Event at Bonn Grammar School 900 pupils form Beethoven portrait
Bonn · Unusual drone event on the Hofgartenwiese. Almost 900 pupils of the Beethoven-Gymnasium form the composer's likeness. What is difficult to make out from the ground becomes a clear picture from a bird's eye view.
The first timpani notes sound and almost 900 pupils rush loudly cheering onto the Hofgartenwiese. The organising team of former teachers and experts from the Institute for Geodesy and Geoinformation at Bonn University had spent a long time fiddling, calculating, marking and testing. Now, finally, everyone was in place: on Monday, pupils and teachers of the Beethoven-Gymnasium together recreated the school logo with the likeness of their namesake and had the living portrait taken with a drone.
Actually, this action was already planned for the Beethoven anniversary year. But this project was also put on hold for the time being due to corona. "But now we are putting this project into practice," says headmaster Uwe Bramstedt happily as he welcomes his pupils. However, the staff did not have to do much convincing among the children and young people. "No," says Tobias. "This is much nicer than lessons. Actually, we would have had maths now. We gave it up with a heavy heart," he says and smiles.
Better than maths
Fellow pupil Tabea has no complaints either. "I always think it's great when we do something together. And now also with the whole school. It's really a nice experience," she says. Although she would actually have had geography in the 5th and 6th lesson, "here we are doing something that will probably be admired by many more pupils who attend the Beethoven-Gymnasium after us. And I'm on board.“
But what looks so easy required a long preparation. In cooperation with Martin Blome from the Institute of Geodesy at Bonn University, the portrait of the composer first had to be transferred to the Hofgartenwiese. "To do this, we first projected the Beethoven logo onto an aerial photograph of the area and enlarged it accordingly," he explains. 435 measuring points were then defined and marked on the ground. Finally, the Beethoven image was to have a size of 70 by 80 metres.
The day before, the organisational team had connected the individual points with spray chalk as a test. And it even withstood the heavy rain in the evening. Nevertheless, they checked in the morning whether the preliminary drawing was still recognisable. In addition, it was marked in the grass which class had to stand where.
Improvements necessary
However, a first test flight shows that Beethoven's facial contours still need to be touched up. "There are gaps in Q1," a glance at the monitor reveals. A few actors are still missing in the area of the eyebrows, the nose and the lips. Without further ado, the former teachers join in.
The dress rehearsal is a success and nothing stands in the way of the premiere. All the children leave the meadow once more and wait under the trees for "Freude, schöner Götterfunken" to finally sound from the loudspeakers. And then, with the first notes, everyone rushes back onto the lawn and takes up their positions. Above them, at a height of around 100 metres, the drone hovers and films the spectacle. Photos are now being cut out of the film footage, which can then be seen on the school's homepage.
After a good half hour, the project is finished. "The footage is good," says the headmaster with satisfaction. "We started two years late, but in the end we implemented it perfectly," says Bramstedt, thanking the organisational team and his students.
