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The rooms overlooked the back garden, and it was in one of these rooms on the first floor that Ludwig was born, probably on 16th December 1770. The exact date of his birth is not known. The records show he was baptised in the church of St Remigius on 17th December, and it was usual for baptisms to take place within 24 hours of birth. Although considered something of an outpost of the Holy Roman Empire, Bonn was by no means a backwater. It was the seat of the Elector of Cologne and Münster - in Beethoven's formative years, Maximilian Franz, son of the Emperor and brother of the ill-fated Marie Antoinette.
The Beethoven family moved several times in Bonn, but the house in which Ludwig grew up was owned by the Fischer family in the Rheingasse. The Beethoven family rented an apartment on the second floor. The house was very close to the river, and fell victim to the great flood of 1784: Frau Beethoven escaped across the rooftops with her three small children.
Steeped in Rhine legend, a mythic dragon inhabited a cave halfway up the rock, to which it lured young maidens to their death.
The young Beethoven, with the love of nature which he retained all his life, would walk along the banks of the Rhine and take the ferry to the opposite bank, to climb the Drachenfels. Stretching away from the river lay the hill range known as the Siebengebirge - the seven mountains created, according to Rhine legend, by dwarves digging lakes with giant spades and throwing the earth over their shoulders. Here the young Beethoven would walk for hours on end - sometimes worrying his parents by his long absences - developing his love for nature. On the site of the Fischer house there now stands an unremarkable hotel, named the Beethoven hotel! Apart from the name, there is nothing in it - no pictures or mementoes - to connect it to its namesake.
At the unveiling in August 1845, a stand was erected on the building behind the statue for the VIP guests, who included Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. When the sheet was pulled off the statue, it was found to be facing away from the guests - to the embarrassment of local officials! The building behind it was then the Hungarian ambassador's residence. Today it is the main Post Office. The house in which the Breuning family lived in the Münsterplatz, and which the young Beethoven knew so well, is today a modern supermarket.
It was restored in the late 20th
century, and is now wonderfully evocative. It contains many artefacts,
including the fine set of stringed instruments given to Beethoven by
Prince Lichnowsky, and which he bequeathed to his doctor, Doktor
Schmidt, in the Heiligenstadt Testament. Next door to the birth house there stands today the offices of the Beethoven-Archiv. This is the most important research centre into Beethoven's life and work. It houses a priceless collection of autograph manuscripts, as well as the life mask taken by Franz Klein in 1812.
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© John Suchet |
After
they married, Johann and Maria Magdalena van Beethoven lived in rented
rooms at the back of a small house owned by Herr Clasen, a lace maker,
in the Bonngasse.
There
was an attic room in the house with a telescope. Beethoven would spend
hours looking through it upriver to the Drachenfels, the Dragon rock,
which still stands massively on the opposite bank. 
One
particular maiden wore round her neck a cross. She held it up to the
dragon, who reared up and plunged off the rock into the waters of the
Rhine.
A
superb statue of Beethoven stands in the Münsterplatz. It was created
by the sculptor Ernst Julius Hähnel after a long campaign by Franz
Liszt, who was instrumental in raising funds.
The house in which Beethoven was born was bought by
the city in the late 19th century.
The small room at the back with sloping ceiling in
which Beethoven was born stands
empty today, except for a bust of him on
a pedestal. A cord prevents entry.
