Ludwig Van Beethoven

Ludwig Van Beethoven came from a talented musical family. His father and Grandfather worked for the electors of Cologne, which residence was in Bonn.

Ludwig's grandfather Lodewyk joined the Orchestra in 1733 and became a known conductor in 1761. His father Johann Van Beethoven (1740-1792) was a soprano at the age of only eight. He was also a very musical person and played the piano and the violin.

Johann married Maria Magdalena Leymnee Keverich who married at the age of 21.He married her in November 1767. On April 1769 their first child was born and unfortunately only survived six days. On December 17th Ludwig Van Beethoven was born in the town of Bonn. Out of five brothers and sisters only two survived, they were Caspar Anton Carl (1174-1815) and Nikolaus Johann (1776-1848). These brothers were very close to Ludwig. Ludwig's father soon saw the musical potential in him and started giving him musical lessons.

In 1779 a talented musical teacher, Christian Gottlob Neefes, came to Bonn. He offered Beethoven some lessons and Beethoven jumped at the idea. He learnt piano, organ, bass and how to compose his very own piece of music. In 1789 Bonn had a new building constructed was an Opera house. When Beethoven's mother died Beethoven began to drink and didn't take as much responsibility for his brothers, and so this job was left for his older brother.

At a certain time Beethoven went to Vienna and stayed there for a while. When Beethoven returned to Bonn in December 1790 Joseph Haydn stopped in Bonn and Haydn gave Beethoven lessons.

Beethoven was a traveler and had many different houses or homes.

Back then it was known that Composers that were wishing to be known would travel Europe doing concerts. In 1818 Beethoven became deaf and had to use many notebooks to communicate. 137 of these notebooks are still here today and show his life from 1818 to 1827. These report everything from his compositions to his everyday life and Karl's suicide attempt.

One amazing thing about Beethoven is how he made a living off music and financially was able to support himself and his family.