Beethoven Monument (Bonn Münsterplatz)
The Beethoven monument on Münsterplatz in Bonn commemorates the city's most famous son, the composer Ludwig van Beethoven . The 19th century monument is one of the city's landmarks and a popular photo opportunity for tourists. It is a listed building as a monument .
history
The monument was designed by Ernst Hähnel and executed by the sculptor and ore caster Jacob Daniel Burgschmiet . The unveiling ceremony took place on August 12, 1845, to commemorate Beethoven's 75th birthday and on the occasion of the first Beethoven Festival.
A reporter from back then proudly lists the illustrious personalities who took part in the Beethoven celebration, including Friedrich Wilhelm IV and his “most illustrious wife” as well as Her Majesty, the ruling Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Ireland and her husband, Prince Albert of Saxony -Coburg-Gotha, out:
“ The highlight of the festival, ” he writes, “ was without a doubt the inauguration ceremony for the beautiful Beethoven monument on Münsterplatz. After the high mass in the Münster , at which Beethoven's Missa Nro I (in C) was also heard, the unveiling of the monument took place, which had been artistically made according to the designs by the Dresden sculptor Hähnel and the foundryman Burgschmiet from Nuremberg. At eleven o'clock, Her Majesties were received to the ringing of bells and cheers. In the royal box, richly adorned with red velvet and gold, they approved and signed the document, which was sunk into the base of the statue in a leaden, hermetically sealed capsule and walled up. Professor Breidenstein gave the celebratory address, during which, at the appropriate point, the covering shell of the monument suddenly sank as if by magic, and the highly successful artistic structure in surprising perfection and almost magically lit up by the first rays of sun of that day, the expectant Glances showed. "
The unveiling ceremony was accompanied by a festival that lasted several days and was directed by Franz Liszt . Liszt contributed the enormous sum of 2,666 thalers to the total cost of the monument of 13,000 thalers. The first Beethoven Hall was created as the venue .
For a long time, the Hähnel monument was an undisputed landmark of the city of Bonn. Especially on the hundredth anniversary of the composer's death, it was decorated with flowers and a portrait of van Beethoven and made the focus of the celebrations. The protectorate of the 21. – 31. May 1927, the Beethoven Days were held by Reich President Paul von Hindenburg and Austrian Federal President Michael Hainisch .
Base of the monument
In the base of the monument, Hähnel created allegorical representations of the various types of music that Beethoven composed.
The relief on the front represents the “fantasy”. The supporting figure is a Greek sphinx with a woman's head and breast and a lion's body, guided upwards by a muse playing lyre .
The panel on the left shows “Spiritual Music” embodied by St. Cecilia , the patroness of church music . This relief refers to Beethoven's masses (C major Mass, Opus 86 and “ Missa solemnis ”).
A source says about the relief on the back: “ It symbolizes 'The Symphony', here the 'Eroica' par excellence. In the middle Euterpe , the muse of the art of music, laurel-wreathed uplifting the lyre. The four geniuses floating around them characterize the four movements of the symphony : at the top left a putti- genius with the sword, symbol of the 1st movement (Allegro con brio). However, it is not Napoleon 's sword of war , which Beethoven first revered as a liberator, but later despised as a tyrant , but the sword of the spirit that separates power and humanity. - Lower left the 2nd movement (funeral march). A boy turns the torch of life downwards, a snake wraps around his arm with a fatal bite. - 3rd movement above right, Scherzo . Joy overcoming sadness, the smiling genius holds the castanets in one hand , in the other he wields the Dionysian thyrsos stick with the pine apple , symbol of fertility and delighted joie de vivre. - The 4th movement at the bottom right, Allegro molto. The genius swings a triangle , symbol of sounding cheerfulness and relaxed jubilation. "
Finally, the right base relief symbolizes the dramatic music, memories of “ Egmont ” and “ Coriolan ”, but above all of the opera, for which Beethoven wrote four overtures alone , in a female figure with a mask on her lap and a larva turned back on her head : " Fidelio ".
front view
back
Reception of the monument
Since the memorial is right in front of Bonn's main post office, the Bonn vernacular says about the depicted Beethoven on the pedestal, "He is the postmaster of Bonn" .
literature
- Josef Niesen : Bonn monuments and their builders, Verlag Edition Lempertz, Bonn 2013, ISBN 978-3-943883-52-7 .
See also
Web links
- Beethoven-Haus Bonn: sublime, curious or modern - Beethoven monuments of the 19th and 20th centuries
Individual evidence
- ↑ List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), number A 1253
- ↑ Städtische Sparkasse Bonn: Bonner Nachrichten 1844–1969. 125 years of the Städtische Sparkasse zu Bonn , Bonn 1969, p. 5
- ^ Lina Ramann : Franz Liszt as artist and man , Volume 2, Part 1, Leipzig 1887, p. 253
- ↑ Walther Neft: Torchlight procession for the statue through the decorated city - the Beethoven monument was inaugurated 140 years ago , in Ernst Lindenroth: Bonn in the mirror of the centuries. A collection of local history newspaper articles , Bonn 1992
Coordinates: 50 ° 44 ′ 4.2 ″ N , 7 ° 5 ′ 56.9 ″ E