It is not certain who "Elise" was. Some scholars have
suggested she was Beethoven's fifth mistress, while
others have suggested that the discoverer of the piece,
Ludwig Nohl, may have transcribed the title incorrectly
and the original work may have been named "Für
Therese" (Therese being Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach
zu Dezza (1792?1851), a friend and student of
Beethoven's to whom he proposed in 1810 but she turned
down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official
Wilhelm von Droßdik i...(+)
It is not certain who "Elise" was. Some scholars have
suggested she was Beethoven's fifth mistress, while
others have suggested that the discoverer of the piece,
Ludwig Nohl, may have transcribed the title incorrectly
and the original work may have been named "Für
Therese" (Therese being Therese Malfatti von Rohrenbach
zu Dezza (1792?1851), a friend and student of
Beethoven's to whom he proposed in 1810 but she turned
down to marry the Austrian nobleman and state official
Wilhelm von Droßdik in 1816). ( From Wikipedia)