E.T.A. Hoffmann's former home in Bamberg, now a municipal museum – closed for renovation and redesign until probably after 2027.
April 29, 2026 – November 1, 2026
Anniversary exhibition for the 250th birthday at the Historisches Museum Bamberg (Alte Hofhaltung): the famous "Apfelweibla" (apple woman door knocker) meets 1960s Pop Art and works by winners of the Kunstverein Bamberg's Berganza Prize.
The writer, composer, draftsman and jurist E.T.A. Hoffmann lived from 1809 to 1813 on the two upper floors of the narrow house on today's Schillerplatz, then Zinkenwörth No. 50. His Bamberg years, during which he worked as music director and theater composer, are considered formative for his later literary work. A memorial plaque has commemorated him since 1908.
On April 6, 1930, a circle of Hoffmann admirers set up a memorial in the rooms; the driving force was the psychologist and publisher Wilhelm Ament, who gathered first editions, manuscripts and prints. This collection later went to the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg (State Library). The E.T.A. Hoffmann-Gesellschaft, founded in 1938, looked after the house for decades and transformed it into a place of remembrance with imaginatively staged rooms, where artistic installations replaced the barely surviving original furnishings – among them a mirror cabinet, a paper theater, a recreated opera box, a music cabinet and the "Zaubergarten" (Magic Garden) based on motifs from "Der goldne Topf" (The Golden Pot).
In 2020 the City of Bamberg took over the house, and since 2022 it has been part of the Museen der Stadt Bamberg (Bamberg municipal museums). On November 1, 2022, it was closed and cleared so that the building could be thoroughly renovated and the museum redesigned. Federal funding for this was approved in early 2026. After reopening, a new permanent exhibition and temporary exhibitions on Hoffmann's work and on Romanticism are to be shown. In the 2026 anniversary year marking Hoffmann's 250th birthday, the municipal museums are presenting a substitute exhibition at the Historisches Museum.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
The museum hasn’t published any information on this – please ask the museum directly.
| Good to know | Program of events for the 2026 Hoffmann anniversary (readings, talks, guided tours) through the Museen der Stadt Bamberg. |
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