Ludwig van Beethoven (born December 17, 1770 – March 26, 1827) was a German classical composer. He plays an important role in the transition from the classical music era to the romantic music era. Beethoven is universally recognized as the greatest, most famous and influential composer of many later composers and songwriters. The house in the ancient city of Bonn is the place where the famous composer Beethoven once lived.

Ludwig van Beethoven

The house where Beethoven was born

Ludwig van Beethoven was born in 1770 in the small house at 20 Bonngasse Street, Bonn, not far from the river Rhein. This is also the place that witnessed his growth, his playing music and the process of his composing works.

Bonn ancient city, where Beethoven was born

The 18th-century house is today known as the Beethoven Museum in Bonn (German for Beethoven-Haus Bonn). It is a lovely small wooden house, in which the outside is with red and blue alternating, inside there are more than a dozen function rooms. The baroque stone facade of the house is built over cellars dating from the 12th or 13th centuries. The ground floor has a kitchen and a utility room. The bedrooms are in the attic.

The house where Beethoven is at number 20, Bonngasse Street, Bonn

Since the Mid-19th Century, the house at Bonngasse 20 has undergone many ups and downs. After the main door was significantly widened in 1836, a restaurant called “Beethoven's Geburtshaus” (Beethoven's Birthplace) was opened on the ground floor in 1873. In 1888 a merchant took over the house, but then put it up for sale in 1889.

The house became the museum

The Bonn City Government was not interested in buying the house, so in 1889 the Beethoven-Haus Society was founded with the aim to buy and turn the house into a memorial site for the composer. Most of the building remains the same as before. The galleries in the Beethoven house are arranged in ordinal numbers from 1 to 12.

It now stores more than 150 documents and original texts related to his entire creative life, including the times when he lived in Bonn and in Vienna. The museum was opened on May 10, 1893, during the Second Chamber Music Festival.

In addition to ongoing renovations, the first major restoration of the house was carried out in the mid-1930s. This restoration includes the house next door “Im Mohren”, which was converted into the Beethoven Archives. In the late 1960s, this house underwent the second and third major restoration from 1994 to 1996. Today, the museum is spread over both two houses.

The museum displays many works related to the composer Beethoven such as music discs composed by him, his autographs, musical instruments, figurines, and pictures of him.

The museum displays works about Beethoven

Beethoven Haus is easily accessed by road from the main station. If you take the tram or a bus, you can stop at the nearby Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz stop. If you go by car, you can park at the city's parking lots such as: Stiftsgarage, Marktgarage or Friedensplatzgarage.

Tags: Beethoven house Bonn Germany, Beethoven house museum, Beethoven birth house, Beethoven house museum in Germany, German history, German culture, German famous composer, travel Germany