Bonn, Wenzelgasse, Wohnung der Familie Beethoven - Anonyme Fotografie, angefertigt während der Abrissarbeiten, Bonn, 1928

In 1785 and from about 1787 until November 1792 the Beethoven family lived in a small half-timbered house. Up until 1928 it could still be found behind the building at Wenzelgasse 25. It was the composer's last domicile in Bonn before he moved to Vienna. He returned to this house after his first journey to Vienna, and it was here that his mother Maria Magdalena died on 17 July 1787. The earliest surviving letter written by Beethoven was drafted here, in which the young composer informed the Augsburg lawyer Baron von Schaden of his mother's death: "I found my mother still alive, but in the most wretched condition. She was suffering from consumption and in the end she died about seven weeks ago after enduring great pain and agony. She was such a good, kind mother to me, and indeed my best friend. Oh! who was happier than I, when I could still utter the sweet name of mother and it was heard and answered; and to whom can I say it now? To the dumb likenesses of her which my imagination fashions for me?" (from the translation by Emily Anderson, 1961).(S.B.)