The house "Im Mohren"

Just like Beethoven's birthplace this house is one of the oldest 18th century buildings in Bonn. Among other inhabitants Ludwig van Beethoven's godmother, Gertrud Baum, and his youth-time friend, Franz Gerhard Wegeler, called it their home. In 1907 the Beethoven-Haus Association acquired the building and in 1927 the newly founded Beethoven Archive moved in. Between 2005 and 2019 the Digital Beethoven-Haus was located on the ground floor and basement in the back part of the building.

The name of the house can be found in official records by the mid-19th century already and stems supposedly from a shop for colonial goods. A panel attached to the building gives the following brief summary of the building's history and explains the design of the front from today's perspective:

This listed property is one of the oldest 18th century buildings which still exist in Bonn. Among its inhabitants were Gertrud Baum, Ludwig van Beethoven's godmother, and his boyhood friend Franz Gerhard Wegeler. After Beethoven's time in Bonn the house was later occupied by a merchant of spices and colonial goods. The house mark figure with its tobacco barrel and pipe has been on the facade of the building since at least the middle of the 19th century and the inscription "Im Mohren" also dates back to that time. The man is depicted with dark brown skin and dark curly hair and is scantily clad with a loincloth and feathered headdress, uniting different stereotypes used at that time to depict Black people. The word "Mohr" (Moor), originally taken from the name of the North African Moors, had since the late 18th century come to be used also to describe people from more southerly regions of Africa. In time the word took on an increasingly derogatory meaning and therefore does have racist connotations. The figure and the inscription on the facade of the building serve thus to remind us of the ideologically based conception of man as was prevalent in those days. Against this background and in the light of current discussions we see ourselves as being encouraged and compelled to contribute to a critical debate regarding the history of the building and all forms of discrimination and structural racism whether past or present.