HAYDN’S SKULL

Southland Times, Issue 21428, 24 June 1931, Page 10

HAYDN’S SKULL

STOLEN FROM THE GRAVE. Austria will next year solemnize the 200th birthday of Haydn, whose remains were buried at the Church of Mount Calvary, at little Eisenstadt, the historic capital of the Burgenland province, eleven years after his death. Haydn lived and worked at Eisenstadt as the conductor of Prince Eszterhazy. The corpse of the great composer was interred without his head, and the town of Eisenstadt now demands Haydn's skull back from the Vienna Society of Music Lovers, in whose possession it is. The story of Haydn’s head is romantic. A week after his burial it was stolen from the grave, Johann Peter, the administrator of a prison, and Prince Eszterhazy’s secretary, Rosenbaum, having bribed the gravedigger. In 1820 the police took the matter in hand and interrogated Rosenbaum, who gave them another skull which was placed in the coffin.

On his death-bed Rosenbaum revealed the secret to his friend, Peter, giving him the genuine relic, and asking him to give it to the Vienna Society of Music Lovers. Peter, however, passed the skull on to Dr. Haller, his physician, who presented it to the University professor, Rokitansky. Finall ythe professor’s heirs handed it over to the Vienna Society.