Beethoven Museum Heiligenstadt is a fascinating, modern, deeply touching, and very informative, new museum in Heiligenstadt, in Vienna´s 19th district, dedicated to the famous composer Ludwig van Beethoven. In 1787, the German musical genius left Bonn and came to Vienna to study music with Mozart and made the city his home from 1792 onward. His life and work are inseparably bound to Vienna, and especially to the Probusgasse 6 in Heiligenstadt.
It´s here where the composer lived in his 40 sq. metre apartment. It´s here where he wrote the Heiligenstadt Testament, a gloomy letter addressed but never sent to his brother in which he expressed his despair about his proceeding deafness. At the same time, it´s here, in the Probusgasse 6 where he worked on some of his most important works, including the Piano Sonata Op. 31, No.2 (“The Tempest”), the “Prometheus” Variations, Op. 35, the oratorio “Christ on the Mount of Olives” and the first sketches of the Third Symphony (“Eroica”).
In Beethoven´s times, the Heiligenstadt was an independent village known for its wine farms and mineral-rich, warm public baths (located in present-day Heiligenstädter Park). Beethoven moved here to be close to both the healing mineral bath and the Vienna Woods, as he loved nature and hiking and hoped to curate his growing deafness.
Now, the Beethoven Museum Heiligenstadt puts on display many objects from the composer´s life, including some curious and bizarre ones. Since 1875, items relevant to Beethoven’s life have been collected as historical objects in this place, and in the year 2017, the original 40 square meter apartment of Beethoven was extended to 265 square meters to become the Beethoven Museum. Since then it has been able to attract more and more historical and cultural tourists coming to Vienna.
The exhibition consists of 14 rooms which display the various aspects of Beethoven’s life in this place, including his composing work, performing, moneymaking, as well as his life in Heiligenstadt, his love of nature, and the history of the house itself. The greatest of all exhibits are arguably hearing stations that can simulate the worsening hearing abilities of Beethoven. The piano is equipped with sound amplifiers that helped Beethoven listen properly.
Without exaggeration, the Beethoven Museum Heiligenstadt is a living educational resource where children can not only see, but experience, the great composer’s musical life. The museum has dedicated offer for families, general public and school groups. For schools and groups of young people, there´s an array of exciting workshops and guided tours, suitable for children from the age of 6 years and older, depending on the topic. Occasionally, workshops are open also for the general public and families, some of them even as part of WienXtra holiday activities.
Workshops are fun and highly-interactive: How did Beethoven deal with his deafness and continue to compose when, knowingly, he could no longer hear from the middle of his life? He loved hiking and was often inspired by nature – but how does nature sound, or how does weather sound? How did Beethoven make natural events in parts of his music?