In 1790 the latter suggested[2] the Bonner Lesegesellschaft [de] should commission a cantata on the deceased emperor Joseph II in order to make the funeral ceremonies worthy.
For this an elegy should be used, which Averdonk, at that time "Canon Regular of the Order of the Holy Cross" in Kloster Ehrenstein [de], candidate at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn by then had already written.
Beethoven, who was moved by the theme of the Enlightenment, then composed the Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II.
[3] Averdonk was displeased by the Elector-Archbishop Max Franz, who in 1791 called him a monk qualifying for pastoral care, but who had become a "Minnesinger".
Words such as "epigonal poetry" were mentioned, and there was also talk of a meanwhile comical horror metaphor in the cantata about the death of the emperor.