3 minute read
Joseph Haydn 24
Jospeh Haydn
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Rosenbaum, the man behind the plan. Why’d he do it? To examine his friend’s genius-bumps, and frankly, to just have it, the skull,to keep in a pretty little display box he built for it. Johann Peter, Rosenbaum’s number two, a fellow phrenologist.Like any good second-in-command Brad-Pittto-George-Clooney heist buddy, Peter was at times all in on the plan,and at other times, paranoid.He did help Rosenbaum with the test head,in which they tried out the flesh-removing techniques they would later use on Haydn’s head.
The Gang’s
Doctor Leopold Eckhart, Rosenbaum’s friend, confidant, and later his scapegoat. When Dr. Eckhart learned of Rosenbaum’s plan,he was happy to provide medical facilities and expertise in the secret methods to dissect and macerate Haydn’s head.Jakob Demuth, a gravedigger at Hundsthurmer Cemetery Where Haydn was buried. With a plan in place, all he had to do was wait for Haydn to die. And die he did on May 31st, 1809.Demuth passed off the head. Rosenbaum handed off the head to Dr. Eckhart, who got to work cleaning all soft tissue.
All here
After almost a month, Haydn’s head was entirely bleached. All went well for the next 11 years. Rosenbaum, Peter, and Haydn’s head, settled into a well-to-do suburban bliss.That is, until Prince Nicholas Esterhazy got a case of the supposed-tos,as in; he was supposed to have given Haydn a proper funeral and burial. In order to move Haydn’s corpse to the Esterhazy family crypt, Haydn was exhumed. However, workers very quickly noticed that where Haydn’s head should have been, was only his wig.
A case of the Supposed-tos
Joseph Haydn was the greatest composer in Austria Circa 1809. At least he was until his death in May. His friend, Joseph Carl Rosenbaum really wants Haydn’s skull. Rosenbaum and many others believed that one could divine the source of a person’s genius by examining the size, shape, and bumps of the skull.Now, before Rosenbaum could go about feeling up Haydn’s head, he had to do some planning. It wasn’t all quite legal, but hey, it was 19th century Europe. Them be wild skull-stealing times.
Jospeh Haydn
Skull Switcharoo
Rosenbaum eventually turned in a head, but it was much younger. But the police found out, came again, leaving empty handed this time. But the Prince was not having it, and offered Rosenbaum a bribe to hand over Haydn’s head. So Rosenbaum relented, or so it seemed. He actually handed over another dummy skull. The Prince was happy, Rosenbaum was happy, and Haydn’s body went to burial with someone else’s head. Rosenbaum kept Haydn’s head for the rest of his life, willing it to Peter, who upon his death, gave it to the Society for the Friends of Music in Vienna. Haydn’s head sat on top of a piano, until the Esterhazy family got wind of this. Finally after years of negotiating, the Esterhazy family was allowed to rejoin Haydn’s head with his body in the Esterhazy crypt. The year was 1954, almost 150 years after Haydn’s death. But you know what they say, two heads are better than one. That dummy skull that Rosenbaum handed over, never got removed from the tomb, so to this day, Haydn’s tomb contains two skulls. And that deathlings, is the tale of Joseph Haydn, Iconic Corpse head.
Two heads, one tomb
Caitlin Doughty
Caitlin Doughty is a mortician, activist, and funeral industry rabble-rouser. In 2011 she founded the death acceptance collective The Order of the Good Death, which has spawned the death positive movement. Her books Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and From Here to Eternity were both New York Times bestsellers. She lives in Los Angeles, where she runs her funeral home, Clarity Funerals
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