"Gerhart Hauptmann House" City Museum

The "Gerhart Hauptmann House" City Museum occupies the villa of the German writer and Nobel laureate in Jagniątków, a district of Jelenia Góra. The exhibition tells the story of Hauptmann's life and work amid interiors that he himself designed and used.

A villa designed for the writer

The house, also known by its German name Wiesenstein, was built in 1901 to a design by the Berlin architect Hans Grisebach. Gerhart Hauptmann lived and worked in it, and the building has retained to this day the layout of interiors connected with his everyday life, including the polychrome decoration of the main hall.

From a holiday home to a museum

After the Second World War, until 1997, the building housed a children's holiday centre called "Warszawianka". The biographical museum devoted to the writer opened in 2005, and its creation was supported by efforts of Polish and German figures engaged in bringing the two countries closer together, including former prime minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki and former German chancellor Helmut Kohl.

What to see inside

The permanent exhibition presents book editions, photographs, personal items and works of art connected with Hauptmann, arranged so as to bring visitors closer to the atmosphere of the early twentieth century. The museum also organises temporary exhibitions, lectures, literary workshops and theatrical events promoting the culture of the Karkonosze Mountains.

An institution for the heritage of the borderland

The museum's statutory aim is to cultivate the multicultural heritage of Lower Silesia, to which the work of Gerhart Hauptmann belongs in a particular way, as a writer who wrote in German but was connected with this region for most of his life. For this reason the exhibition is not limited to the writer's biography alone, but places it in the wider context of the history of the Karkonosze Mountains and Jagniątków.

Nearby, at the foot of the Karkonosze

Jagniątków is close to other attractions of the region. Within a radius of a few kilometres lie Chojnik Castle, the Szklarka Waterfall and viewpoints in the higher parts of the mountains, including Śnieżne Kotły and the rocky Chybotek.

Practical information

• Address: Michałowicka 32, Jelenia Góra (Jagniątków district)
• Group visits require advance booking via the form on the museum's website
• The venue provides an accessibility statement; it is worth checking opening hours and visiting rules on the website before a visit