Alan Dudley wrote:

>clerk ... behind the counter said
>
> "Did you know Bruckner was the last person ever to touch Beethoven?"
>
>When I confessed ignorance, he told me that when Beethoven's body was
>reburied in a more suitable final resting place, it was Bruckner who
>reverently (his word) placed the skull in the coffin before the lid was
>fastened.
>
>Is there any truth in any of this? Was Beethoven's body moved? If so, why?
>If so, from whence to whither? If so, did Bruckner have a hand in it?

Yes, in 1888 both Schubert and Beethoven were reinterred side-by-side at
the Zentralfriedhof (Central Cemetery) in Vienna where they remain today.
Bruckner was there at the reinterrment ceremony, but I can't find mention
of his actually touching either corpse.  Here's what Derek Watson says in
his 1975/1996 biography:

   He had an almost macabre interest in death, or more accurately, in
   corpses.  When Beethoven and Schubert were reinterred in a new burial
   place, he lost the glass from his pince-nez in his eagerness to catch
   a glimpse of the remains.  He is said to have hurried to the mortuary
   after a disastrous theater fire in 1881 to examine the victims'
   charred bodies, and earlier he had repeatedly requested the Horsching
   church authorities to let him have [Johann Baptist] Weiss's skull
   [Weiss was Bruckner's first music teacher].  In 1868 he wrote to
   Weinwurm after the assassination of the Emperor Maxmillian in Mexico...:

      ...At all costs I want to see the body of Maxmillian.  Please ...
      make enquiries ... whether it will be possible to view Maxmillian's
      body, i.e., in an open coffin, or under glass, or whether only
      the closed coffin will be visible.  Then please inform me by
      telegram so that I do not come too late.  I ask you most urgently
      for this information.  -Bruckner

For what it's worth, I've enjoyed reading Watson's biography (Schirmer),
though it is a rather shallow treatment, hitting the main points of his
life, addressing his character and relationships, and analyzing his major
works.  Until a better bio comes along (let's hope Solomon resists the
temptation to perform one of his remote psychoanalyses on Bruckner),
this one is highly recommendable.

Dave
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