14: Timeline of Events in the Novel

1883 Zeitblom born in Kaisersaschern on the Saale (II).

1885 Leverkühn born in Oberweiler near Weissenfels (III).

1893 Schoolmaster Michelsen becomes private tutor of Leverkühn (V).

1895 Leverkühn enters Boniface Gymnasium in Kaisersaschern (V).

1899 or 1900 Leverkühn starts taking private music lessons from Wendell Kretzschmar (VII).

1900–1901 Leverkühn attends Kretzschmar’s public lectures on music (VIII).

1901 Zeitblom begins studies at Jena (XI).

1902 Zeitblom moves to the University of Giessen (IX).

1903–05 Zeitblom and Leverkühn reunited in Halle, where Zeitblom studies classical philology and Leverkühn theology (II).

1905 Leverkühn moves to Leipzig to begin formal studies of music with Kretzschmar. Zeitblom begins military service in Naumburg (XV). Leverkühn’s first encounter with the prostitute Esmeralda (XVI).

1906 Leverkühn travels to Pressburg in search of Esmeralda and sleeps with her, contracting syphilis and initiating devil’s pact (XIX). Zeitblom moves to Leipzig to resume his studies (XVIII).

1906–1910 Leverkühn composes song cycles on Mediterranean themes as well as on poems by Brentano. Further compositions include several piano pieces, a concerto for string orchestra, and a quartet for flute, clarinet, corno di bassetto, and bassoon (XX–XXI).

1908–1909 Zeitblom travels to Greece (XVIII). First public performance of a composition by Leverkühn, the Phosphorescence of the Sea in Basel (XXI).

1909 Zeitblom starts teaching classical languages and history at Kaisersaschern (II).

1910 Zeitblom marries Helene Ölhafen. Leverkühn moves to Munich and formulates first ideas for a “strict style” (XXII).

1911 Leverkühn leaves Munich in June to spend a year in Italy with Rüdiger Schildknapp. They pass the summer in Palestrina, the winter in Rome (XXIV).

1912 Leverkühn moves from Rome to Palestrina in May before returning to Germany at the end of the summer. Conversation with the devil (XXV). Leverkühn finishes Love’s Labour’s Lost (XXVI). Zeitblom visits Leverkühn in Palestrina. Leverkühn takes up residence on the Schweigestill Farm in Pfeiffering. (XXVI).

1913 Zeitblom starts teaching classical languages and history at both the high school and the theological seminary in Freising (II). Leverkühn composes songs to poems by Blake and Keats, as well as “The Festival of Spring,” on a poem by Klopstock, in a setting for baritone, organ, and string orchestra (XXVII).

1914 First public performance of Love’s Labour’s Lost in Lübeck. Leverkühn composes orchestral fantasy Marvels of the Universe (XXVII). Zeitblom is called up for active duty and participates in invasion of France (XXI).

1915 Zeitblom contracts typhoid fever and is discharged from military, returning to his teaching post in Freising. Leverkühn composes Gesta Romanorum, an opera for puppets (XXX). Inez Rodde marries Dr. Helmut Institoris, despite being secretly in love with Rudi Schwerdtfeger (XXXII).

1918 Leverkühn and Zeitblom witness the end of the First World War, the November Revolution, and the birth of the Soviet council movement in Munich. Leverkühn suffers from intense migraines as a result of his syphilitic infection (XXXIV).

1919 Leverkühn recovers from his illness, writes the oratorio Apocalipsis cum figuris. First appearance of Frau von Tolna. Zeitblom and Leverkühn attend meetings of the “Kridwiss Circle” (XXXIV).

1920 First public performance of Marvels of the Universe in Weimar (XXXVI).

1921 First public performance of Gesta Romanorum in Donaueschingen (XXXVI).

1922 Suicide of Clarissa Rodde. First performance of the Brentano Songs in Zurich (XXXV).

1923 Saul Fitelberg visits Pfeiffering. (XXXVII). Birth of Nepomuk Schneidewein (Echo) (XLIV).

1924 Fragments of the Apocalipsis cum figuris first performed at a festival of the International Society for New Music in Prague. Leverkühn finishes his Violin Concerto (XXXVIII), which receives its first performance in Vienna, with Schwerdtfeger playing the solo part. Leverkühn and Schwerdtfeger visit Schloss Tolna in Hungary, where they commence an intimate relationship (XXXVI). In the closing days of the year, Leverkühn attends a performance of the concerto in Zurich, where he first meets Marie Godeau (XXXIX).

1925 The excursion to the Bavarian Alps (XL). Schwerdtfeger courts Marie Godeau on Leverkühn’s behalf, then becomes engaged to her himself (XLI). A vengeful Inez Rodde shoots Schwerdtfeger (XLII).

1926 Only complete public performance of Apocalipsis cum figuris at the festival of the International Society for New Music in Frankfurt am Main (XXXIV). Max Schweigestill and Jonathan Leverkühn both pass away in the week between Christmas and the New Year.

1927 Leverkühn’s “annus mirabilis.” Composes music for an ensemble of strings, woodwinds, and piano; a string quartet; and a trio for violin, viola, and cello. First plans for The Lamentation of Dr. Faustus (XLIII).

1928 Leverkühn’s nephew Nepomuk Schneidewein (“Echo”) comes to Pfeiffering to recuperate from a case of the measles (XLIV). Leverkühn works on a musical setting of Ariel’s songs from The Tempest. Death of Nepomuk Schneidewein from cerebrospinal meningitis (XLV).

1929 Leverkühn begins composition of symphonic cantata The Lamentation of Dr. Faustus (XLVI).

1930 Leverkühn concludes composition of The Lamentation of Dr. Faustus and suffers paralytic stroke (XLVII). After three months in a sanatorium in Nymphenburg he returns to Pfeiffering, where he tries to drown himself in the Klammerweiher. Brought home to Buchel by his mother towards the end of the year (epilogue).

1934 Zeitblom retires from his teaching position in Freising following the ascent of the Nazis (I).

1939 Final meeting between Leverkühn and Zeitblom (epilogue).

1940 Death of Leverkühn (I).

1943 Zeitblom begins composition of Doctor Faustus (I).

1945 Zeitblom concludes composition of Doctor Faustus (epilogue).