The Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany, is a memorial site, museum and cultural institution serving various purposes. Founded in 1889 by the Beethoven-Haus association, it studies the life and work of composer Ludwig van Beethoven.

The centrepiece of the Beethoven-Haus is Beethoven's birthplace at Bonngasse 20. This building houses the museum. The neighbouring buildings (Bonngasse 18 and 24 to 26) accommodate a research centre (Beethoven archive) comprising a collection, a library and publishing house, and a chamber music hall. Here, music lovers and experts from all over the world can meet and share their ideas. The Beethoven-Haus is financed by the Beethoven-Haus association and by means of public funds.

Entrance

The house at Bonngasse 20 (formerly: 515) featuring a baroque stone facade was erected around 1700 on an older cellar vault. It is one of the few remaining middle-class houses from the era of the prince elector. Back then it was in the neighbourhood preferred by the employees of the courts, in the heart of the town between the castle, the town hall with the market square and the banks of the Rhine River. Today, this is a pedestrian precinct with the Bonn Beethoven Hall and the opera close by. In the first half of the 19th century an additional, somewhat smaller, timbered house was built on the property behind the house. Five families temporarily lived in the multi-storey front and back buildings. Three tailors and one shoemaker also had their shops here. In 1836 the entrance door was widened and replaced with a gate entrance. After the back part of the house was identified as Beethoven's birthplace around 1840 by Beethoven's friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler, a physician, and Carl Moritz Kneisel, a teacher, the new owner opened a restaurant on the ground floor in 1873 with the name Beethoven’s Geburtshaus (Beethoven's birthplace). A beer and concert hall was added in the yard in 1887. In 1888 a grocery merchant bought the house but sold it a year later. The Beethoven Haus association, founded in 1889 to preserve the house, spared the house from demolition. The following years were characterised by renovation and remodelling works to turn the house into a memorial site. At the time, major parts of the building were still as they had been in the second half of the 18th century. In order to preserve spacious museum rooms, the floor plans of the main house were changed and an office for the association, plus a library and a flat for the janitor were installed. Construction changes in Beethoven's flat were limited to the stairs and the passageways to the front building. The inner yard was decorated with trellises and sandstone slabs, and a garden replaced the place where the beer hall had been. It has not been remodelled since. In order to preserve the character of Beethoven's birthplace in its contemporary environment and to protect the building, the association bought the neighbouring house number 22 in 1893. After installing a fire protection wall, the building was sold again. In 1907 house number 18 "Im Mohren" was bought to extend the property. At first it was used as an apartment building. In 1927 the newly founded Beethoven archive moved in. In the mid-1930s both houses were extensively renovated. The Beethoven-Haus survived both World Wars almost unscathed. In the Second World War, Senior Building Officer Theodor Wildemann, later serving as the association's chairman, in his role as Deputy Provincial Curator, made sure that the collection was brought to an underground shelter near Siegen (Sauerland), thereby avoiding any war-related losses or damages. During a bombing of the Bonn city centre on the 18th October 1944, a fire bomb fell on the roof of Beethoven's birthplace. Due to the help of janitors Heinrich Hasselbach and Wildemans, who were later awarded the German Federal Cross of Merit, as well as Dr. Franz Rademacher from the Rhenish National Museum, the bomb did not cause a disaster. The damages were repaired in the early 1950s. In the late 1960s, the third renovation took place. For the fourth, basic renovation of the buildings from 1994 to 1996 the Beethoven-Haus was awarded the Europa Nostra award for cultural heritage (awarded since 1978) in 1998 as the first institution in Germany.

In January 2003 the Deutsche Post AG issued a stamp featuring the Beethoven-Haus. The stamp belongs to the definitive stamp series "Sights".

Flats of the Beethoven family

In 1767, court singer Johann van Beethoven (1740–1792) moved into the garden wing of the house at Bonngasse 20 after marrying Maria Magdalena Keverich (1746–1787) from Koblenz/Ehrenbreitstein. Johann's father, bandmaster Ludwig van Beethoven (1712–1773), the composer's grandfather, moved into a flat located in the house diagonally opposite. The front building was the residence of the court musician Philipp Salomon and his family. His son Johann Peter Salomon, a later friend of Joseph Haydn, would later become important for Beethoven as well. The ground floor of the Beethovens' flat accommodated a kitchen and a utility room with a cellar. The first floor housed two smaller and a somewhat larger room for the family. It was probably in one of the tiny attic chambers that Ludwig van Beethoven was born on 16 or 17 December 1770 and baptised in St. Remigius on 17 December 1770. The child was named after his grandfather Ludwig van Beethoven (1712–1773), a reputable court bandmaster, singer and wine merchant, who was also his godfather. The baptism celebration took place in the neighbouring house Im Mohren at the residence of Beethoven's godmother Anna Gertrud Baum, née Müller. The family grew quickly. However, out of the seven children only Ludwig and two brothers survived: Kaspar Anton Karl (1774–1815) and Nikolaus Johann (1776–1848). Around 1774 the Beethoven family moved into the house Zum Walfisch owned by baker Fischer at Rheingasse no. 24. Ludwig van Beethoven's father and grandfather had temporarily lived here, too. The family made its living by working for the Court. From 1784 onwards even the young Beethoven joined the court orchestra. Father and son also gave private music lessons to the families of noble Court officials. During the years in Bonn friendships with noble and bourgeois families were established such as the widow of Court Counsellor von Breuning and her children Stephan, Christoph, Eleonore and Lorenz, the family of violinist Fran Anton Ries and with Franz Gerhard Wegeler. Many of these friendships lasted a lifelong and had a far greater impact on Beethoven's education than the few years he spent at school. In 1785 the family moved to Wenzelgasse 25. Of all the residences of the Beethoven family, the only one that remains today is Beethoven's birthplace at Bonngasse.