Fürstenhäusle

The Fürstenhäusle is a small historic house in Meersburg, a town on the northern shore of Lake Constance. It stands on a gentle slope above the lake, with views across the water to the Swiss Alps. The building was first constructed around 1600 by Jakob Fugger, a canon who later became Prince-Bishop of Constance. For more than two centuries it served as a residence for successive Prince-Bishops, giving the house its name. After secularisation in 1803 the house stood empty until the poet Annette von Droste-Hülshoff bought it in 1843. The house is worth visiting because it was the last home of one of Germany’s most important 19th-century writers. Annette von Droste-Hülshoff purchased the house when she was already famous but burdened by illness and family duties. She intended it as a private retreat, though she died five years later. In 1923 her descendants opened the building as a museum dedicated to her life and work. The house also holds a literary prize endowed by a later descendant, the Droste Prize for women poets. Inside, the original part of the house preserves rooms as Droste-Hülshoff described them. On the ground floor is a state room with an oriel window, a tile stove and a canapé. Upstairs is a small chamber she called her ‘swallow’s nest’, now lined with manuscripts and family portraits. The newer wing added in the 1920s serves as the visitor centre. Outside, the house sits in a quiet lane with a view of the lake and the distant mountains.