Important Beethoven manuscript comes to Bonn

Recording of the ceremony on 7 January

Keynote speech by Jörg Widmann on Beethoven's string quartet b major op. 130

The autograph manuscript of a complete movement from Beethoven's String Quartet in B flat major opus 130, composed in 1825, has found its way to Bonn 200 years after it was written. It will be officially received in the Beethoven-Haus on Tuesday at a ceremony attended by Ina Brandes MdL, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and Mar-kus Hilgert, Secretary General of the Kulturstiftung der Länder. The composer Jörg Widmann will give the keynote speech. At the Beethoven-Haus, the manuscript completes the world-famous collection, which has the largest and most varied collection of Beethoveniana in the world. ‘We are very happy that we were able to acquire the last known large Beethoven manuscript, which was still in private hands, for our collection,’ says the delighted vio-linist, author and producer Daniel Hope, President of the cultural institution in Bonn. ‘The manuscript is not only one of Beethoven's most famous string quartets. It is also Beethoven's only handwritten source for the movement, which was unfortunately under lock and key for decades. How wonderful that I can receive it today and that it can be made accessible to the music world again.’

The purchase was made possible by a concerted campaign of public and private supporters. In addition to the Kulturstiftung der Länder, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the NRW-Stiftung, the Kunststiftung NRW, the Berthold Leibinger-Stiftung as well as committed private donors and the Beethoven-Haus Foundation were involved.

The autograph of the 4th movement Alla Danza tedesca (German-style dance) from Beethoven's late string quartet in B flat major opus 130 ideally complements the existing collection. These include several music manuscripts which, like the most recent acquisition, were once owned by the Viennese lawyer and collector Heinrich Steger and are now being reunited in their entirety in Bonn. In addition, the Beethoven-Haus preserves and researches important sources specifically on the late string quartets and on Beethoven's late works in general. This opens up completely new approaches for research into the creative process.

The path that the manuscript travelled until it found its way into the Beethoven-Haus reads like a detective story and bears witness to an eventful history of expropriation and restitution: the manuscript had probably been in the hands of the Petschek family in Aussig (Czech Republic) since the 1920s. As Jews, the Petscheks were persecuted by the Nazis and left their homeland in 1938. Their furniture, valuables and art collection were confiscated by the Nazi authorities. When the German authorities began to realise the art collection in 1942, the head of the music collection of the Moravian Museum in Brno, who was called in as an expert, managed to secure the manuscript for the museum. After the war, the Petschek family searched for the manuscript - initially without success. When it was finally found, the communist government of what was then Czechoslovakia refused to hand over the autograph. In 2022, it was restituted to the Petschek descendants, who agreed to sell the manuscript to the Beethoven-Haus at the end of 2024 and make it permanently accessible to the public and researchers once again.

The manuscript is now being stored in the Beethoven-Haus under optimal conservation conditions and, like the museum's other holdings, is to be integrated into the digital archive. It will be scientifically catalogued and publicly accessible online for everyone worldwide. From June to August 2025, it will be the subject of a special exhibition and on 17 December 2025 it will be the subject of the traditional Baptism Day Concert in the Beethoven-Haus.

Voices on the purchase:

Prof Dr Markus Hilgert, Secretary General of the Kulturstiftung der Länder:
‘It fills me with great joy that this unique original manuscript by Beethoven, an important cultural heritage of mankind, will now be preserved, researched and made accessible to the public and researchers at the Beethoven-Haus, the world's leading Beethoven centre. The Kulturstiftung der Länder has supported the acquisition with great conviction.’

Ina Brandes MdL, Minister for Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia:
‘The National Socialists brought great suffering to the Petschek family. In the course of Aryanisation, the Jewish family was expelled from their home and expropriated - the Beethoven manuscript was also lost. I am all the more touched that the descendants personally brought the music manuscript back to Germany. The Beethoven-Haus will honour this treasure. It is our responsibility to show the music manuscript to the public and make it accessible to researchers all over the world.’

Malte Boecker, Director of the Beethoven-Haus:
‘For the Beethoven-Haus, this is the most significant acquisition of the past decade in terms of musicology and social policy. It took us a year and a half to forge the financing alliance. I would like to thank all private and public supporters who have made this highlight in our work possible.’

Dr Julia Ronge, curator of the Beethoven-Haus:
‘This autograph manuscript is a unique document with lasting public significance both for Beethoven's late work and for Germany's recent history. I am grateful that the Petschek descendants, despite their family history, have decided to leave this treasure to a German institution.’

Prof Jörg Widmann, composer, conductor and clarinettist:
‘How wonderful that the Beethoven-Haus was able to acquire the manuscript of Beethoven's Alla danza tedesca! For me, Beethoven's String Quartet opus 130 is the string quartet of all string quartets anyway. The rhythmically highly complex, bulky and spiky Al-la danza tedesca movement has always played a huge role for me. This movement forms the basis of my own 8th string quartet, which is why I am all the more pleased to know that this movement is now in good hands at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.’

On behalf of the 16 German federal states, the Cultural Foundation of the Federal States develops, promotes and supports initiatives and projects in the fields of art and culture that are significant for the whole of Germany and are realised in cooperation with several partners. The Cultural Foundation of the Federal States emphasises the social significance of culture. It understands culture as the entirety of cultural expressions - material and immaterial - that people create in dialogue with their environment in order to express ideas and values and to determine their place in this world. The Kulturstiftung der Länder aims to increase the cultural participation of as many people as possible. Its most important tasks include the acquisition, preservation, documentation, presentation and communication of cultural assets. Would you like to find out more? Visit us at www.kulturstiftung.de and on social media X (formerly Twitter) @LaenderKultur, Bluesky @laenderkultur.bsky.social, Facebook ‘Kulturstiftung der Länder’, Instagram @kulturstiftungderlaender, Linkedin and YouTube ‘Kulturstiftung der Länder’. You can find the podcasts of the Kulturstiftung der Länder on Spotify and iTunes.