Beethoven: From Bonn to Vienna

Beethoven was probably born in a tiny attic room of this house at Bonngasse 20 on 16 or 17 December 1770. It is the only Beethoven family home in Bonn still standing. The museum opened on 10 May 1893 and holds the largest Beethoven collection in the world. In November 1792 he left Bonn for good for Vienna, amid rumours of war spilling out of France, with help from Elector Maximilian Franz, who had named him court organist.

訪問のヒント: The house is a museum; check its website for opening hours.

From April to October 1802 Beethoven lived in Heiligenstadt, then a village outside Vienna, while coming to terms with his growing deafness. On 6 October he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament, a letter to his brothers Karl and Johann that records thoughts of suicide and his decision to go on for his art. He never sent it; it was found after his death, in March 1827. The Beethoven Museum on Probusgasse is where he wrote it and made the first sketches for the Eroica.

場所の精度: The pin marks Heiligenstadt in general; the Probusgasse museum is the house tied to the Testament.

訪問のヒント: The Beethoven Museum in Probusgasse is a short walk from the Heiligenstadt district centre.

Beethoven lived twice in the Pasqualati House on the Mölker Bastei, in 1804-08 and 1810-14, as a guest of his patron Pasqualati. His Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, Für Elise, the Archduke Trio and his only opera, Fidelio, were composed here. His own flat on the fourth floor is let to a tenant, so the memorial exhibition, designed in 1997, fills the flat next door.

訪問のヒント: The memorial apartment is on the fourth floor; check the Wien Museum for opening hours.

The Eroica Symphony premiered here on 7 April 1805, and Leonore, later named Fidelio, on 20 November 1805. Beethoven lived in rooms inside the theatre at Schikaneder's invitation while composing the opera. On 22 December 1808 the same stage gave the first performance of his Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, the Choral Fantasy and the Fourth Piano Concerto, in one concert.

訪問のヒント: The theatre is a working opera house; check its programme for performances.

Beethoven died on 26 March 1827, aged 56. About 10,000 people are estimated to have followed his funeral procession on 29 March, with Franz Schubert among the torchbearers. He was buried in the Währing cemetery and moved in 1888 to the Zentralfriedhof, to a grave next to Schubert's. Brahms, Salieri, Johann Strauss II and Schoenberg are buried there too.

訪問のヒント: The graves of honour lie near the main gate; the cemetery is large, so follow the signs.

The bronze statue on Münsterplatz was unveiled on 12 August 1845, for the 75th anniversary of his birth, at a festival attended by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Liszt played the Emperor Concerto there. Bonn put up the first Beethoven statue anywhere: Vienna, where he spent most of his life, did not get one until 1880.

訪問のヒント: The statue stands in the open on Münsterplatz in central Bonn.