Nikolaus Johann van Beethoven

He was born in Bonn, youngest son of Johann van Beethoven and his wife Maria Magdalena Keverich.

[3] He trained to be a pharmacist; he moved in 1795 to Vienna, where his brothers Ludwig and Kaspar lived.

[4][5] In 1809, Napoleon invaded Austria, establishing base camp in Linz for wounded soldiers.

Ludwig van Beethoven, returning home from a stay at the spa resort of Teplitz, visited his brother in Linz.

It was a replacement, composed at the suggestion of his publisher, of the Große Fuge, the original finale.