BTHVN2020

Highlights of the Beethoven anniversary year

Statue of Ludwig van Beethoven in front of the Beethovenhalle in Bonn (Copyright: Beethovenfest)

Entwurf für eine Info-Stele zum Projekt "Beethoven-Story" (Büro Müller-Rieger)

A new attraction for Beethoven pilgrims planned in Bonn

A series of informational panels is to mark the most important stations in Beethoven's life.

Title page of the brochure to the Beethoven Pastoral Project with Beethoven at brookside and a cloudy sky (Beethoven-Haus Bonn und solarseven/Shutterstock.co)

How Beethoven incites climate activism

In the "Beethoven Pastoral Project", the composer is placed in the service of climate protection.

More than just a walk in the park: Beethoven's Pastoral

Dirk Kaftan - Generalmusikdirektor der Stadt Bonn (Thilo Beu)

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03:35 mins.

Lifestyle | 17.11.2017

Beethoven to save the planet

The Campus Project 2017

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11:49 mins.

Culture | 20.09.2017

German-Ukrainian campus ends with shows in Bonn and Berlin

Ovations for the soloists of the evening: Tobias Feldmann, Konstantin Manaev and Kateryna Titova together with conductor Oksana Lyniv

Beethoven and DW bring young musicians together

From a rehearsal during the Campus concert of Beethovenfest and Deutsche Welle (Barbara Frommann)

Ukrainian composer fuses Lviv's subculture with Beethoven

The Beethovenfest 2017

Beethovenfest 2017 | "Trois grandes Fugues" mit dem Ballet de l'Opera de Lyon | de Keersmaeker (Opera de Lyon/Bertrand Stofleth)

Dancing the fugue at the Beethovenfest

The Lyon Opera ballet company thrilled audiences with mit Beethoven's "Great Fugue" – set to dance.

Portrait of Beethoven (picture-alliance/akg-images)

The many women in Beethoven's life

That the famous composer didn't pour all his passion into his music is proven by his many loves.

Beethoven anniversary page

Everything about the great German composer Ludwig van Beethoven, whose 250th birthday will be celebrated in 2020.

1804 portrait of Beethoven by Willibrord Joseph Mahler, Copright: picture-alliance/akg

10 things you didn't know about Beethoven

Was he really a grouch? Who was his secret lover? There are still many mysteries surrounding the famous composer.

More from the Campus Project

New Ukrainian youth orchestra brings country together

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Viva la Musica – Beethoven and Mexico

Campuskonzert der DW und des Beethovenfests (Beethovenfest/B. Frommann)

More from the Campus Project

Zulan modernizes ancient Mongolian musical traditions

Mongolian composer Zulan, Copyright: DW/A. Feilcke

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Charistimatic, but tempermental

A serious look, slightly grim face and a lion's mane: images of Ludwig van Beethoven have imprinted themselves into the collective imagination arguably moreso than any other composer. Yet, it's mainly the late portraits that have shaped today's notions of the revolutionary, combative and difficult artist.

Ludwig van Beethoven in 1803 - a portrait by Christian Hornemann

From revolutionary to pop idol

A shooting star in Vienna

Forceful, yet with a hint of smile, a young Beethoven looks out at the viewer in this painting from 1803. By that time, he had already attracted some of the most influential music patrons of the Viennese aristocracy.

'Ludwig van Beethoven plays at Lichnowsky,' painting by Julius Schmid

From revolutionary to pop idol

Visiting the prince

Prince Carl von Lichnowsky was one of Beethoven's first supporters, with whom he later had a falling-out. In this picture by Julius Schmid from 1900, "Beethoven plays at Lichnowsky," the dispute between the prince and the composer seems to be already underway.

Ludwig van Beethoven refuses to bow to the prince in Teplitz in 1812

From revolutionary to pop idol

Proud and confident

Beethoven not only met Goethe in Teplitz, Bohemia, in 1812, but a legendary and scandalous snub also took place: While the poet bowed reverently before the prince, composer Beethoven walked right by him with his head held high. That, at least, is the way Carl Rohling imagined the revolutionary scene.

Portrait of Ludwig Van Beethoven, with the temple of Apollo in the background, by Willibrord Joseph Mähler, 1804
Copyright: Picture-alliance

From revolutionary to pop idol

Revolutionary composer

Beethoven was not only enthused by the ideas of the French Revolution, but also by new methods of composition. Here, in this image by Willibrord Joseph Mähler from 1804, he seems to be giving expression to them with a wide, sweeping gesture.

Portrait of Beethoven with musical score behind him, by Joseph Karl Stieler

From revolutionary to pop idol

The original

There's no doubt that Beethoven was one of the most popular artists of his time - which the countless portraits of him demonstrate. One of the best known is this image created by Joseph Karl Stieler in 1820.

Beethoven, blue in the face: that's the way Andy Warhol reworked Stieler's image,1987
Copyright: AP/The Andy Warhol Museum

From revolutionary to pop idol

Going pop

Compared to other artists, Stieler portrayed Beethoven less realistically, but instead, in a more idealized fashion. Later, the painting was used as a template for engravings in which the contours became even more pronounced. It is surely no coincidence that Andy Warhol chose this image for his own renditions.

Stieler's Beethoven portrait as graffiti near Bonn's Beethovenhaus
Copyright: Tamta Jijavadze

From revolutionary to pop idol

Sprayed on

Bonn - Beethoven's birthplace - is also home to several variations of Stieler's image: as a stone sculpture in front of the Beethoven Hall, sometimes - especially during the Beethovenfest in September - as a painting on the pavement, or as graffiti on a wall - such as here near the Beethoven House, where the composer was born.

Beethoven composing - Heliotype, colored, based on a paiting, around 1890, by Carl Schlösser

From revolutionary to pop idol

Wrestling with each note

The fact that Beethoven did not make it easy on himself while composing was something the music world learned only after his death in 1827. Descriptions by his contemporaries who saw him at work surely influenced the romantic image of the maestro, who worked relentlessly and uncompromisingly in search of musical perfection.

Ludwig v. Beethoven, as depicted by Hermann Torggler
Copyright: ullstein bild - Lombard

From revolutionary to pop idol

Genius and mania

Contemporaries marveled at Beethoven's works of genius. Subsequent generations of composers, however, were intimidated by them - and afraid they could not live up to Beethoven's standard. This image by Hermann Torggler from 1902 shows the composer in almost demonic fashion - created based on the composer's death mask.

Beethoven at the piano, shown as a comic
Copyright: DW-TV

From revolutionary to pop idol

The pop idol

Hardly a composer today is as famous the world over as Ludwig van Beethoven - thanks in no small part to his piano piece "Für Elise." His life has been rendered in film several times, and has even been turned into cartoons and comics.