Postcard from Bonn

Listen to Beethoven as you stroll through Bonn

BONN – Walking through the tree-lined lane behind University of Bonn, one feel as if one is in a relatively vibrant city, despite its storied history. The capital of West German after World War II, the lawn in front of University of Bonn has the feel of UC Berkeley, where student protests represented a certain national morale. The Rhine River that flows along the city gates seems to cleanse it from any stagnancy.

In the bookstores next to the university, students look openly at one another, browsing the crowded sections of the shop. The clerk diligently searches for the English equivalency of a title of a Joan Didion text in German. The Haribo store is only across the street, so children with bags of the gelatinous gummy animals stroll by in the shadow of the Bonn Munster. It is the kind of day that cannot settle on the weather, so the clouds intersperse with water. Puddles lie all across the front of the Munster where saints’ heads lie along the stone interface.

The electronic store is bustling with folks. It is another world from the one a couple of alleyways away, former home to the great maestro Beethoven, now a museum. Beethoven seemed to have been a lonely soul, from childhood, and the home gives little indication. One could imagine walking past it in his period of the 1800s, and thinking that a nice family lived inside.

Now, visitors stroll in a hurried manner, recorder in hand, listening to a scripted depiction of Beethoven’s life. It is strange to picture him as a human being with the same hopes and dreams as anyone. He is relegated to the sands of time. The floorboards creak as people make their way from one room to the next.

In the morning, the farmer’s market is being set up fairly early. Although there are people strolling, it is still quiet. Two cops are orderly as they escort a person sleeping in the Deustche Post. The garden next to the Rhine is blooming purple and yellow in the shadows of a red fort. The day has awoken without the rain from yesterday.