Beethoven Monument (Bonn Rheinaue)

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Beethoven seated sculpture in Bonn's Rheinaue (2013)

The Beethoven monument in Bonn's Rheinaue commemorates the city's most famous son, the composer Ludwig van Beethoven . It is a seated sculpture by the sculptor Peter Christian Breuer . It stands as a monument under monument protection .

history

The seated Beethoven goes back to a design by Peter Christian Breuer for a large Berlin Beethoven monument. Friedrich Diederich, a long-time colleague of Breuer, executed the figure of Beethoven in granite . It was only after Breuer's death in 1938 that this sculpture was put up at the Alter Zoll in Bonn. In 1949, however, it was removed again, and it was not until 1977 that the decision was made to present the figure to the public again. Since then, it has been in the Rheinaue leisure park, where it is a little off the sidewalk in the immediate vicinity of an excursion restaurant.

In the Beethoven-Haus digital archive it says about the history of the monument:

“As early as 1916, when Breuer exhibited his first models for a Beethoven monument in Berlin, the public's reactions were very different. On the one hand, Breuer's figure met with violent rejection, especially since it was compared with Max Klinger's sculpture. Breuer's design was often classified as a second-rate imitation, although the two monuments differ fundamentally in their approach and style. "
“On the other hand, Breuer's concept was rapturously praised and admired among art critics and Beethoven admirers. In the 1920s this admiration experienced a particular climax. During this time, the supporters of Breuer's design came together in a group of sponsors who called for donations and actively sought to finance the monument project. After the Berlin project broke up, the activities of this group concentrated on a display of the sculpture in Bonn. It would be years before their endeavors were finally crowned with success. As the necessary funds were first approached to the Reich Propaganda Minister and later directly to Adolf Hitler, the project was declared a 'Reichssache'. For the population, Breuer's 'Eternity Monument' had now become a 'national monument'. "

See also

Web links

Commons : Beethoven Monument Rheinaue (Bonn)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

literature

  • Helmut Hellberg: The untimely monument - On the history of the Beethoven monument in the Rheinaue. In: Bonner Geschichtsblätter. ISSN  0068-0052 , volume 36.
  • Josef Niesen : Bonn monuments and their builders. Königswinter 2013, p. 72 ff.

Individual evidence

  1. List of monuments of the city of Bonn (as of March 15, 2019), p. 38, number A 4063
  2. ^ Beethoven House Bonn: 1926–1938 The Beethoven Monument by Peter Christian Breuer ; see also the previous article Beethoven-Haus Bonn: 1926 The project for a Beethoven monument in Berlin
  3. ^ Beethoven House Bonn: Sublime, curious or modern - Beethoven monuments of the 19th and 20th centuries

Coordinates: 50 ° 42 ′ 39.9 ″  N , 7 ° 8 ′ 27 ″  E