Museum

The museum at Ludwig van Beethoven's birth place is one of the most frequented music museums worldwide and one of the 100 most popular sights in Germany. Since December 17, 2019, the museum has been hosting a new and enlarged permanent exhibition. It provides a new approach to experiencing Beethoven as an artist and fellow human being in a modern, inspiring and exciting way. New rooms are the vault with manuscripts, a music room for regular concerts on historic keyboards and a special area for temporary exhibitions.

The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Last entry at 5.30 p.m.

Beethoven's birthplace is closed very rarely: New Year's Day, the Thursday and the Monday preceding Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, from 24 to 26 December, New Year's Eve.

The Beethoven-Haus (Bonngasse 20 und 24-26) is situated in the centre of Bonn on the edge of the pedestrian zone, not far from the river Rhine.
Bonngasse is within easy walking distance of the main station. Trams and buses stop at the nearby Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz, where taxis can also be found. The city car parks offer parking facilities: the closest are Stiftsgarage, Marktgarage and Friedensplatzgarage.

Width: 50°44'12.67"N
Lenght: 7° 6'4.50"E

Tram: 62, 65, 66 and 67
Bus: 529, 537, 540, 550, 551, 600, 601, 602, 603, 604, 605, 606, 607, 608, 609, 640
Stop: Bertha-von-Suttner-Platz / Beethoven-Haus

Prices 

• Adults: € 10
• Reduced admission for individual visitors
• Reduced admission for registered groups

Tickets:

• Beethoven-Haus, Bonngasse 21, opposite the entrance of the museum
  
• Online booking

Guided tours:

• A free media guide for the permanent exhibition is provided with the ticket for each visitor. The media guide is available in several foreign languages: English, Spanish, Chinese or Japanese.
• Individual visitors and groups may also choose from various paid guided tours.

Museum concerts:

• On many weekends visitors can listen to "Music in Beethoven's time" on historical keyboard instruments. Pianists explain the special features of the instruments. The concerts last 40 minutes and take place on fixed dates on Fridays and Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 11 a.m. in the music room of the museum. Tickets for 5 Euro (plus admission to the museum) can be bought in the Beethoven-Haus shop (always from Monday before the concert). These concerts are for individual visitors of the museum only.

The house at Bonngasse 20, where composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770, is one of the few remaining houses in Bonn built in the 18th century. Its baroque stone facade was erected over cellars dating back to the 12th or 13th century. The ground floor accommodated a kitchen and a utility room, underneath which was a cellar. On the first floor, there were two smaller rooms and a somewhat larger room. The bedrooms were in the attic.

Beethoven's parents, electoral court singer Johann van Beethoven and his wife Maria Magdalena, née Keverich, moved into the garden wing in November 1767. Other electoral court musicians lived nearby, among them Johann Peter Salomon in the front building, electoral court musical director Ludwig van Beethoven (grandfather) opposite of the street and hornist Nikolaus Simrock.

In 1774 the Beethoven family left their first house and moved to a place at the Auf dem Dreieck square. From 1776 on they lived for ten years with interruptions at Rheingasse in a house known as "Zum Walfisch", the so-called Fischer house, and from 1787 onwards at Wenzelgasse. None of the later Beethoven houses has survived.

The building in the 19th and 20th century

On stepping into the inner courtyard, the historical atmosphere takes visitors back to Beethoven's times. A tour through the twelve rooms in the Museum afford deeper insight into the life and work of the great composer. Over 200 original exhibits reflect Beethoven's thoughts and emotions, work and influence.

Our temporary exhibitions cover exciting topics on Beethoven, the historical background or reception history. The Beethoven-Haus has around three temporary exhibitions a year, often in cooperation with other museums and collections. Many of them are accompanied by books or catalogues.

Temporary exhibition
Future exhibitions
Past exhibitions

The manuscripts, pictures, musical instruments and mementos displayed in the exhibitions form the core of the museum's collection. In the early years following the foundation of the Beethoven-Haus Association in 1889, important items such as Beethoven's last pianoforte (an instrument made by the Viennese piano manufacturer Conrad Graf), or the original manuscript of the "Moonlight" sonata and the "Pastoral" symphony were acquired. Today it is the largest and most diverse Beethoven collection in the world. It includes manuscripts, letters, pictures, busts, coins and medallions, musical instruments, furniture and everyday items used by Beethoven. The museum's collection is complemented by the library's holdings.

The collection is kept in a safe, built with conservation requirements in mind, which is under the stage in the chamber music hall. Many performers feel particularly inspired by this architectural symbolism.

Most of the Beethoven collection has been digitised. In the Digital Archives it is available to everyone. There are also catalogues for additional research.