Bonn was the seat of the Prince-Archbishops of Cologne, ex-officio one of the eight Electors of the Holy Roman Empire and temporal ruler of one of the weightier principalities in the German-speaking lands. Its location on the Rhine, Europe’s great thoroughfare, and not far from France and the Netherlands helped to ensure that it was no cultural backwater. During Beethoven’s youth the electoral court maintained a corps of musicians which ranked with the largest of such establishments – larger than those, for example, in Salzburg or Eszterháza.

Beethoven’s father and grandfather had been among their number, and Beethoven himself may well have been content to have settled into lifelong electoral service, his Olympian talents nurtured by the security of a salaried existence. But the French Revolution and subsequent conquest of the Rhineland eliminated that possibility. The study visit he made to Vienna at the age of 22 became a lifelong exile.

Maybe distance made the heart grow fonder, but his letters suggest he had the warmest memories of his home town and enduring affection for his Bonn friends and some (not all) of his family.

Bonn’s honourable cultural history contributed to its choice as the temporary (as was expected at the time) seat of government of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1947. Despite the accumulation of parliamentary paraphernalia, government buildings and embassies it never shed its provincial, small-town feel, hence the notorious epithet, ‘a small town in Germany’. Then in the 1990s Berlin became the German capital again. The spectre of empty ministries, boarded-up shops and urban decay loomed, but such was the assiduity of the city fathers and the generosity of central government that employment has actually risen and cultural amenities much enhanced.

Most of the major museums and art galleries reopened in rebuilt or refurbished buildings after the loss of capital status. The annual International Beethoven Festival is a major event, featuring world-class orchestras and artists from around the world. 

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