StroofKOLLEG in the Mayor Stroof House: "The Best Years in Bonn - Beethoven, Bonn Women and the Enlightenment on the Rhine". A film by Georg Divossen

Tuesday, 26 September 2023, at the Bürgermeister-Stroof-Haus (Adelheidisstraße 3, 53225 Bonn), 7.30 p.m., length 45 minutes.

In his film, filmmaker Georg Divossen focuses on the Bonn of the last Elector Max Franz. His enthusiasm for the ideals of the Enlightenment brought Bonn to a final cultural and political flowering.

This was the time when Ludwig van Beethoven grew up, and Divossen has recreated scenes from Bonn in Beethoven's time with twelve actors. A new educated middle class discussed ideas of equality, tolerance and free development of the personality in the salons - and it was precisely these demands for freedom and political equality that shaped Ludwig for his entire life.

But equality did not apply to everyone. Women could hardly benefit from Enlightenment visions, and the third estate continued to fare badly.

Followed by an invitation "... to a glass of wine".