Skip to main content
Travel diary
Beethoven encounter

Thoughts on the silence in Vienna

20 January 2026 | Frank Wallburger (Reiseleiter)

Nothing from Johannes, certainly nothing from Beethoven.
I am worried.
What is happening in the 14th district? Penzing. It's far out.
Maybe he fled? Out of the apartment.
Was he traveling alone or did Johannes take him by the hand?

I imagine him climbing up to the Gloriette.
Cold wind.
Up there the view over Vienna. He sees the old heritage and in between all the new glass-concrete noise.

Or is he seeking the proximity of the dead? Maybe he was at the Hütteldorf cemetery.
Just around the corner.
Does he stand there in front of the foreign graves and talk about the end?
His own death in 1827 – for him, it was just yesterday.
He sees the years on the stones. 1914, 1945, 2020.
A whole sea of time that he simply skipped.
Maybe he is seeking the silence there that the living cannot give him.

And at home?
Johannes is a painter. Beethoven was never interested in pictures. Nothing left for visual arts.
Johannes loves his yellow.
Ludwig loves his tones.
Does Johannes dare anyway?
"Look, Ludwig, this is modern painting..." I see Beethoven's face in front of me.
A growl.

Maybe he is just sitting there staring at the computer again. Is he searching for silence on the net?
Or for people who no longer exist?
Or (...)

The silence in Vienna feels heavy.