Schillers Gartenhaus
About This Site
Schillers Gartenhaus is the house on the Leutra that Friedrich Schiller bought as a summer retreat in 1797 and where he wrote parts of Wallenstein and Maria Stuart, now a museum of the Friedrich Schiller University.
A house bought for the summer, 1797–1799
Schiller bought the garden house, then on the rural edge of Jena, in March 1797 for 1,050 thaler. He and his family lived there in the summer months of 1797, 1798 and 1799, and the following year he had a small tower built onto it, which he called "mein Belvedere". Parts of Wallenstein and Maria Stuart were written here, along with the ballads he sent to the Musenalmanach.[1]
The stone table with Goethe, 1797–1802
The evening conversations between Schiller and Goethe took place at a stone table in the garden — a working friendship carried on here as much as in Weimar, in the years that produced Weimar Classicism. Schiller moved his family to Weimar for good in December 1799 and sold the house in 1802, to the jurist Anton Friedrich Justus Thibaut.[2]
A university museum today
The house belongs to the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, which runs it as a museum and discourse venue. The ground and first floors hold an exhibition on Schiller's Jena years and his life in the garden house; the two upper floors are furnished as they were in his time.
Questions visitors ask
- What is Schillers Gartenhaus?
- Schillers Gartenhaus is the house on the Leutra that Friedrich Schiller bought as a summer retreat in March 1797, where he and his family spent three summers and where he wrote parts of Wallenstein and Maria Stuart — today a museum of the Friedrich Schiller University Jena.
- How long did Schiller live at Schillers Gartenhaus?
- Schiller and his family spent the summer months of 1797, 1798 and 1799 there before he moved his family to Weimar for good in December 1799; he sold the house in 1802.[2]
- What did Schiller write at Schillers Gartenhaus?
- Parts of Wallenstein and Maria Stuart, along with the ballads he sent to the Musenalmanach.
- Can I visit Schillers Gartenhaus today?
- Yes. The house is open Tuesday to Sunday from 1 April to 31 October, and Tuesday to Saturday from 1 November to 31 March (11:00–17:00, closed on public holidays), with admission of €3.50 full price and €2.00 reduced.
Sources
- Über uns — Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, retrieved 30 August 2026
- Schillers Gartenhaus — Wikipedia, retrieved 30 August 2026
Connected Historical Figures
writer • poet • historian
He bought the house in March 1797 and spent three summers here with his family, writing parts of Wallenstein and Maria Stuart and the ballads for the Musenalmanach.
writer • statesman • naturalist
The two held their evening conversations at the stone table in the garden, the Jena half of the friendship that shaped Weimar Classicism.
Visit Information
€3.50 adults; €2.00 reduced
1 Apr–31 Oct: Tue–Sun 11:00–17:00; 1 Nov–31 Mar: Tue–Sat 11:00–17:00; closed on public holidays
Schillergäßchen 2, 07745 Jena
In Weimar's history
Historical periods
Wallenstein and Maria Stuart were partly written here, in the years of Schiller and Goethe's Jena-and-Weimar collaboration.
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.