The Weimar City Museum () is a museum in

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state (Germany), German state of Thuringia, in Central Germany (cultural area), Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together w ...

, Germany. It is the oldest museum of

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

and is located at ''Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 5''.

History

The museum originated in 19th-century private collections such as those of Bruno Schwabe. It was formally founded on 24 June 1889 as the ''Naturwissenschaftliches Museum'' (Natural Science Museum) under the management of the ''Naturwissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft'' (Natural Science Society). It was located in four rooms of the school behind the Stadtkirche (now the Volkshochschule). By 1892 it had run out of space and moved into the ''Poseck’sche Haus'', now the ''Museum for the Prehistory and Early History of Thuringia'', also set up by the society. When it was taken over by the city council in 1903 it became the first city museum in Thuringia. It was closed from 2000 to 2005. It also runs the German Bee Museum and since 2006 the Kunsthalle "Harry Graf Kessler" at ''Goetheplatz 9b''. It also co-runs the Fotoarchiv Weimar with the city archives.

Building

The building in which it is housed was built in two phases in 1780-1782 and 1799-1803 as a neoclassical residential and commercial building. It was named the Bertuchhaus after

Friedrich Justin Bertuch Friedrich Johann Justin Bertuch (30 September 1747 – 3 April 1822) was a German publisher and patron of the arts. He co-founded the Weimar Princely Free Drawing School with the painter Georg Melchior Kraus in 1776. He was the father of the writ ...

(1747–1822), for whom it was built. In the first two-year phase built a home and commercial premises for Bertruch, now the north wing. In the second phase the Weimar architect Johann Christian Heinrich Schlüter designed and built the middle range. In a letter to his friend

Christian Gottfried Körner Christian Gottfried Körner (2 July 1756 – 13 May 1831) was a German jurist. His home was a literary and musical salon, and he was a friend of Friedrich Schiller. Biography Born in Leipzig, he studied law at the University of Göttingen and at ...

Friedrich Schiller Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born i ...

called the building the most beautiful one in the whole of Weimar, as well as giving a detailed description of it, the garden behind it and its usage. The building formerly housed the ''Landes-Industrie-Comptoir'' or ''Geographische Institut'' (Geographical Institute), before housing the museum from 1955 onwards. Behind it were workshops forming a four-sided courtyard, used by figures such as

Christiane Vulpius Johanna Christiana Sophie Vulpius von Goethe (1 June 1765 – 6 June 1816) was the longtime lover and later wife of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Biography Vulpius spent her childhood in ''Luthergasse'', one of the oldest parts of Weimar. Her pat ...

and which were demolished to build the ''Weimarhalle'' in 1928.

Displays

Covering all of Weimar's history, it focusses on prehistory, early history, publishing history, business history, the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

, the art of Alfred Ahner and watch making, alongside a nationally-important textile collection. A temporary exhibition in 2016 looked at the VEB Uhrenwerk Weimar.

Directors

# Paul Kaiser (1953-1983) # Rainer Wagner (1983-1990) # Walter Steiner (1991-2000) # Alf Rößner (2006-present)

References

External links

*
Weimar City Museum
on the website of the city of