What, at its heart, is hospitality—and how is it different from service, or from simply sharing a space? In a highly monetized and transactional society, can concepts like home and welcome still be genuinely meaningful in the public sphere? Steven Walter is the artistic director of Bonn’s Beethovenfest. This year, the festival returned to the elaborately restored Beethovenhalle, a post-war concert hall designed to welcome rather than overwhelm—a deliberate break from the intimidating monumentalism of fascist architecture. Steven’s ambition there is not just to program great music, but to embed that experience in the intimacy of genuine hospitality. We talk about the origins of the classical concert setting, why good hosting comes more naturally to some places than others, and the ambivalent role of “Heimat” (home, homeland, with all its baggage) in the German psyche. Mostly, though, this conversation is a sketch of what belonging might mean. As Steven points out, populist movements draw much of their energy from an unmet yearning for belonging, and universal liberal values don’t seem to offer a concrete enough answer. He believes art can create the kind of inclusive, optimistic spaces where civil society moves towards more coherence by hosting itself. ***** Music outro credit: “Der Leiermann” from Winterreise — music by Franz Schubert, text by Wilhelm Müller. Performed by Thomas Quasthoff (bass-baritone) and Charles Spencer (piano). ***** Somewhat abridged version of Steven’s Beethovenfest 2026 opening speech: Heimat [home, or homeland] seems to be at once the most natural and the most complicated thing we Germans can feel. It’s simple, because everyone has a Heimat and can describe it even from far away, as Beethoven once did in a letter to a childhood friend from Bonn: QUOTE “The beautiful country where I first saw the light of day is still as beautiful and clear before my eyes as when I left you. In short, I will count the time when I can see you all again and greet our Father Rhine as one of the happiest events of my life.” It’s also complicated: in that same year, 1801, the early Romantic poet Novalis posed and answered the great Romantic question in his novel Heinrich von Ofterdingen: “Where are we going, then?” His answer, “Always home.” Beethoven and Novalis shaped Romanticism in the arts, and its mythical, iconic home lies just up the Rhine from here. Romanticism expresses an unquenchable longing and restlessness, and a sense of Germanness that is both nostalgic and forward-looking at the same time. That feeling gave rise to much great art. In the 20th century it also contributed to civilzational meltdown, and to this day, in Germany it gives the idea of Heimat a meaning that is at least ambivalent. For all its national ambivalence, Germany has at least been able to take refuge in music, often and with great success. I would argue that cultural life today could ease some of the tension around this subject, a tension that low populist forces are once again exploiting. Heimat is local. It lives in homes, wherever people are sufficiently sovereign to invite one another in and share experiences. Heimat therefore intrinsically comes with a concept of hospitality, and here we can learn a lot from other cultures. “The guest is the soul of the house,” says a proverb from Georgia, a country we are focusing on a great deal this year. This is especially true of music, which always lives from the relationship between host and guest. So of course you, our valued audience, are also the soul of this house. What makes this region and this city so lovable is, above all, how deeply the people here love it. The ancient Greeks had a beautiful word for this: topophilia, the love of place. I have never met more love of place than here in the Rhineland, and no crisis of politics or public infrastructure can change that. Love, as we know, is irrational. But it is also contagious. It spreads virally in upward spirals, and it is inclusive and embracing. We want to offer this irrational love to our guests in the form of excellent hospitality, by opening this place up to the community, not just during concerts. It seems to us that today, the essence of culture is a warm welcome, a personal encounter and a convivial evening for the whole person, combined with an artistic experience that resonates deeply. During this year’s Beethovenfest, we will explore this theme through music in many different ways. There will be musical homelands that our artists bring with them from all over the world, music that tells of losing one’s home, of exile, flight, and homelessness. And there will be plenty of topophilia. We invite all people and all stories into this place, the newly renovated Beethovenhalle and surrounds. Everyone and everything is sometimes the host, and sometimes the guest. At its very core, society means sharing space. With this festival we hope to give you countless great musical moments. We also hope to give you the feeling that, amid all the turmoil in the world, we can share a place and a time for encounter and for open, creative and optimistic community. That, we believe, is the most powerful and most important contribution culture can make today as a democratic force in civil society. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carrie802897.substack.com
