The German composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827) is among the most admired composers in the history of Western music, and has been the subject of many private and public sculptures, including busts, reliefs, statues and others. The first, by Franz Klein, was commissioned by Johann Andreas Streicher and created in 1812, while the composer was still alive. After Beethoven's death in 1827, his hometown, Bonn, immediately began planning a monument for the following year, though a cholera outbreak delayed this. A design competition was eventually held, in which a submission by Ernst Julius Hähnel beat ones from Friedrich von Amerling, Gustav Blaeser and Friedrich Drake. In 1845, was erected, due to finances given by Robert Schumann, Charles Hallé, George Thomas Smart and especially Franz