The Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf is one of the three largest Goethe archives and research centres and hosts the largest private Goethe collection, consisting of around 50,000 items. The institution consists of the Museum, the Archive, the Research Library, the Art Collection, and a venue for cultural events.

Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf  is a short form of reference for the Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf/Anton-und-Katharina-Kippenberg-Stiftung.  The Goethe-Museum Düsseldorf  was founded in 1953 by two heiresses of Professor Anton Kippenberg, the erstwhile publisher of the Insel Publishing House. The statutory prerequiste and basis of the Foundation is a contract agreed by the Foundation and the two heiresses with the City of Duesseldorf on 13th February 1953, which, in conjunction with a subsequent contract between the Foundation and the Goethe Museum, secures the location "Schloss Jägerhof" and financial support from the city. The Museum was opened on 30th June 1956.

The cultural-historical Museum displays the permanent exhibition Goethe and his Age, consisting of original manuscipts, books, paintings, drawings, busts and arts and crafts, in an architecturally outstanding building dating from the 18th century: Schloss Jägerhof, built on behalf of Elector Palatine Charles Theodore.

Goethe's work ranks among the highest achievements of German culture and lives on in the present day. This fact was confirmed in a poll carried out as recently as August 2015 (YouGov; see FAZ, 10.08.15 und „Rheinische Post“, 10.08.15: „So ticken die Deutschen“).

The function and the goal of the Museum is to explore the work historically and to document its reception in world and contemporary literature. The Museum and Archive see themselves as a modern centre for knowledge and communication, in which the tasks of collecting, researching and communicating are focussed towards the present day. The goal is not the veneration of a plaster bust but a lively and critical engagement with a complex universal genius.

Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf


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