Music Museums in Germany

Schumann House Leipzig

Inselstraße 18
04103 Leipzig

Phone +49.341.3939 2191

Web: www.schumann-haus.de
E-Mail: info@schumann-verein.de

Opening hours

Monday to Friday 2 p.m. - 6 p.m.

Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. - 6 p.m.

Happy years of being married on the Inselstraße - Clara and Robert Schumann spent the happy first four years of their marriage in the house on Inselstraße 18, constructed in the neo-classical style in 1838 by Friedrich August Scheidel. On her 21st birthday, the newlyweds moved into their first shared domicile in an emerging new district, which was to become the center of the book trade. Numerous publishers and book printers settled here, including Breitkopf & Härtel and C.F. Peters as well as F.A. Brockhaus and Reclam.

Celebrities - The creative couple regularly welcomed famous personalities such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Franz Liszt, and Hector Berlioz. Robert Schumann composed some of his major works here in the Inselstraße, for example the Liebesfrühling (Spring of Love) op. 37, together with Clara, the Spring Symphony op. 38, the Dichterliebe op. 48, and his Piano Quintet op. 44, which his wife premiered at the Gewandhaus.

Exeptional symbiosis - Together with the independent elementary school “Clara Schumann”, the Schumann-Verein e.V., and the Rahn Dittrich Group, who had saved the house from dilapidation in 1999, a unique symbiosis of museum, event location, and a place of education has been formed.
For the Festival Year CLARA19 the Schumann-Haus presented its new museum concept in cooperation with the curator Beatrix Borchard and Karsten Blum (exhibition design).

Germany possesses musical traditions and legacies of extraordinary value: Handel, Schuetz and Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Brahms, and Wagner - to mention only a few names - are composers who are known and treasured throughout the world. Their work has played a significant role in shaping a unique musical landscape.

Numerous orchestras, choruses, ensembles, renowned music festivals and series, music houses with museums, public archives and libraries, but also private collections preserve their musical heritage.

It is necessary to revitalize this inestimable fund again and again and to develop it for the present. At the same time, an important role befits the houses combined in the consortium of music museums of Germany. In them we encounter the work of the musicians and composers who have extraordinarily enriched the cultural nation of Germany. However, beyond the individual portrait, beyond the procurement of individual oeuvres, the music museums also contribute overall to the maintenance of musical tradition. The present brochure underscores this aspect of the synoptic presentation and invites the reader on a journey into the musical history of Germany. I hope this tour guide will be actively used and receive a large response.

Bernd Neumann, Member of the Lower House of the German Parliament
Minister of State with the Federal Chancellor
Commissioner of the Federal Government for Culture and Media

Quoted from: Foreword to the brochure "Music Museums in Germany", 2007.