The Beethoven House () in Bonn, Germany, is a memorial site, museum, and cultural institution serving various purposes. Founded in 1889 by the Beethoven-Haus association, it studies the life and work of composer Ludwig van Beethoven.
The centrepiece of the Beethoven-Haus is Beethoven's birthplace at Bonngasse 20. This building houses the museum. The neighbouring buildings (Bonngasse 18 and 24 to 26) accommodate a research centre (Beethoven archive) comprising a collection, a library and publishing house, and a chamber music hall. Here, music lovers and experts from all over the world can meet and share their ideas. The Beethoven-Haus is financed by the Beethoven-Haus association and by means of public funds.
History of Bonngasse 20
18th century The house at Bonngasse 20 (formerly: 515) featuring a baroque stone facade was erected around 1700 on an older cellar vault. It is one of the few remaining middle class houses from the era of the prince elector. Back then it was in the neighbourhood preferred by the employees of the courts, in the heart of the town between the castle, the town hall with the market square and the banks of the Rhine River. This is currently a pedestrian precinct close to Bonn Beethoven Hall and the opera close.
19th century In the first half of the 19th century, an additional, somewhat smaller, timbered house was built on the property behind the house. Five families temporarily lived in the multi-storey front and back buildings. Three tailors and one shoemaker also had their shops here. In 1836 the entrance door was widened and replaced with a gate entrance. After the back part of the house was identified as Beethoven's birthplace around 1840 by Beethoven's friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler, a physician, and Carl Moritz Kneisel, a teacher, the new owner opened a restaurant on the ground floor in 1873 with the name Beethoven's Geburtshaus (Beethoven's birthplace). A beer and concert hall was added in the yard in 1887. In 1888 a grocery merchant bought the house but sold it a year later. The Beethoven Haus association, founded in 1889 to preserve the house, spared the house from demolition. The following years were characterised by renovation and remodelling works to turn the house into a memorial site. At the time, major parts of the building were still as they had been in the second half of the 18th century. In order to preserve spacious museum rooms, the floor plans of the main house were changed and an office for the association, plus a library and a flat for the janitor were installed. Construction changes in Beethoven's flat were limited to the stairs and the passageways to the front building. The inner yard was decorated with trellises and sandstone slabs, and a garden replaced the place where the beer hall had been. It has not been remodelled since. In order to preserve the character of Beethoven's birthplace in its contemporary environment and to protect the building, the association bought the neighbouring house number 22 in 1893. After installing a fire protection wall, the building was sold again.
20th century In 1907, house number 18 was bought to extend the property. This house is one of the oldest, still present 18th-century buildings in Bonn. Gertrud Baum, Ludwig van Beethoven's godmother, lived here with her family. Beethoven's baptism is said to have taken place here on 17 December 1770. In the middle of the 19th century, the house accommodated a store for colonial goods. Around that time, the figure on the front and the byname "Im Mohren" (to the blackamoor) appeared for the first time. The figure features the ideas of the 19th century. It combines the attributes of different subdued peoples: The dark skin colour and feather ornaments and pipe refers to the indigenous nations of Central- and South Africa and North America. In the course of the colonial history during the 19th century the term "blackamoor" became a negative stereotype at the latest due to enslavement and colonialism and cannot be separated from this context historically. At first used as an apartment building, in 1927 the newly founded Beethoven archive moved in Bonngasse 18. In the mid-1930s both houses were extensively renovated.Theodor Wildeman: Die Instandsetzung von Beethovens Geburtshaus und der Umbau des Beethovenarchivs in Bonn in den Jahren 1935–37. 1938, p. 540–545. Both buildings including its front were declared a historic monument in 1985.
The Beethoven-Haus survived both World Wars almost unscathed. In World War II, senior building officer Theodor Wildemann, who later served as the association's chairman, in made sure that the collection was brought to an underground shelter near Siegen, avoiding any war-related losses or damages. During a bombing of Bonn's city centre on 18 October 1944, a fire bomb fell on the roof of Beethoven's birthplace. Due to the help of janitors Heinrich Hasselbach and Wildemans, who were later awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit, and Dr. Franz Rademacher from the Rhenish National Museum, the bomb did not cause a disaster.Ortwin Wildeman: Das Beethovenhaus Bonn am 11. Mai 1945. 2001, p. 491–498. The damages were repaired in the early 1950s. In the late 1960s, the third renovation took place. For the fourth, basic renovation of the buildings from 1994 to 1996 the Beethoven-Haus was awarded the Europa Nostra award for cultural heritage (awarded since 1978) in 1998 as the first institution in Germany.Arbeitskreis selbständiger Kulturinstitute (ed.): Kulturberichte. 2/1999, p. 36 [on the occasion of prize awards on 3 September 1999]Bonner Rundschau, 29 January 1999Rheinische Heimatpflege 37, 2000, p. 154.
21st century In January 2003, the Deutsche Post AG issued a stamp featuring the Beethoven-Haus. The stamp belongs to the definitive stamp series "Sights".
Flats of the Beethoven family In 1767, court singer Johann van Beethoven (1740–1792) moved into the garden wing of the house at Bonngasse 20 after marrying Maria Magdalena Keverich (1746–1787) from Koblenz/Ehrenbreitstein.Joseph Schmidt-Görg: Beethoven. 1964, Margot Wetzstein: Familie Beethoven im kurfürstlichen Bonn. 2006, p. 31ff. Johann's father, bandmaster Ludwig van Beethoven (1712–1773), the composer's grandfather, moved into a flat located in the house diagonally opposite. The front building was the residence of the court musician Philipp Salomon and his family. His son Johann Peter Salomon, a later friend of Joseph Haydn, would later become important for Beethoven as well. The ground floor of the Beethovens' flat accommodated a kitchen and a utility room with a cellar. The first floor housed two smaller and a somewhat larger room for the family.
It was probably in one of the tiny attic chambers that Ludwig van Beethoven was born on 16 or 17 December 1770 and baptised in St. Remigius on 17 December 1770. The child was named after his grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven (1712–1773), a reputable court bandmaster, singer and wine merchant, who was also his godfather. The baptism celebration took place in the neighbouring house Im Mohren at the residence of Beethoven's godmother Anna Gertrud Baum, née Müller. The family grew quickly. However, out of the seven children only Ludwig and two brothers survived: Kaspar Anton Karl (1774–1815) and Nikolaus Johann (1776–1848). Around 1774 the Beethoven family moved into the house Zum Walfisch owned by baker Fischer at Rheingasse no. 24. Ludwig van Beethoven's father and grandfather had temporarily lived here, too.Silke Bettermann u. a.: Von der Bonngasse ins Schwarzspanierhaus. 2005, p. 43ff.Margot Wetzstein: Familie Beethoven im kurfürstlichen Bonn. 2006, pp. 27, 37–51, 151. The family made its living by working for the Court.
From 1784 onwards, even the young Beethoven joined the court orchestra, Beethoven and his father gave private music lessons to the families of noble Court officials. During his time in Bonn, friendships with noble and bourgeois families were established such as the widow of Court Counsellor von Breuning and her children Stephan, Christoph, Eleonore, and Lorenz, the family of violinist Fran Anton Ries and with Franz Gerhard Wegeler. Many of these friendships lasted a lifelong and had a far greater impact on Beethoven's education than the few years he spent at school. In 1785 the family moved to Wenzelgasse 25. Of all the residences of the Beethoven family, the only one that remains today is Beethoven's birthplace at Bonngasse.Silke Bettermann u. a.: Von der Bonngasse ins Schwarzspanierhaus. 2005, p. 46ff.
The museum The museum was opened on 10 May 1893 during the second chamber music festival. It was extended several times. Today, it houses the largest Beethoven collection in the world.
Museum building The museum includes two formerly separate buildings: the front building and the annex toward the garden where the composer spent the first years of his life. When setting up the buildings as a museum, they were connected. The rambling rooms with their low ceilings, the creaking stairs in the back building and the wooden floors in the listed building of the 18th century convey an impression of the living conditions of that time.
Permanent exhibition
In the 20th century, the permanent exhibition was renewed several times. The original concept focused on a reconstruction of the house and on the display of a lot of items. When the rooms and the exhibition were refurbished and updated the last time in 1995 and 1996, the idea was to give visitors the opportunity to experience a step back in time when viewing the 150 exhibits from the proprietary collection of the Beethoven Haus.Andreas Eckhardt: The / Das / La Beethoven-Haus Bonn. 2008, p. 23. Portraits, manuscripts, sheet music printouts, instruments and items of everyday life give an insight into Beethoven's life and work.Michael Ladenburger et al.: Das Ensemble Beethoven-Haus. 2008, p. 9–14. For Beethoven's 250th birthday in 2020, the exhibition was extended and renovated.Bernhard Hartmann: "Das Museum sucht die Nähe zum Publikum", in: Bonner General-Anzeiger, 22 February 2019, p. 9. Opened on 17 December 2019, the design by the Holzer Kobler architect firm and Studio TheGreenEyl and Lichtvision Design gave visitors a fully updated form of the permanent exhibition. They reorganized the exhibition and replaced the chronological structure with a thematic one. Multimedia installations complemented the displayed objects and the house itself became an exhibition piece through the choice of color and the exhibition pieces themselves that were chosen wisely for every room.
On display are the baptism entry in the register of St. Remigius, the poster announcing Beethoven's first public performance in Cologne in 1778, the first printed composition from 1783 and a portrait of Beethoven's grandfather. Paintings of Beethoven's employers Elector Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels and Elector Maximilian Franz from Austria as well as his official viola illustrate Beethoven's activity as a member of the Bonn court band. The room connecting the buildings shows the historic console of the organ that once stood in St. Remigius' Church (former Minoriten church) and that Beethoven regularly played since he was ten years old. The console was given to the Beethoven-Haus when the church was reconstructed in 1904.