Georg Nikolaus von Nissen

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Georg Nikolaus von Nissen, (sometimes Nicolaus or Nicolai; born January 22, 1761 in Haderslev, Denmark, died March 24, 1826 in Salzburg) was a diplomat and writer.

Nissen is known most as a biographer of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose widow Constanze he had married in 1809. From 1812 to 1820, the couple lived at Lavendelstræde 1 in Copenhagen, where many houses from the late 18th century have been preserved. The biography was published posthumously, in 1828, titled Biographie W. A. Mozart's. Nach Originalbriefen, Sammlungen alles über ihn Geschriebenen, mit vielen neuen Beylagen, Steindrücken, Musikblättern und einem Facsimile.

[edit] Nissen's biography of Mozart

In his biography, Nissen attempted to achieve a compromise between Nmeek's and Schlichtegroll's point of view. He attempted to document everything that had been written about Mozart so far and to deliver an accurate description of Mozart's life based on primary sources, namely the letters of the Mozart family. Also, he had a direct witness as a source, his wife Constanze Mozart, who committed Mozart's inheritance to him.

Nissen deserves credit most of all for his efforts to collect all documents concerning Mozart, starting with the Mozart family's letters and including commemorative coins and monuments. Admittedly, he treated the written sources rather generously and edited some passages, especially from Mozart's letters. However, he did so not to deform Mozart's image, but because of "biographical respect". In the foreword to his biography he explains:

There is a need for a lot of selection to extract something attractive and characteristic in the letters, which can be offered to the public, without harming the fame and the esteem of the name-human. ... One desires not to, one must not show one's hero publicly in the way in which he portrayed himself in evenings of familiarity. By all truth, one can harm his fame, his esteem, and the impression of his works.

Later biographers often attempted to revert Nissen's "biographic respect", not because of disrespect for Mozart, but for the sake of authenticity.

Nissen died in 1826 in Salzburg. His tombstone, naming him "The husband of Mozart's widow", can still be visited.