Schiller's House
About This Site
Schiller bought this house on the Esplanade, today's Schillerstraße, in 1802 and had three years left in it: he wrote Die Braut von Messina and Wilhelm Tell here and died in his study under the roof on 9 May 1805. His widow Charlotte lived on in the house until 1826; in 1847 the town of Weimar bought it and opened it, the same year, as the first memorial to a poet in Germany.
Built 1777, bought 1802
The house was built in 1777 for the merchant Johann Christian Schmidt by Anton Georg Hauptmann.[1] In 1801 the English writer and translator Charles Mellish of Blyth bought it, and in March 1802 he sold it to Schiller, whose family moved in on 29 April 1802.[1]
Three years, and the room at the top
Here the great dramas Die Braut von Messina and Wilhelm Tell were written.[2] The visit climbs through the house: the former servants' and household rooms on the ground floor, the rooms of Schiller's wife Charlotte and the children on the first floor, and the poet's own quarters in the mansard.[2] The high point is his study, with its furnishings largely original: his writing desk and his bed still stand there, and on 9 May 1805 he died in this room, in this bed.[2][1]
Charlotte's twenty-one years, 1805–1826
After Schiller's death Charlotte stayed on in the house with the four children until her own death on 9 July 1826; the children sold it in 1827.[2][1] In 1847 the town of Weimar acquired the property at a court auction for 5,025 talers and opened it the same year as the first memorial to a poet in Germany.[1][2]
1945, 1946, and the museum next door
The air raids on Weimar in 1945 left their marks on the house; after extensive repairs by the town it reopened in November 1946.[1] The Schiller-Museum beside it was built between 1984 and 1988, and since 1998 the house has belonged to the UNESCO World Heritage ensemble Classical Weimar.[1] It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30 to 16:00 in winter and 10:00 to 18:00 in summer; adults pay €10, reduced €7, pupils aged 16 to 20 €4.[2]
Questions visitors ask
- How long did Schiller live in the house?
- Three years: the family moved in on 29 April 1802, and he died in his study under the roof on 9 May 1805.
- What did Schiller write in this house?
- Die Braut von Messina and Wilhelm Tell.
- What is there to see inside?
- The servants' and household rooms on the ground floor, Charlotte's and the children's rooms on the first floor, and Schiller's own quarters in the mansard — his study with its largely original furnishings, his writing desk and the bed he died in.
- When did the house become a museum?
- In 1847, when the town of Weimar bought it and opened it the same year as the first memorial to a poet in Germany.
- What are the opening hours and prices?
- Tuesday to Sunday, 9:30–16:00 in winter and 10:00–18:00 in summer; €10 for adults, €7 reduced, €4 for pupils aged 16 to 20.
Connected Historical Figures
writer • poet • historian
He bought it in 1802 and died in its top-floor study in 1805.
Sources (2)
- Schillers Wohnhaus — Wikipedia (de), retrieved 30 August 2026
- Schillers Wohnhaus — Klassik Stiftung Weimar, retrieved 30 August 2026
Visit Information
€10 adults; €7 reduced; €4 pupils aged 16–20
Tue–Sun; 09:30–16:00 in winter, 10:00–18:00 in summer; closed Mon
Schillerstraße 12, 99423 Weimar
50.9789, 11.3278
Stay and eat nearby
Where to stay
Schützengasse 1, 99423 Weimar
Schiller's house is on the Schillerstraße, the other end of the same stretch.
Where to eat
Schillerstraße 11, Weimar
The gelateria gives its own position as directly opposite the Schillerhaus, at the bend of the Schillerstraße.
Schillerstraße 22, Weimar
Schiller's house is at number 12 of the same street; this restaurant is at 22.
Events held here
Events
Fridays at 18:00 and Saturdays at 16:00, about ninety minutes
Schiller's house, also on the route.
Daily at 10:00 and 14:00, about two hours
Taken in the same stretch as Goethe's house, which is the point the walk makes about how close these people lived.
One Sunday in May, every year
Open for drop-in visits on the day, in the same short format as Goethe's.
One Saturday night in May, 18:00 to midnight
Schiller's house opens too, on the Schillerstraße, Goethe's on the Frauenplan — the two houses the whole town is built around, and easy to do in one evening.
One day in June
Schiller's house on the Schillerstraße, where he finished Wilhelm Tell, is inscribed alongside Goethe's.
Three nights in September
One of the three buildings the festival projects onto in 2026 — the house Schiller bought in 1802, used as a surface rather than shown as a museum.
In Weimar's history
Historic sites
Schillerstraße 12, 99423 Weimar
Built directly beside his residence, so that house and exhibition are one visit.
Historical periods
The domestic side of the period: a house bought in 1802, a family, three years of work, and the room where it ended in 1805.
For roughly sixty years a duchy of a few thousand people held the centre of German literature, because its ruler kept inviting writers to live there and then gave them jobs. That is the whole mechanism, and it ran from Goethe's arrival in 1775 to his death in 1832.
In Weimar's history
He died in the study on the top floor of his own house, three years after buying it, and was buried in the night of 11–12 May in a vault the court kept for people of rank who had no grave of their own.
The building: he died in its top-floor study, and his widow stayed on for twenty-one years.
Twice in three years the World Heritage Committee put Weimar on its list: the Bauhaus buildings on 7 December 1996, and the eleven monuments of Classical Weimar on 2 December 1998.
One of the eleven monuments of Classical Weimar since 1998.