasons are delighted with Mozart's new opera is the order of the Masonic Cantata, which in fact became his last completed work. In the end, the author of the libretto, Emanuel Schikaneder, also a Freemason, survived, which refutes the version that the Freemasons were involved in the poisoning of Mozart.

  Version of Kerner, Dalkhov, Duda

  However, sublimate poisoning is accompanied by characteristic external signs, including the occurrence of sublimate kidney symptoms and symptoms of renal failure. During the last illness of Mozart, such a clinical picture, as noted by Isaac Trachtenberg, was not traced in him. In case of chronic poisoning, the patient should have observed signs of mercury erethism and a slight trembling of the hands, which would have manifested itself through a change in handwriting. Nevertheless, the manuscript scores of the last works - The Magic Flute and Requiem - do not contain signs of "mercury tremor". Professor of the Institute for the History of Medicine (Cologne) Wilhelm Katner in the report “Is the mystery of Mozart's death solved?”, Made by him in September 1967 at a meeting of the German Society for the History of Medicine, Natural Science and Technology, noted that the symptoms observed in Mozart do not confirm chronic poisoning sublimate. Dermatologist Alois Greiter (Heidelberg) and toxicologist Josef Sainer (Brno) came to the same conclusion. Later, in 1970, Kutner pointed out that evidence of Mozart's hand trembling was never found, which Koerner himself admitted in the discussion, but promised to provide evidence.

  Constance Mozart and Süssmeier

  There is speculation that Mozart was poisoned by Franz Xaver Süssmeier and his wife Constance, who were lovers. In 1791, Constance gave birth to a boy, also named Franz Xaver. According to rumors, this was not the son of Mozart, but of his student Süssmeier.

  Many years later, in 1828, to put an end to gossip, Constance included in Nissen's biography of Mozart an anatomical drawing of her first husband's left ear. The composer had his birth defect, which of all the children was inherited only by Franz Xaver. This circumstance played a role in the emergence of another assumption about the causes of Mozart's death, this time natural, made by the American pathologist Arthur Rappoport.

  Poisoning during treatment

  Hofdemel. Killing out of jealousy

  The day after Mozart's death, the Viennese Supreme Court Clerk and Freemason Franz Hofdemel mutilated his pregnant wife Mary Magdalene with a razor and committed suicide. Mozart taught Magdalene Hofdemel to play the piano and, apparently, entered into a relationship with her. He dedicated his last concerto for piano and orchestra to his student. Biographers of the 19th century hushed up this episode. For a long time, the belief persisted in Vienna that Hofdemel beat Mozart with a stick, and he died of a stroke. According to another version, the Freemasons used Hofdemel to eliminate Mozart with poison. It is known that the death of the clerk was reported only on December 10, so that this tragedy was in no way associated with the death of Mozart. Magdalena Hofdemel (German: Maria Magdalena Hofdemel) survived and subsequently gave birth to a boy, whom many considered the son of Mozart.

  Death from natural causes

  Systemic rheumatic disease

  Professor-therapist Ephraim Lichtenstein, relying on well-known materials, analyzed the history of Mozart's illness. From early childhood, Wolfgang was distinguished by poor health. The busy schedule of concert tours, in which the young Mozart and his sister Nannerl were accompanied by their father, had a negative impact on the condition of the children, mainly the boy. The illnesses that haunted Wolfgang during his first travels are known from the letters of Leopold Mozart. The connection between successively transferred diseases at this time is also noted by the German researcher Gerhard Böhme:

  Lichtenstein also notes Mozart's subsequent sore throats, feverish conditions, and later brain disorders. Everything indicates that the composer fell victim to a rheumatic infection that affected the heart, brain, kidneys, and joints. As Liechtenstein suggests in his essay "The History of Mozart's Illness and Death," during years filled with hard work and nervous shocks, Mozart may have developed a circulatory disorder. The consequence of this was edema and ascites, which in that era, doctors incorrectly considered an independent disease - dropsy. Modern medicine knows that a hidden course of the process of cardiac decompensation is possible, which manifests itself later through swelling.

  Rappoport version

  In 1981 in Vienna, at the International Congress of Clinical Chemistry, the American pathologist Arthur Rappoport made a presentation "A unique and still undisclosed theory about the genetic, anatomical basis of Mozart's death." In it, based on many years of his own observations, Rappoport argued about the relationship between anatomical deformities of the ear, inherited, and kidney disease. The pathologist believes that Mozart had a congenital defect of the urinary or renal tract. This theory was supported by dermatologist Alois Greiter. The sluggish kidney disease was aggravated by the fact that the composer contracted the so-called rheumatic fever. Excessive bloodletting (according to Carl Behr, Mozart lost at least two liters of blood due to bloodletting) did the trick. Summing up, Rappoport noted: “I hope I have provided strong support to those who are convinced that Mozart was not poisoned, not killed, not deprived of his life in a violent way.” Later, when Mario Corti, while working on the Mozart and Salieri series on Radio Liberty, wanted to interview Rappoport, he refused, saying that he was in trouble with his hypothesis.

  Death from the effects of traumatic brain injury

  In 1842, this skull was presented to the engraver Jacob Girtl. The possession of such relics was commonplace for that era. Jacob's brother, professor of anatomy Josef Girtl, studied the skull and came to the conclusion that it was really the skull of Mozart. Some of the bones were separated during the study and subsequently lost. In 1901, the conclusions of Professor Girtl were refuted by the scientists of Salzburg.

  Only in the early 1990s did the paleontologist Gottfried Tichy become interested in the skull, until then kept in the vaults of the Salzburg Mozarteum. The scientist published the results of the study of the skull using modern forensic methods in The Economist. According to Tichy, the skull could belong to Mozart: the rounded shape of the male skull is typical of the inhabitants of southern Germany. Its owner was physically weak, had a large head (like Mozart), according to the condition of the teeth, the age of the deceased was 30-35 years. The structure of the facial bones coincided with the images of the composer created during his lifetime.

  Unexpectedly, Tichy discovered a very thin crack 7.2 cm long, extending from the left temple to the top of the head. It was the result of a lifetime injury and by the time Mozart died, it had almost healed, only traces of bleeding remained in the lower part. It is known that the composer suffered from dizziness and headache in the last year of his life, which, according to Tikha, was the result of a craniocerebral injury received from a blow or a fall. According to Tichy's hypothesis, Mozart died of a hematoma and a later infection.

  see also

  Notes

  1. Gennady Smolin. Genius and villainy // "Around Sveta". - 2006. - No. 1.
  2. Mozart was killed not by Salieri, but by his own mother? (indefinite) . "Arguments and Facts" Aif.ru. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  3. Nikolay Fedorov. Mozart:  murder with many unknowns // Around the World. - 2015. - No. 1.
  4. , With. 54.
  5. , With. 60.
  6. , With. 43, 46-47.
  7. , With. 375-376.
  8. , With. 503.
  9. , With. 376.
  10. , With. 16.
  11. According to Karl Behr, who specifically studied the funeral regulations adopted in Austria at the end of the 18th century, given the fact that the transportation of the dead took place at night, no funeral processions were held.
  12. , With. 504.
  13. , With. 81-82.
  14. , With. 82-83.
  15. , With. 83, 86.
  16. Kushner B. In defense of Antonio Salieri. Part 3: Illness, death and burial of Mozart. Was there a secret?
  17. Kushner B. In defense of Antonio Salieri. Part 4: Pushkin and Salieri. Are genius and villainy compatible?
  18. , With. 75-78.
  19. , With. 503-504.
  20. , With. 87.
  21. Cit. By: Abert G.
  22. , With. 375.
  23. Kushner B. In defense of Antonio Salieri. Part 3: Illness, death and burial of Mozart. Was there a secret?
  24. Cit. Quoted from: Kushner B. In defense of Antonio Salieri. Part 3: Illness, death and burial of Mozart. Was there a secret?
  25. Kushner B. In defense of Antonio Salieri
  26. Quoted by Corti

St. Mark's Cemetery - Sankt Marxer Friedhof. One of the oldest cemeteries Vienna, but since 1874 no new burials have been carried out there. It is known because it is there actually buried Mozart. Also, the composer and conductor were originally buried there. Joseph Strauss. Very comfortable, quiet, secluded. Almost deserted. But a couple of fans Mozart always hanging around...

In 1784, by decree of Joseph II, it was forbidden to bury the poor within the city walls. A cemetery was opened for the poor townspeople, where it was supposed to arrange mass graves and bury the dead five people at a time without coffins. The cemetery of St. Mark was originally such a burial place for poor citizens and received its name from a nearby almshouse. The cemetery was out of town. But in the 19th century, Vienna grew and the cemetery became part of the city. Not only the poor, but even the nobles were already buried here. There are many Russian graves here. The most famous burial belongs to Alexander Ypsilanti (1792-1828) - a Greek, lieutenant general of the Russian army, organizer of the anti-Ottoman uprising in Moldova, the hero of Pushkin's poem.

The cemetery has a symbolic grave of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (cenotaph). No one knows exactly where his ashes lie. But it is known that Mozart, who died in 1791, was buried in a common grave, along with the poor, in this very cemetery. The composer's widow - Constance - did not know the exact place of his rest. Not surprisingly, she did not even attend the memorial service or the funeral. In general, by that time she had already had a lover for a long time - Süssmeier, one of her husband's students and Salieri's friend. There is a version that this company poisoned Mozart with mercury - however, the symptoms of the disease that took him to the grave bear little resemblance to this kind of poisoning ...

They say that once a masked man came to Mozart (it seems like it was Anton Lightgeb, the manager of Count Walsegg Stuppach, a terrible music lover) and ordered him "Requiem". During the writing of the Requiem, Mozart's health deteriorated, and on December 5, 1791, at about one in the morning, he died. Burial was scheduled for the next day, as the body was in poor condition. There was no money for the funeral, so a certain Baron van Swieten, the patron of musicians, took over the expenses. The body of the deceased was placed in a cheap coffin, knocked together from unpainted pine boards. Only a few people walked behind the coffin before St. Stephen's Cathedral, in which Mozart was buried, and then quietly taken to the cemetery of St. Mark. The coffin was left overnight in the chapel of the cemetery, and in the morning two gravediggers lowered it into a common grave. Ten years later, this grave was dug up, but one of the gravediggers took his skull as a souvenir, which is stored in Mozarteum in Salzburg .

However, no one knows where the grave was. Neither Mozart's widow 17 years after the burial, nor later researchers could find her. In 1855, the mayor of Vienna launched an official investigation on this subject, during which some plans for a cemetery were discovered and the place was more or less determined. It was decided to erect a monument there, which was made by the sculptor Hanns Gasser and which was erected on December 6, 1859. However, in 1891 the monument (but not the remains of Mozart!) was moved to the Central Cemetery .

Cemetery keeper Alexander Kugler, on his own initiative, dragged the remains of crumbling tombstones onto the "orphaned" grave: a weeping angel, a piece of a column and a tombstone without an inscription, on which he engraved the word "Mozart". In 1945, the cemetery (and it is located in the area of ​​​​a major transport hub) was bombed, and Mozart's "memorial" was also damaged; fundamentally updated it, and the cracked slab was generally replaced with a new one by the sculptor Florian Josephu-Drouot in 1950. The old plate is still kept in the regional museum of local lore.

In addition to Mozart, the Austrian composer Josef Strauss (Josef Strauss, August 20, 1827, Vienna - July 22, 1870, Vienna) is buried in the cemetery. He is one of the three sons of the famous composer Johann Strauss (senior), not as famous as his brother Johann Strauss, but still wrote some good waltzes and toured quite successfully as a conductor even in Russia. His grave, however, was also moved to the Central Cemetery in 1909. A dilapidated tombstone left in the cemetery of St. Mark, someone else managed to find even in 2010. A new one was built at the central cemetery of Joseph Strauss.

After the opening of the Central Cemetery, St. Mark's Cemetery was closed. Burials have been prohibited since 1874. But since 1937, tourists have been allowed here. Today, the cemetery is one of the main attractions of Vienna and is a place of pilgrimage for Mozart fans.

The cemetery is open from April to September from 6.30 am to 8.00 pm, and in other months - from 6.30 am to 6.30 pm. How to get there: tram line 71 to the Grasbergergasse stop, or metro line U3, Schlaughthausgasse station, and there walk along the half-tunnel, along which trains run, for 10-15 minutes, towards the transport interchange. The cemetery is located in a residential area, rather uncrowded and deserted. Mozart's grave - right from the entrance to the center of the cemetery and a little to the left. There are signs on it. If anything, at the entrance to the cemetery, on the right side of the central alley, have a plan. And also a toilet. No need to go to the bushes...