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In portraits and monuments, outstanding musical achievements of a person were traditionally expressed by adding a lyre. This instrument, originally reserved for god Apoll and muses Erato and Terpsichore, can already be found in 18th century depictions of musicians and composers.

On the one hand, this motive should refer to the musical context. On the other hand, a concrete relation to the Olympian gods and muses should be established. Simultaneously, artists aimed at expressing music's divine source of inspiration.

The tradition of plain monuments showing a standing Beethoven on a more or less high pedestal continued well through the second half of the 19th century. At the same time, quite a different and much more monumental style developed where the composer usually sat in an armchair or on a throne.

When designing the Beethoven monument for Bonn, Ernst Julius Hähnel used a monument type that was quite popular for the honouring of middle class artists and scientists in the 19th century. The depicted person usually stood with their legs slightly apart on a more or less square pedestal which was decorated with inscriptions and reliefs. In most cases they wore contemporary clothing as well as a large coat to enlarge them optically and render them more monumental.

When a competition for designing a Beethoven monument was held in Bonn, a number of more or less renowned German sculptors applied for this reputable project. In the end, the draft by Ernst Julius Hähnel, a successful sculptor from Dresden and Munich, was chosen. His concept was regarded as modern and still elevated enough.

Briefly after the composer's death, the cities of Bonn and Vienna felt the desire to put up a monument for Beethoven. As it was rather unusual to erect a monument in honour of an artist who had just died, the memorial should be fairly modern.

As a result, Vienna artist Friedrich von Amerling (1803-1887) and sculptor Ernst Julius Hähnel (1811-1891) from Dresden chose to depict Beethoven in contemporary clothing in their drafts. To express the composer's creative achievements, both artists portrayed Beethoven while composing and holding a writing feather in his right hand.