Description [EN]
In the heart of Frankfurt, the Deutsches Romantik-Museum has supplemented the city's cultural offerings since opening on 14 September 2021 and presents the extensive collection of manuscripts, letters and paintings relating to German Romanticism that the Freie Deutsche Hochstift has been assembling since 1911. The museum building is part of the Goethehöfe complex and was constructed alongside the Goethe-Haus at Großer Hirschgraben 17–21; until 2012 the site housed the headquarters of the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels.
Early proposals for a museum of Romanticism go back to the long-serving director of the Hochstift, who established the holdings. The originally intended exhibition building, the Brentano family’s ancestral home in Große Sandgasse, was destroyed during the Second World War. With the departure of the Börsenverein, the opportunity arose to use the vacated site for the Romantik-Museum and to integrate the Goethe-Haus. After the city unexpectedly withdrew as a funder in 2013, a private contribution supported the extension; total construction costs amounted to €16 million, of which €8 million came as grants from the state and federal government and €8 million had to be raised by the Hochstift itself.
An architectural competition announced in 2013 produced several designs; in 2014 the jury recommended revisions and ultimately voted unanimously for a combined design made up of two proposals. The groundbreaking took place on 13 June 2016, the topping-out ceremony on 11 September 2017. In addition to the museum, the project includes an inner-city residential complex, a generous courtyard and a performance venue for the Fliegende Volksbühne. The opening was postponed from its originally planned date to September 2021 due to unexpected demolition problems and the insolvency of two construction firms involved; for the opening the façade was staged with a light projection. Works on permanent display include paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, among them Der Abendstern. A garden has been laid out in the newly redesigned inner courtyard.
The architecture is strongly focused on the protection and presentation of the objects. The street-facing articulation is small-scale and conveys the impression of three houses with vertical façade divisions and separate entrances, emphasising the neighbouring Goethe-Haus. Windows are placed sparingly for conservation reasons. Inside, a main staircase with an extended perspective, the so-called Himmelstreppe, leads to the upper exhibition levels; a blue bay window near the Goethe-Haus alludes as a symbol to the Blue Flower of Romanticism.