The sculptor Franz Klein made a plaster impression of Beethoven’s face when the composer was 41 years old. This wasn’t so easy because Beethoven was afraid of suffocating under the plaster mask. You had to sit very still until the mask had dried and could be removed from your face. It eventually worked on the second attempt. Franz Klein used the plaster cast as a template to make a bust for a gentleman by the name of Andreas Streicher. Mr. Streicher was a piano maker and really wanted a bust of the famous composer. He placed it in a room in his piano factory together with his other busts of famous people. This way, many people who had never met Beethoven but maybe knew his music were able to get an impression of how he looked in real life.

You’ll find a Beethoven bust in this room too. Have a good look around!

Can you see the three touchscreens? These are to give you an idea of how it would be if you lost your hearing. Beethoven was still able to hear quite well when he was a young man. But his hearing gradually became worse and worse until he finally went deaf. Although he was hard of hearing for most of his life and completely deaf for the last nine years, he was still able to compose music. His music was in his head! That sounds unbelievable but it’s true!

You have probably already found the large picture of the French Emperor Napoleon I in the middle of the room. Beside it you’ll find the first page of his 3rd symphony “Eroica”.

Beethoven wanted to dedicate this piece of music to Napoleon but when he found out the emperor didn’t treat his people as well as he should, he erased Napoleon’s name from the first page in anger.

Look at what happened in his rage: A big hole, right in the middle of the paper!