It was on the 28th of August, 1749, at the stroke of twelve noon, that I came into the world in Frankfurt on the Main.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ‚Poetry and Truth‘ (Dichtung und Wahrheit)

Johann Wolfgang Goethe was born in the house on Großer Hirschgraben and grew up there with his sister Cornelia at the home of his parents Imperial Councillor Johann Caspar and Catharina Elisabeth, fondly called Frau Aja. This is where the poet spent his childhood and most of his youth until he accepted an invitation to Weimar in 1775. Here Goethe created his impressive early work ‚Goetz von Berlichingen‘ and ‚The Sorrows of Young Werther‘ (Die Leiden des jungen Werthers), works that made him world famous overnight. At that time he also began working on the subject of Faust, which preoccupied him until the end of his life. In the unique atmosphere of the originally furnished rooms, the family life of the Goethes and 18th century Frankfurt come alive.

The Goethe-Haus has experienced a chequered history. It received its present appearance during the reconstruction of 1755/56. Goethe’s father completely remodelled the two attached halftimbered houses, which he had inherited, and erected a building in the style of the bourgeois Rococo. The Freies Deutsches Hochstift acquired it in 1863 and made it accessible to the public. It was totally destroyed in World War II, but reconstructed by 1951 true to the original structure.