Ludwig van Beethoven, Büste mit weiblicher Gestalt - Reproduktion einer Zeichnung von Fidus

Hugo Reinhold Karl Johann Höppener, who gave himself the pseudonym "Fidus", was a typical exponent of the reform movement during the beginning of the 20th century. Not only did he work as an artist, but he also became a leading figure of the German reform youth and bird-of-passage movement.

The wish to create alternatives to the power of the established occidental churches and Christianity was an important aspect of his art, which was supposed to reform the entire philosophy of life of the modern world. This was the basic approach for Fidus to create various drafts of temples, which were meant to glorify the extraordinary performances and results of the occidental culture.

His draft for a "Beethoven temple" created in 1911-1912 is to be seen in this sense, too. But this temple is an exception from all of those kinds of projects of Fidus, since it is the only building which is designed in honor of an historic person. The composer was to be honored by a monument, a rotunda with cupolas on top and in the centre was to stand his larger than life sculpture. Fidus had worked on the design of this Beethoven sculpture for a long time already. The first drawing of Beethoven's head was created in 1900 already and later on it was to be integrated in the temple. A nude, female figure can be seen in front of the composer, which should probably embody the human soul. Several notes of the artist in his temple draft explain, how Fidus himself saw his Beethoven project. It says for example: "The Titan head, dark as basalt, affronts the azure roof light, which seems to trickle down the dark purple cupola in blue comets with golden kernels. Stars drop into purple devotional cups, in which they begin to glow, behind the marble song to joy".

As many other temple drafts of Fidus, also this "Beethoven temple" remained a draft only - never has the project been completed in the building of an architecture.(S.B.)