Did he die at 35??? Ugh, that's bad
Dude was basically a 18th century equivalent of a rockstar. He was lucky to make it past 28.
yeah. my pet theory is that focusing on "what illness killed him" ignores the very obvious sequence of events leading up to his death. Mozart spent a substantial period of time impoverished. being impoverished is very bad for your health and makes common diseases deadlier. Mozart was killed by an economic system that values that values killing in the Austro-Turkish war more than it values the arts
The information in the German and the English Wikipedia articles are quite different in that regard:
The theory of the "impoverished genius of Mozart" dates back to the Romantic period. Every biographer tried to "make Mozart even poorer". The cliché of the "poor Mozart" is still widespread, especially among the general public, while more recent research rejects it. Mozart was certainly not rich compared to a count or prince, but he was rich compared to the other members of his class, the fourth class of citizens.
By today's standards, Mozart was a high earner, yet he was often in financial difficulties due to his lifestyle. According to his own account, he received "at least 1,000 florins" for an engagement as a pianist (for comparison: he paid his maid one florin per month). Together with his piano lessons, for which he charged two guilders each, and his income from concerts and performances, he had an annual income of around 10,000 guilders, which corresponds to around 125,000 euros in today's purchasing power. Nevertheless, the money was not enough for his lavish lifestyle, so he often asked others, such as Johann Michael Puchberg, a friend of the lodge, for money. He lived in large flats and employed a lot of staff, and he also had a passion for card and billiard games, which could have caused him to lose large sums of money. According to the inventory of his estate, the most valuable single item in his legacy was not the numerous valuable books or musical instruments in his possession, but his expensive clothing. Mozart did not die in poverty, as he still had credit and even had a loan of 500 florins outstanding with Anton Stadler. His billiard table, which was a luxurious status symbol at the time, bears witness to Mozart's very high standard of living in 1791.
