The sponsors, therefore, were Beethoven’s grandfather the chapelmaster, and the wife of the next-door neighbor, Johann Baum, secretary at the electoral cellar. The custom obtaining at the time in the Catholic Rhine country not to postpone the baptism beyond 24 hours after the birth of a child, it is in the highest degree probable that Beethoven was born on December 16, 1770.[13]
Of several certificates of baptism the following is copied in full for the sake of a remark upon it written by the master’s own hand:
Department de Rhin et Moselle
Mairie de Bonn.
Extrait du Registre de Naissances de la Paroisse de St. Remy à Bonn.
Anno millesimo septingentesimo septuagesimo, de decima septima Decembris baptizatus est Ludovicus. Parentes D: Joannes van Beethoven et Helena[14] Keverichs, conjuges. Patrini, D: Ludovicus van Beethoven et Gertrudis Müllers dicta Baums.
Pour extrait conforme
délivré à la Mairie de Bonn.
Bonn le 2 Juin, 1810.
[Signatures and official seals.]
On the back of this paper Beethoven wrote:
1772
“Es scheint der Taufschein nicht richtig, da noch ein Ludwig vor mir. Eine Baumgarten war glaube ich mein Pathe.
Ludwig van Beethoven.” [15]