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Anton Schindler, a vioiinist and the discredited early biographer of Beethoven, was born in Moravia on 13 June 1795.
As Beethoven's associate and secretary for a number of years, Schindler had access to Beethoven's conversation books, and his inconsistent and highly romanticised Biographie von Ludwig van Beethoven was first published in 1840. Scholars have since claimed that Schindler exaggerated the length of time that he had been associated with the composer and that, after the composer's death, he had inserted spurious entries into and even destroyed many of the conversation books.
Schindler, who died in Frankfurt on 16 January 1864, is credited with associating 'fate knocking' with the first four notes of Beethoven's Symphony No 5.