Marbach am Neckar, Germany

Interior Restoration Schiller National Museum

Photo: Ute Zscharnt for David Chipperfield Architects

The Schiller National Museum, designed by the architects Ludwig Eisenlohr and Carl Weigle, was completed in 1903 and expanded in 1934 by the city master builder Keim. It is situated on the hills overlooking the Neckar valley and forms an ensemble of buildings together with the German Literature Archive, built in the 1970s, and the Museum of Modern Literature, completed by David Chipperfield Architects in 2006. A registered landmark, the building plays a special architectural role in the group, with its functional and typological overlapping of museum, memorial, archive and library. Dedicated to honouring the memory of Friedrich Schiller, the building stylistically reflects the classical period. Free from war damage and in continuous use since its completion, the historic substance is conserved in several main parts of the building. The interior modernisation includes the exhibition rooms on the main floor as well as the rooms at the lower level. The attic had already been rebuilt during the modernisation of the roof, the facade and the windows several years previously. The exhibition rooms on the main floor, which were last redesigned in the 1970s, have been brought up to date in terms of technical facilities for the presentation of original exhibits. To better reflect the existing structural conditions of the building, the carpet was removed and replaced with coloured linoleum. Keeping in mind the original surviving building parts, the rooms were repainted and now present a succession of rooms in the style typical of the Weimar classic period. The largely conserved axis of the house with the vestibule, stairwell and Schiller hall form the heart of the museum. During restoration the white emulsion paint covering the stuccoed walls and ceiling was carefully removed and the exposed remains of the polychrome layer were carefully touched up.

Photo: Ute Zscharnt for David Chipperfield Architects

The garden room, the central room on the lower level, will be used as a museum café. The rooms in the wings were rebuilt to supplement the in-house building services and infrastructure, and include a continuous passage to the German Literature Archive and the Museum of Modern Literature.