The long journey of a Beethoven manuscript

Special exhibition
Winding paths
The long journey of the Danza tedesca from Beethoven's String Quartet Op. 130
3 September 2025 to 11 January 2026

In January 2025, a significant new acquisition was added to the Beethoven-Haus collection: the original manuscript of the fourth movement of Beethoven's String Quartet in B flat major, Op. 130, Alla danza tedesca. The museum's new special exhibition now presents this valuable manuscript to a wider public. However, it is not just a matter of making the manuscript accessible, as Julia Ronge, curator of the Beethoven-Haus, explains. 'The Danza tedesca is linked to a very remarkable story of expropriation and ultimate restitution, which we would like to tell in this special exhibition.'

A little over two years ago, descendants of the Jewish industrialist family Petschek unexpectedly contacted the Beethoven House. The family was looking for a suitable place to store the autograph of the Danza tedesca, which was in their possession. The transfer of the manuscript to the Beethoven-Haus marked the end of a long journey for the manuscript: the family, who originally came from Aussig (Sudetenland), had once fled from the Nazis. Their remaining possessions, including the Beethoven autograph, were confiscated.

The transfer of the manuscript to the Beethoven-Haus marked the end of a long journey for the manuscript: the family, who originally came from Aussig (Sudetenland), had once fled from the Nazis. Their remaining possessions, including the Beethoven autograph, were confiscated.

It was not until 2022 that the manuscript was returned to the Petschek family from the Czech Republic – more than 80 years after it was first expropriated and after lengthy negotiations. But even before that, the manuscript had changed hands several times: Beethoven had given it to his friend Karl Holz, who passed it on to the violinist Joseph Hellmesberger, then to music-loving private individuals such as the Viennese lawyer Heinrich Steger, and finally to the Petschek family of entrepreneurs. The special exhibition traces the various stages in the manuscript's history.

'At the request of the family, the autograph should be kept in a place where it is accessible to scholars and the interested public. It is to the credit of the descendants that, despite their history, they considered an institution in Germany and entrusted their precious legacy to the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn,' said Malte Boecker, director of the Beethoven-Haus. And so the new acquisition now occupies the central place it deserves in the exhibition.

The exhibition can be viewed during the museum's opening hours:
Wednesday to Monday – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tickets are available in the Beethoven-Haus shop or via the Beethoven-Haus website www.beethoven.de.

Press photos can be downloaded here.

Contact
Ursula Timmer-Fontani 
Head of Corporate Communications 
Beethoven-Haus Bonn 
Tel. 0228 98175-16 
timmer-fontani@beethoven.de