Wittumspalais

The Wittumspalais in Weimar was built between 1767 and 1769 by Jakob Friedrich von Fritsch, Privy Councillor and Minister in Weimar, on the site of a former Franciscan monastery as a city palace. The design came from the Saxon state architect Johann Gottfried Schlegel. The building plot was very representative on the so-called Esplanade, today's Schillerstraße. After the Weimar Castle fire, Duchess Anna Amalia lived in the palace from May 1774 and acquired it in 1775 for a purchase price of 20,100 Reichstalers. Anna Amalia lived in the Wittumspalais until her death in 1807.

From 1775, the interiors were designed. The ceiling paintings are by Adam Friedrich Oeser. After 1807, the palace was managed by the Ducal Court Marshal's Office. From 1808 to 1848, the Weimar Masonic Lodge Amalia met in the building. From 1833 to 1848, sessions of the Landtag took place in the ballroom. In 1848, the library of the Reading Museum was moved to the Wittumspalais. From 1858, the painter Leopold Graf von Kalckreuth used the ballroom as a studio. The painter Friedrich Preller used this hall between 1864 and 1868 for his Odysseus cycle.

In 1870/71, Grand Duke Carl Alexander commissioned extensive restoration work. In 1919, the Goethe National Museum took over the Wittumspalais. The building was severely damaged in World War II; in 1949, it could be reopened as a museum. The living quarters offer a vivid picture of aristocratic living culture.

The Wittumspalais is part of the Classical Weimar ensemble, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998.