Hiding in Plain Sight: The Unexpected History of Bonn

Sam Crooks

One of the most famous addresses in Bonn, Bonngasse 20, is fondly remembered by the city’s residents as that of the Beethovenhaus, in which a certain Ludwig van Beethoven was born in December 1770. The building in which one of the most prominent European composers entered the world understandably attracts thousands of tourists from Germany and abroad every year, however the many visitors patiently queuing outside the Beethovenhaus often cannot help but find their attention diverted to the front of the neighbouring Bonngasse 18. They point to it and exchange quiet, though disconcerted, observations with their companions, briefly summoning a series of concerned thoughts within themselves which will soon be washed away by their fascination at the exhibits in the Beethovenhaus, which, after all, is the reason for their visit. But why such consternation at Bonngasse 18? 

What has caught their gaze is a figure of a black male holding tobacco leaves and a pipe, leaning on a tobacco barrel and observing the street below. The figure is traditionally held in Bonn to be a depiction of Balthazar, one of the three kings from the Nativity, and he seems out of place not only because of the rarity of depictions of only one of the three kings, but much more so because of the depiction of this “Balthazar” as a stylised and stereotyped black male wearing a grass skirt and headdress and adorned with items associated with the tobacco trade. A clue casting light on the reason for the figure’s presence on the façade of this particular building is its traditional name, “Im Mohren” (In the Moor), which is painted in prominent, elaborate red lettering. “Mohr”, and its English equivalent “moor”, is an archaic and racially charged term which came to be used in the past to refer to black Africans, but it is the tobacco products accompanying the figure which hold the key to explaining why such a name and figure are present on the façade of this building in the first place. The reason for this is that Im Mohren was in previous centuries a colonial goods store, selling imported goods such as tobacco, chocolate and coffee to German customers, from within the Moor as it were, and the figure itself was most likely added to the façade in around 1820 as a commercial tactic to highlight the building’s status as a colonial store and encourage the purchase of exotic goods through the presence of an eye-catching and exotic figure easily visible to passers-by.

Bonngasse 18 “Im Mohren”

Image: Sam Crooks

Although this historical context explains why the figure and lettering were originally erected, it does not in itself easily explain why Beethoven’s birthplace is neighboured by a building which in the 21st century still very visibly bears a racial epithet and even the caricatured figure of “Balthazar”. It is highly doubtful that a former colonial goods store still bearing an archaic and racist name and depiction would be tolerated in the United Kingdom and especially not on a major city-centre street popular with international tourists. Equally if not more doubtful would be the notion of not only preserving the façade but revitalising it through the replacement of the original figure with an exact copy, as occurred in Bonn in 2005, and to this day both the figure and the lettering for Im Mohren are protected historical monuments. Rather than signifying an embrace of any colonial past, however, the continued presence of the figure and lettering on Bonngasse 18 has become part of a strategy in recent years to remind inhabitants of Bonn of their city’s uncomfortable links to colonial trade and racism. To this end, a plaque was erected in 2020 on the side of the building in order to inform locals and tourists alike of the conviction of the executive board responsible for maintaining the Beethovenhaus that in order to engage in a meaningful confrontation with structural racism and discrimination today, it is necessary, without excusing the figure and name Im Mohren, to understand them as representative of an ideologically tainted image of humanity from a different era.

Plaque on Bonngasse 18 “Im Mohren”

Image: Sam Crooks

On this plaque it is carefully pointed out that the building Im Mohren also has a historical connection to Bonn’s most famous resident, Ludwig van Beethoven himself. Although the figure itself may not have been on the façade during his years in Bonn, the building was known by him and his contemporaries as Im Mohren. The link between the composer and the building is not simply coincidental but personal, as his own godmother, Gertrud Baum, lived there, as did his childhood friend, Franz Gerhard Wegeler. Although Beethoven was by no means responsible for the Im Mohren name or the commercial activity which was conducted there, the fact that he was born in the building next door to it and had personal ties to some of its occupants uncomfortably demonstrates how even the most famous native of Bonn can be connected to the city’s much lesser-known links to colonialism. This personification of the city’s connections to both high culture and degrading racism, represented architecturally by the physical joining of both the Beethovenhaus and Im Mohren in stone, further demonstrates that one aspect of Bonn’s history cannot be fully understood without reference to the other, with both influencing the character of the city to the present day. In order to gain a fuller understanding of the world as Beethoven and his contemporaries experienced it, we must consider the role of Im Mohren, just as we must situate Im Mohren in the wider context of 18th and 19th century Europe in order to critically examine the impact of European colonialism more effectively.