Nietzsche-Haus Sils Maria

About the museum

In the roughly 200-year-old house in the centre of Sils Maria, Friedrich Nietzsche rented a simple room in the summers of 1881 and 1883 to 1888. The building belonged to the Durisch family and later served for a time as staff accommodation for the Hotel Edelweiss. When it was sold in 1958 and was to be put to commercial use, several prominent figures campaigned for its preservation; in 1959 the Nietzsche-Haus Foundation in Sils-Maria was established, which acquired the house, carefully renovated it and set up a museum. It opened on 25 August 1960, the sixtieth anniversary of Nietzsche's death.

The foundation remains the operator to this day and pursues a threefold concept: an exhibition on the life and work of the philosopher, a place to live, work and conduct research with study stays of up to three weeks, and changing exhibitions of contemporary art. The holdings are based largely on donations, above all the collection of the antiquarian Albi Rosenthal and his wife Maud Rosenthal-Levy, with autographs, first editions and photographs, which passed in its entirety to the foundation in 1994.

Since June 2021 the house has shown a fundamentally renewed, biographical-chronological permanent exhibition that also explains key concepts of Nietzsche's thought. The captions are concise; detailed explanations in four languages are available in a text booklet and on a mobile website. Also on view are Nietzsche's originally preserved room and his Basel furniture. In 2025 Nietzsche's literary estate was inscribed in the UNESCO "Memory of the World" register.

Highlights

• Nietzsche's originally preserved room from his Sils summers
• Newly designed permanent exhibition on life and work (since 2021)
• Nietzsche's furniture from his Basel period
• Manuscripts and first editions from the Rosenthal-Levy collection
• Reading corner in front of the glass window by Gerhard Richter

Permanent exhibitions

• Leben und Werk von Friedrich Nietzsche – Biographical-chronological exhibition in three rooms, from childhood and the Basel professorship through the years as a freelance philosopher to the reception of his work, with manuscripts and first editions from the Rosenthal-Levy collection.
• Nietzsche-Zimmer – The plain room on the first floor that Nietzsche occupied for seven summers, in its original state with furniture from the Hotel Alpenrose and a piece of wallpaper from 1883.
• Nietzsches Basler Möbel – Furniture from Nietzsche's Basel household, including his armchair, as a counterpart to the simplicity of the Sils room.

Founded

1960

Operated by

Stiftung Nietzsche-Haus in Sils Maria

Director

Peter Villwock (Kustos)

Admission & discounts

Introductions are organised by the Sils cultural office KUBUS (info@kubus-sils.ch, +41 81 826 52 24).

Accessibility

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Kids & families

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Getting there & parking

Address: Via da Marias 67, Sils Maria.

Amenities & dining

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Events & venue rental

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