Beethoven Monument on Beethovenplatz
Why is it significant?
On little Beethovenplatz, in front of an old grammar school, the composer sits in bronze on a rock, wrapped in a coat, frowning into the distance. Around his pedestal crowd other figures: on one side Prometheus in chains, on the other a Victory holding out a wreath, and a cluster of small children.
Key Facts
| Place | Beethoven Monument on Beethovenplatz |
|---|---|
| Address | Beethovenplatz, 1010 Wien, Austria |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.20220, 16.37680 |
| Part of Walk | Vienna in Three-Quarter Time: Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and the City of Music |
| Generated | Generated |
On little Beethovenplatz, in front of an old grammar school, the composer sits in bronze on a rock, wrapped in a coat, frowning into the distance. Around his pedestal crowd other figures: on one side Prometheus in chains, on the other a Victory holding out a wreath, and a cluster of small children.
The monument is by Caspar von Zumbusch, the same sculptor who made Maria Theresa on the Ring, and it was unveiled in 1880. Count the children: there are nine, and they are said to stand for Beethoven's nine symphonies. Prometheus, who stole fire for humanity and was punished for it, stands for the suffering genius; Victory for his triumph over that suffering.
Beethoven arrived in Vienna from Bonn in 1792, aged 21, to take lessons from Joseph Haydn, and a friend wrote in his album that he would receive the spirit of Mozart from Haydn's hands. He stayed for the rest of his life, 35 years, first as a dazzling virtuoso pianist, then as a composer, then as a living legend, changing apartments again and again. Haydn found him gifted but difficult, and the young man quietly took extra lessons from other teachers behind his famous master's back.
His hearing began to fail before he was thirty. In 1802, in the village of Heiligenstadt, then outside Vienna, he wrote a letter to his brothers, never sent, confessing that he had thought of ending his life and that only his art held him back. Most of the music that made him immortal was written after that letter, by a man who heard less and less of it.
He died on 26 March 1827, during a thunderstorm, and his funeral drew a crowd estimated in the thousands; a young composer named Franz Schubert was among the torchbearers. Now walk a few steps north-east into the Stadtpark, where a golden violinist is waiting.