See the Beethoven-Haus Director's Choice

Blue tails and white scarf - Beethoven is rarely seen so elegantly. With his short hairstyle, which is based on antique models, he is strictly republican in the spirit of the French Revolution. Court and wig are ad acta. Beethoven reaches for the stars. The new emancipated world can come.

This completely unknown letter to Beethoven's Bonn childhood friend recently turned up at an auction. The content is particularly intriguing: Beethoven dreams that one day all people will be treated equally. "when will also come the time when there will only be people"? This utopia has haunted him since Bonn; in the 9th Symphony he sets a musical monument to it!

For five days in January 1777, the Bonn castle burned to the ground. 15 people died, among them the Hofrat von Breuning, whose widow took great care of Beethoven. The castle was one of the largest complexes in Europe. The six-year-old Beethoven witnessed the fire. An impressive sign of the transience of the power of his elector!

With these worth hearing variations on a march by Ernst Christoph Dressler, the eleven-year-old Beethoven impressed his teacher Christian Gottlob Neefe so much that he had the work printed and prophesied: "This young genius will certainly become a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart!

Nothing occupies Beethoven lovers as much as the search for the "immortal beloved". Whoever believes that Beethoven never loved or was never loved is definitely wrong. Beethoven was "never without a love and was usually highly moved by it", as his childhood friend Wegeler reported. In this respect, we will probably never clarify who is the lady on this ivory miniature that was found in Beethoven's estate.

Beethoven found it difficult to deal with his everyday correspondence. How often did he apologize for not coming to write. At this desk, he struggled with it. After all, 1800 letters have survived. In a secret compartment of the desk, one later found love letters, miniature portraits and bank shares. A piece of furniture with a secret!

Countess Deym von Stritetz is one of the most important women in Beethoven's life. He gave her piano lessons and wrote her increasingly passionate letters, which are kept in the Beethoven House. In this letter, too, he affirms his love: "Long - long - lasting - may our love become - it is so noble - so much based on mutual respect and friendship". It is very likely that Beethoven had written the letter to his immortal beloved for Josephine.

Hardly anyone knows that Beethoven began as an organist and violist. Beethoven played this instrument at a young age as a member of the Bonn court chapel. When the French occupied the Rhineland and forced Beethoven to remain in Vienna, Beethoven's viola was kept by the Franz Anton Ries family, Beethoven's violin teacher and himself a member of the court chapel. The instrument is still occasionally played today. Beethoven also heard

Beethoven left no music behind, only musical notes. And every work that Beethoven wrote down first went through a quill. Beastly, huh?

The grand piano with the dedication "L.v. Beethofen" was lent to Beethoven in 1826 by the "imperial: king: court fortepianist" Conrad Graf and returned to him after Beethoven's death in 1827. The four-choir arrangement is striking: instead of the usual 3 strings, 4 strings are stretched to achieve a higher volume of sound. It makes every pianist itch to play Beethoven's last instrument. But the historical instrument is no longer in a playable condition.

Beethoven took pleasure in this figure. By the way, the Roman depicted on this bust is not the murderer of Julius Caesar. Lucius Brutus lived as early as 500 B.C. He was the first consul of Rome and managed the transition from monarchy to republic - in keeping with Beethoven's ideals.