Stadtmuseum Weimar (Bertuchhaus)
About This Site
Every other museum here is about somebody famous. This one is about the town: how it earned its living, what it ate, what it made, and how it came to give its name to a republic — and it does it in the house of the man who was Weimar's biggest employer while Goethe was its most famous resident.
Bertuch's house, 1780–1803
Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747–1822) was a writer, a publisher and, as the museum puts it, the most significant entrepreneur in the Weimar of Goethe's day.[1] His classicist house and business premises went up in two phases between 1780 and 1803.[1] That is the other Weimar of the classical period: while the court wrote, somebody had to run a publishing house, an export trade and a payroll — and he did it from this building.
Thuringia's first town museum, 1903–1954
The museum grew out of private nineteenth-century collections and passed into municipal hands in 1903, which made it the first town museum in Thuringia.[1] It moved into the Bertuchhaus in 1954.[1] A museum of a town, owned by the town, is a different proposition from a foundation museum about a poet — the objects are the ones ordinary households kept.
What is on show
The permanent exhibition takes selected topics of the town's history: everyday life since the late eighteenth century, Bertuch and the generations after him — the Frorieps — the economy and the social structure, and the Weimar Republic.[2] Its centrepiece is "Demokratie aus Weimar. Die Nationalversammlung 1919" — the assembly that wrote the constitution, told from the town's own side rather than from the parliament's.[2]
The things themselves
Music automata, a high-wheel bicycle and a motorcycle. Furniture designed by Henry van de Velde. A graphic studio staged with the original furnishings of the artist Alexander Olbricht.[2] And on the ground floor a timeline that runs from the Ehringsdorf early human to the present[2] — which is a fair claim, since the fossils were found within the town's boundaries.
Questions visitors ask
- What is the Stadtmuseum Weimar about?
- The town itself, not a famous resident: how Weimar earned its living, what it ate, what it made, and how it came to give its name to a republic — shown in the house of the man who was Weimar's biggest employer while Goethe was its most famous resident.
- Who was Bertuch?
- Friedrich Justin Bertuch (1747–1822), a writer, publisher and, as the museum puts it, the most significant entrepreneur in the Weimar of Goethe's day. His classicist house and business premises went up between 1780 and 1803.[1]
- What's the centrepiece exhibition?
- "Demokratie aus Weimar. Die Nationalversammlung 1919" — the assembly that wrote the constitution, told from the town's own side rather than the parliament's.[2]
Sources
- Geschichte — Stadtmuseum Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Dauerausstellung — Stadtmuseum Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Connected Historical Figures
publisher • entrepreneur • court official
His house and business premises, built 1780–1803, have held the town's own museum since 1954.
architect • designer • founder of the Weimar arts and crafts school
Furniture he designed is part of the permanent exhibition.
Visit Information
See the museum's own pages for admission.
See the museum's own pages for opening times.
Weimar city centre, 50 metres from the Goetheplatz
In Weimar's history
In Weimar's history
On 6 February 1919 the assembly elected to write Germany a constitution met for the first time, in a court theatre eleven years old. Weimar was chosen because Berlin was too dangerous.
The museum's centrepiece exhibition tells the story of the assembly from the town's side.