The old cemetery, Der alte Friedhof, was my first port of call in Bonn, to visit the tomb of Robert and Clara Schumann. Robert Schumann died here in Bonn in 1856; Clara, nine years younger than her husband, died in Frankfurt in 1896. Born in 1810, Robert Schumann had been one of the greatest composers for the piano, and of vocal and chamber works. Clara was one of the leading pianists of the day, and a champion of Johannes Brahms.
I found the memorial easily, but its central position at a wide part of the track is also – unfortunately for me – a very convenient place for the cemetery gardeners to park their van! I looked around the rest of the cemetery, but the gardeners still hadn't moved (nor done any work) after 20-30 minutes, so I did my best with the Schumanns and a wide-angle lens, and moved on into the city centre. The memorial is by Adolf Donndorf, whose work I came across again later in Dresden, Eisenach and Weimar.
The 'famous names' list pointed me to the worn gravestone of Franz Ries (1755-1846), leader of the Elector's orchestra, who taught Beethoven the violin in Bonn. Later, in Vienna, Beethoven in turn taught Franz’s son Ferdinand Ries, who also worked for a while as his copyist. I later discovered that there's a small memorial in the cemetery to Beethoven's mother, although I believe she’s actually buried somewhere else. |
