Germany Guide
North Rhine-Westphalia
Beethoven-Haus
Address: Bonngasse 20
Opening time: April– Oct Mon– Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 11am–6pm; Nov– March Mon– Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 11am–5pm
Price: €5
Website: www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de
The appealingly creaky Beethoven-Haus, where Ludwig van Beethoven was born in an attic room in 1770, stands a little north of the Markt. At the time, the city was the capital of the Electorate of Cologne, and Beethoven's father and grandfather had both been employed by the archbishop-electors as court musical director and court singer respectively. Beethoven's father had promoted him as a Mozart-like child prodigy in Bonn, and by his early teens, Ludwig was already working as a court musician. In 1787 he travelled to Vienna to have lessons with Mozart, and in 1792 returned there to study under Haydn. The dissolution of the Electorate two years later – and hence the disappearance of his court position – turned what had been a study trip into permanent exile. Pick up the English-language leaflet or an audio guide (€2) to get the most from the museum's displays, which include family portraits, a Broadwood piano identical to the one presented to Beethoven by its London maker in 1817 and the ear trumpets the composer used as his hearing steadily deteriorated. In the so-called Digitale Beethoven Haus next door (same ticket & hours) you can use workstations to carry out Beethoven-related internet and intranet searches or experience a twenty-minute 3D multimedia presentation of scenes from Fidelio.