History of the house

Clara and Robert Schumann spent their happy first four years of marriage in the house at Inselstrasse 18, built by Friedrich August Scheidel in 1838 in the classicist style. On their 21st birthday, the newlyweds moved into their first domicile together in an up-and-coming new part of town that was becoming the center of the book trade. Numerous publishers and book printers settled there, including Breitkopf & Härtel and C. F. Peters as well as F. A. Brockhaus and Reclam.

The artist couple regularly welcomed famous personalities such as Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Franz Liszt and Hector Berlioz. It was in Inselstrasse that Robert Schumann composed some of his important works, for example Liebesfrühling op. 37 together with Clara, the Spring Symphony op. 38 and his Piano Quintet op. 44, which his wife premiered in the Gewandhaus.

Together with the free elementary school "Clara Schumann", the Schumann-Verein Leipzig e.V. and the Rahn Dittrich Group, which saved the house from decay in 1999, a unique symbiosis of museum, event venue and educational institution was created.

For the celebration year CLARA19, the Schumann House presented itself with a new museum concept in collaboration with curator Beatrix Borchard and Karsten Blum (exhibition design).