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Beethoven-Haus Bonn

The Beethoven-Haus in Bonn received a newly conceived exhibition in time for the 250th anniversary of the composer's birth, in which the building itself also takes on a more central role. Renewed mineral plasters and paints in the interior play their part and put the exhibits in the right light.

Architect:
Holzer Kobler Architekturen GmbH
Builder:
Beethoven-Haus Bonn
Photos:
Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Foto: David Ertl
Location:
Bonn, Germany
Products:
  • Universalputz-fein
  • Universalputz
  • Innostar

Dressed up for the anniversary

Popular Music Museum

About 100,000 tourists from all over the world gather every year in a small alley in the centre of Bonn not far from the Rhine. They marvel at a house with a rather inconspicuous facade and explore the rooms behind it, because the composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in the rear building in December 1770. The listed building houses the most comprehensive Beethoven collection in the world with important objects from the composer's life, such as instruments, letters, sheets of music and pictures.

From the beginnings until today

The Beethoven family lived in the garden wing of the house at Bonngasse 20 from 1767 to 1774. The building is one of the few remaining 18th century bourgeois houses in Bonn. In the 19th century, it served as an inn as well as a residential and commercial building until the Beethoven House Association was founded in 1889 with the aim of acquiring the house and preserving it as a memorial. After repairs in the 1930s and 1960s, which also included the neighbouring house "Zum Mohren" with the Beethoven Archive, the third fundamental restoration of the house followed from 1994 to 1996. Today the museum comprises both houses at Bonngasse 18 and 20 and is one of the most visited musician museums in the world as well as one of the 100 most popular sights in Germany.

"The house at Bonngasse 20 enjoys the highest level of monument protection, as it is the birthplace of Beethoven. The house next door, number 18, is also listed," explains Dr. Nicole Kรคmpken, museum director of the Beethoven House. With the restoration in 1996 the last exhibition was also conceived. "After more than 20 years, the show was somewhat outdated, and Beethoven's 250th birthday was just around the corner, and so was the anniversary year - reason enough for us to plan a new exhibition and thus also a renovation, as well as to apply for funds from the federal and state governments for this purpose," Nicole Kรคmpken recalls, and continues: "In 2016, we started the award procedure.

The renovation took six months, from March to August 2019, and in December 2019 the building was officially reopened after a complete restructuring of the permanent exhibition and extension in collaboration with Holzer Kobler Architekturen from Switzerland".

Extensive wall works

The basic structural repair and restoration in the years 1994 to 1996 was carried out in cooperation with the Rheinische Amt fรผr Denkmalpflege (Rhineland Office for the Preservation of Monuments). The buildings were in good condition in 2019, the museum director sums up. The general aim was therefore to update the exhibition. "One of the most extensive measures we carried out in 2019 was to redo the wiring in the small, cabinet-like rooms in order to install an adequate lighting system. To do this, we had to open up the walls a lot and pick up the wooden floorboards from the floor. Even though I got scared in between because of the many prised open slots, the plaster was only removed where cables were laid - the rest remained intact", Nicole Kรคmpken explains the measures.
"The work has paid off, because before we only had ambient lighting with two lamps in each room, and now we have much more light with modern LED lights and illuminated showcases".

Mineral renders and paints

After the electrical work, the craftsmen plastered the walls again with lime plaster and repainted them. "As early as 1994, lime plaster based on recipes from the 18th century was used - on condition that as little as possible of the original substance was touched. Previously, several dispersion paints were removed from the walls," reports Kรคmpken.

The persons responsible decided to use KEIMFARBEN products for the renovation of house at No. 20 because the mineral products are also predestined for listed buildings due to their permeability. "We assume that products from KEIMFARBEN were already used during the last renovation", explains the master painter and varnisher Lucas Lรผpschen from the Heinrich Schmid company. "

"With KEIM Universal Render coarse, we closed the cable slots in all rooms to then create an even surface with the fine variant", the craftsman continues.

"This was followed by applying the sol-silicate paint KEIM Innostar in a wet-on-wet technique. That means we worked in two steps: pre-rolled and then re-rolled shortly afterwards." The so-called Cologne ceilings - beam constructions with stucco in almost every room - are very special and only a few houses in Bonn still have those. These ceilings, too, were refinished with KEIM Innostar, but this time as spray application.

Harmonious colour impression

"So when we renovated, we used the same colours that were used before. The colour basis has remained the same, this was determined by the monument office during the restoration. However, the green, grey, blue-grey and orange pastel shades on the walls were very greyed, so they urgently needed a refinish."

"The exhibition furniture is also coordinated with the wall colour of the respective room and designed in monochrome. "We have adapted the exterior colour of the showcase to the walls", explains Nicole Kรคmpken and continues: "The display surfaces in the showcases stand out clearly in colour. We also considered the themes presented and chose, for example, red for the theme of love and green for the theme of nature." The elegant showcases and exhibition buildings blend harmoniously into the historical rooms and create a reference to the original use of the building as a residential building. The historical house itself is staged as the central exhibit through the colourfulness of the rooms and the exhibition furniture.

Best work โ€“ great praise

After only a six-month closing period of the Beethoven House, exhibition rearrangements and renovation work were completed. "The time aspect was a great challenge for us craftsmen," recalls Lucas Lรผpschen. "We placed the greatest importance to bringing the fine plaster on the wall back into line as if nothing had happened. Because orders in such important buildings are not an everyday occurrence for us either.โ€ With success, because Nicole Kรคmpken reports: "Already in September 2019 we received a very positive feedback. The theme concept has been well received by visitors. Today, they can use all the stairs as they wish and devote themselves to the topics as they please. In this way, visitors perceive the house much more as a residential building. All in all, a beautiful symbiosis of house and exhibition has been designed". And in addition to the newly conceived exhibition, the careful craftsmanship with the corresponding products suitable for listed buildings also played a large part.

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