Beethoven's Life in Pictures

This small house in Bonn is where Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770 and lived until he moved to Vienna in 1792. The Beethoven House is now a museum with a large collection of manuscripts, instruments and other possessions that once belonged to the famous composer.

This portrait of Beethoven at the age of 13 is the earliest authenticated depiction of the composer. Young Ludwig's first music teacher was his father, Johann van Beethoven, who had an alcohol problem and was known to be very harsh. Nevertheless, Beethoven's talent was recognized at an early age and at 13 he had already published three piano sonatas and regularly played the piano, harpsichord and viola at the court in Bonn.

Beethoven studied under the famous Classical composer Joseph Haydn. He played for Haydn at the ball room and music hall "La Redoute," which still hosts concerts and balls today. Mozart's opera "The Magic Flute" is also said to have had one of its first performances there. The classicist building is located in Bad Godesberg, near Bonn.

In 1792, Beethoven moved to Vienna where he studied under a number of masters. The young composer had hoped to meet Mozart, but he arrived a year after Mozart's death. Although Beethoven was seen as a virtuoso, his patrons often neglected to support him sufficiently and he fell into heavy debt.

Beethoven began losing his hearing in 1796 and by 1814 he was nearly completely deaf. This ear horn was designed for Beethoven by his friend, the Viennese inventor Johann Maelzel. Beethoven used conversation books to communicate with people in writing. But, although his deafness did not stop his composing, it made conversation difficult.

In 1802, shortly after Beethoven began to lose his hearing, the composer moved to Heiligenstadt just outside Vienna. This photograph, taken in 1898, shows a main street in Heiligenstadt. During his stay here, Beethoven wrote his famous "Heiligenstadt Testament," a letter to his brothers Johann and Carl which he never sent. The testament expresses his struggle against the continuous loss of his hearing.

This painting depicts the "incident at Teplitz" in 1812 when Beethoven was walking with Johann Wolfgang Goethe (on the left, in the background) and refused to bow when passing the imperial family, whereas the famous German writer did. Beethoven had high hopes for his first meeting with Goethe in 1812, but the poet described the composer as "very introverted." At this stage of his life Beethoven was troubled and not producing much new material.

This is an image of Beethoven's last piano. He learned to play the piano at a very young age and composed numerous sonatas, concertos and other works for the instrument. Beethoven was fascinated by the Enlightenment and the new Romanticism movement in Europe and his music was very influential in the transition of musical style from Classicism to Romanticism.

The Ninth Symphony is probably Beethoven's most famous work and, today, it is the anthem of the European Union. It is said that by the time he was conducting the first performance of the symphony, the composer's deafness had become so great that he had to be turned around to see the wild applause. Hearing nothing, he is said to have wept.

Beethoven finished his famous Ninth Symphony in 1824 while living in this building on Ungargasse in Vienna. At this period the composer was looking after his nephew Karl, who he took charge of in 1815 after the boy's father, Beethoven's brother, had died. The relationship between the composer and the boy was difficult and in 1826 Karl attempted suicide. Beethoven was devastated.

Beethoven died on March 26, 1827, after his general health and the condition of his liver had gradually gotten worse. This painting by Franz Stober depicts Beethoven's funeral on March 29 in Vienna. Around 20,000 people are thought to have attended the ceremony.

This reproduction of Beethoven's skull is from the Center for Beethoven Studies at San Jose State University in California. The skull was donated to the center by a Californian business man, who is a descendant of a Viennese doctor named Romeo Seligmann. The doctor had secretly been given fragments of Beethoven's skull when the composer's remains were exhumed in 1863.