Jenisch-Haus

Current exhibitions

About the museum

In 1828, the Hamburg merchant and senator Martin Johan Jenisch acquired the southern part of the Flottbek country estate of Caspar Voght, who from 1785 had created a model estate here in the style of an English "ornamented farm". Jenisch gave up farming, had the grounds redesigned as a landscape park and had a summer house built from 1831 to 1834. The plans were drawn up by Franz Gustav Forsmann and revised by Karl Friedrich Schinkel; the result was a white, three-story cube with a Doric portico facing the Elbe.

The layout of the rooms reflects upper-middle-class life: reception rooms on the first floor, the family's living quarters above, and the servants on the low top floor. In 1927 the city of Altona leased the park to prevent the heirs from dividing it into lots and opened it to the public; at the end of the 1930s, the villa and park passed into municipal ownership. The house has been used as a museum since 1936, and in 1955 it was redesigned as a museum of Hanseatic domestic culture.

Today the rooms on the first floor display furniture, paintings and decorative arts from the Baroque through the Empire to the Biedermeier period, some of them from other bourgeois houses in Hamburg and Altona. The upper floors host changing exhibitions, mostly on the art, architecture and garden design of the early 19th century. Since 2008 the Jenisch Haus has been part of the Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg as a branch of the Altonaer Museum. The Ernst-Barlach-Haus is located in the same park.

Highlights

• White Hall with stucco, original parquet flooring and a chandelier designed by Schinkel
• Lower Elbe Salon with Empire furniture and a view over the Elbe
• Playable 1838 Erard fortepiano in the music salon
• Jenisch Room with mementos of the man who built the house
• Setting in Jenischpark, an important landscape garden on the Elbe

Permanent exhibitions

• Das Jenisch Haus – Wohnkultur des 19. Jahrhunderts – A sequence of historically furnished rooms on the first floor conveys how wealthy Hamburg families lived and entertained around the middle of the 19th century.

Founded

1936

Operated by

Stiftung Historische Museen Hamburg (Außenstelle des Altonaer Museums)

Admission & discounts

Free admission: October 31 (Reformation Day, #seeforfree campaign)

Free admission for, among others, members of the Deutscher Museumsbund, ICOM and the SHMH friends' associations, as well as for necessary companions of people with severe disabilities.

Accessibility

• Wheelchair accessible: not available
• Elevator: not available
• Accessible restroom: not available
• Accessible parking: no information
• Service dogs welcome
• Tactile models & exhibits: no information
• Sign language tours: no information
• Easy-to-read materials
• Audio description: no information

Assessed under the "Reisen für Alle" certification scheme. Not accessible due to heritage protection: access on foot through the park, entrance up six steps, no elevator; upper floors only by stairs, restrooms in the basement, no wheelchair-accessible restroom. The café, shop and rooms on the first floor are directly behind the main entrance. Assistance dogs allowed; short text in Easy Language (Einfache Sprache).

Kids & families

Great for kids & families

• Family tours & workshops
• Activity booklet, scavenger hunt or kids’ audio guide

Scavenger hunt for children through the house, family tours on Sundays for the special exhibitions, hands-on activities according to the calendar, and the holiday program of the SHMH; tours for daycare groups and school classes via the Museumsdienst Hamburg.

Getting there & parking

The house can only be reached on foot through Jenischpark; vehicle access into the park is only possible with a special permit. By car via the A7, exit Othmarschen, toward Klein Flottbek.

Amenities & dining

• Café
• Museum shop

Museum café "Schmidt und Schmidtchen" in the former billiard room (Wed–Sun 11:00–17:00, also for park visitors, terrace in good weather); bookstore next to the ticket desk. Annual summer festival in September.

Events & venue rental

• Spaces for rent
• Private parties
• Corporate events
• Weddings / ceremonies

Up to 70 guests.

The White Hall on the first floor can be rented for receptions, banquets, small concerts, readings and wedding celebrations (approx. 70 people); wedding ceremonies only with independent celebrants. Wedding photo shoots for a fee during opening hours. No pets, no open flames; windows and terrace doors stay closed.

Plan your visit