Wieck, Friedrich

PIANO TEACHER, VOCAL TEACHER (HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE)
BORN 18 Aug 1785, Pretzsch (near Wittenberg) - DIED 6 Oct 1873, Dresden, Sachsen: Loschwitz
GRAVE LOCATION Dresden, Sachsen: Trinitatisfriedhof, Fiedlerstraße 1, Johannstadt-Nord (IV S)

Son of a merchant, who was not musically interested himself, but allowed his son to visit the Thomasschule in Leipzig. But he became ill and had to returned home. He was sent to a ymnasium in Thorgau, but secretly practized music, taking lessons with Milchmeyer. Because his parents wanted him to he went to study theology in Wittenburg in 1804.

He became a teacher at the house of Christian Adolph von Seckendorff and there he met Adolf Bargiel, who worked there as a piano teacher. They became friends. By 1817 Wieck had started selling piano's and Bargiel had become a violinist at the Gewandhausorchester in Leipzig. Thier friendship ended after his first wife Marianne left him and married Bargiel in 1825.

Marianne Tromlitz was his first piano student and after their marriage she played for customers and also at concerts. But soon he stopped her from making public appearances and concentrated his teaching efforts on their young daughter Clara.

Friedrich Wieck became a well known piano teacher. In 1824 Marianne left him, but after a few months young Clara was returned to him. Wieck married Clementine Fechner on 3 Jul 1828.

In August of that year Robert Schumann started taking lessons with Wieck. He asked for Clara's hand in 1837, but Wieck refused. Schumann ran off with Clara and obtained permission from the court to marry her in 1840. In 1843 Clara was reconciled with her father.

Hans von Bülow was a further student of Wieck.

Family
• Daughter: Schumann, Clara
• Wife: Fechner, Clementine (1828-)

Related persons
• visited Beethoven, Ludwig van
• was teacher of Bülow, Hans von
• met Pleyel-Moke, Marie Félicité
• was teacher of Schumann, Robert
• travelled with Stein, Matthäus Andreas
• was teacher of Wasielewski, Alma von

Events
12/5/1824Clara Wieck's mother Mariana leaves her husband Friedrich Wieck [Schumann, Clara]
17/9/1824Clara Wieck returns to her father. Her mother had left her father in May and she had spent the summer with her mother. But she came into the custody of her father because she was five years old now. [Schumann, Clara]
27/10/1824Clara Wieck starts piano lessons by her father Friedrich Wieck [Schumann, Clara]
3/7/1828Friedrich Wieck marries Clementine Fechner. He had divorced his first wife Mariane Tromlitz in 1825. [Schumann, Clara]
0/8/1828Robert Schumann starts his piano lessons under Friedrich Wieck [Schumann, Clara][Schumann, Robert]
11/5/1829Robert Schumann leaves Friedrich Wieck to go to Heidelberg [Schumann, Robert]
20/10/1830Robert Schumann returns to Friedrich Wieck to continue his piano studies [Schumann, Robert]
25/11/1830Clara Wieck starts a concert tour together with her father [Schumann, Clara]
0/1/1831Clara Wieck and her father return from their concert tour [Schumann, Clara]
25/9/1831Clara Wieck starts a concert tour in Paris. She was in the presence of her father Friedrich Wieck. [Schumann, Clara]
1/5/1832Clara Wieck returns from her concert tour in Paris [Schumann, Clara]
21/4/1834Ernestine von Fricken starts to study with Friedrich Wieck. She stayed under his roof to do so. 
25/11/1835First kiss between Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck. Friedrich Wieck would take his daughter to Dresden in January 1836 to keep her away from Schumann. [Schumann, Clara][Schumann, Robert]
7/2/1836Secret meeting between Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck in Dresden. Clara's father Friedrich Wieck disapproved of their meetings and thus they met in secret. The meeting lasted until 11 February 1836. [Schumann, Clara][Schumann, Robert]
13/9/1837Robert Schumann asks Friedrich Wieck for Clara's hand. He did this on her eighteenth birthday, but Friedrich Wieck refused his daughter permission to marry Schumann. [Schumann, Clara][Schumann, Robert]
8/1/1839Clara Wieck leaves for Paris without her father Friedrich Wieck [Schumann, Clara]
1/8/1840Legal permission for the marriage between Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck is granted. The Court of Appeal allowed them to marry. Before that Clara's father Friedrich Wieck had stopped the marriage. [Schumann, Clara][Schumann, Robert]
27/2/1841Friedrich Wieck returns her piano to his daughter Clara [Schumann, Clara]
0/2/1843Clara Schumann visits her father Friedrich Wieck for reconciliation [Schumann, Clara]

Images

The grave of Friedrich Wieck at the Trinitatisfriedhof, Dresden.
Picture by Androom (28 Aug 2005)

 

The house of Friedrich Wieck at what is now called the Wieckstrasse (number 10) in Loschwitz, Dresden.
Picture by Androom (08 Aug 2016)

 

Sources
Clara Schumann Chronology, Internet, 1996
Encyclopedie van de Muziek, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1959


Wieland, Christoph Martin

Published: 01 Jan 2006
Last update: 02 Jul 2022