The Bonn Beethoven House is a research centre dealing with the composer’s life and work and houses the world’s most comprehensive Beethoven collection, while large scale reproductions help educate about the composer’s life. The exhibition places particular focus on Beethoven’s period in Bonn which exerted a decisive influence on him as he grew up: his father and teachers were members of the local orchestra, Archduke Maximillian Franz, archduke-elector of Cologne was one of his first patrons and Beethoven also became an orchestral member. It was in Bonn that he first met with his subsequent teacher in Vienna, Joseph Haydn.

One of Beethoven’s most important and best known works is the Ninth Symphony with its famous last movement setting of Schiller’s Ode to Joy. The exhibition presents the origins of the work and displays documents of its world premiere.