Stadtmuseum Weimar

The Weimar City Museum stands in a neoclassical building on Karl-Liebknecht-Straße in the centre of Weimar. The Bertuchhaus was built in two phases between 1780 and 1803 for the publisher Friedrich Justin Bertuch. Johann Christian Heinrich Schlüter designed the middle section after 1799. Schiller once called it the most beautiful house in Weimar and described its garden and use. The building once housed the Geographical Institute before becoming the museum in 1955. Behind it stood workshops used by Christiane Vulpius until they were cleared for the Weimarhalle in 1928. It is the oldest museum in Thuringia and was founded in 1889 as a natural science collection. The Naturwissenschaftliche Gesellschaft managed early displays in four rooms behind the Stadtkirche. By 1892 it moved to the Poseck’sche Haus, now the prehistory museum. The city took it over in 1903 and renamed it the first city museum in Thuringia. It runs the German Bee Museum and the Kunsthalle Harry Graf Kessler. It also co-manages the Fotoarchiv Weimar with the city archives. Visitors find displays on Weimar’s prehistory, publishing history and the Weimar Republic. A textile collection and works by Alfred Ahner are shown alongside watch-making exhibits. A temporary exhibition in 2016 looked at the VEB Uhrenwerk Weimar. The building’s two wings frame a former courtyard now enclosed by modern glass. Inside, the neoclassical rooms contrast with the museum’s modern layout. The Bertuchhaus itself remains a key example of Weimar’s classical architecture.