Opened in 2021 next to Goethe’s birthplace on Grosser Hirschgraben, the German Romanticism Museum in Frankfurt is the first museum dedicated entirely to the German Romantic era. Designed by Mäckler Architekten, the new building captures the spirit of Romanticism with spatial compositions that reflect themes of introspection, longing, and the infinite.
Address/Directions
Deutsches Romantik-Museum
Großer Hirschgraben 23-25
60311 BerlinFrankfurt am Main
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“With differentiated entrances, carefully articulated windows, and expressive bay elements, the interior engages with the city outside—allowing the spirit of Romanticism to find architectural expression in the streetscape. The outer walls of our houses are the inner walls of public space.”
The museum forms a unified ensemble with the adjacent Goethe House. Its tripartite façade continues the fine-grained rhythm of the surrounding streetscape. Each façade segment has its own entrance, corresponding to different functions within: the collection, temporary exhibitions, and educational programming. Variations in height, proportion, color, and material add further depth.
To admit daylight while protecting sensitive exhibits, the architects placed the circulation staircase along the façade. This spatial move creates a dramatic interior gesture—a so-called “sky staircase” that ascends diagonally from street level. Painted in deep blue and narrowing in both width and height, the stairwell evokes the Romantic symbol of the blue flower: a metaphor for yearning, love, and transcendence.
Across 1,200 square meters and three floors, the museum presents handwritten letters, poems, and paintings from the Romantic period. These treasures are part of a collection the Freies Deutsches Hochstift has assembled since 1911. Many documents, including works by Novalis, Eichendorff, and the Brentano siblings, are displayed in specially lit wooden vitrines that protect them from light damage. Hidden lighting activates only when a visitor opens a case—underscoring the Romantic tension between revelation and concealment.
To complement the museum’s refined, emotionally rich interior, the architects selected the FSB 1106 model. With its gentle curves and classic proportions, the handle harmonizes with the museum’s understated materiality and Romantic sensibility. It appears throughout as a window handle, door lever, and frame-mounted lever.
Also specified were the accessible set FSB 4240 and the FSB 0802 doorknob—with and without knurling. Together, these elements echo the museum’s theme: that opening and closing—literal or poetic—can become an act of discovery and reflection.
