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Date:         Tue, 21 Oct 1997 12:08:24 MET
From: Maarten Gelderman <mgelderman@ECON.VU.NL>
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To: Multiple recipients of list LATEX-L
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Subject:      Re: von v. van der
Status: R

On Monday, October 20, 1997 at 7:29:48 pm MET,
Phillip Helbig <helbig@MULTIVAC.JB.MAN.AC.UK> wrote:
>> like in von Beethoven, where the von is kind of equivalent to the English
>> `lord' (it also means `of' but if I do not err, Beethoven was not a von
>> Beethoven all of his life). I would prefer to find him underneath B.
>
>I believe it was actually `Ludwig van Beethoven' even though he was
>German, not Dutch.
>
>The German `von' is the normal word for `of' or `from' and carries
>aristocratic connotations in a name, just as `Reginald of Kent' does and
>Reginald Kent does not, especially if it is `Graf von' (`Count of') or
>something similar.
>
You are right. I always thought Beethoven was knighted at some moment in his
life, but I looked it up in the encyclopedia and it turned out that Van
Beethoven is a Flemmish (Belgium) family name. So, if my Belgium friends are
right, we should write Ludwig Van Beethoven.

Maarten
==========================================================================
Maarten Gelderman                            email:  mgelderman@econ.vu.nl
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam                 phone:  +31 20 444 6073
De Boelelaan 1105 room 3a-36                 fax     +31 20 444 6005
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The Netherlands