The new Buddenbrookhaus

In 2020, the Buddenbrookhaus at Mengstraße 4 will close its doors. The museum is to be structurally expanded and given a completely new exhibition. Until we can welcome you back to the famous site of the Buddenbrook novels, we will be there for you at two other locations in Lübeck:
At the Museum Behnhaus Drägerhaus, Tony Buddenbrook himself will be waiting to guide you through the Buddenbrook family's temporary quarters during the years of construction. Here you will learn a lot about the world of the Buddenbrooks, about Lübeck and, of course, about Thomas and Heinrich Mann.
In the information centre and museum shop "Buddenbrooks am Markt", directly between St. Mary's Church and the historic town hall, you can get comprehensive information about the renovation of the museum and discover many a speciality in the shop.

The Buddenbrookhaus enjoys international significance as a place of remembrance and as a novel setting in the middle of the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Lübeck Old Town". It is the world's only memorial to the famous Mann family of writers. After more than twenty years of existence, an expansion and renovation of the house is necessary. Both the exhibition and the rooms are getting on in years and need to be brought up to date. More space is needed for the numerous events, guided tours and for the growing archive. The museum will also be equipped with barrier-free access. Only in this way can the museum continue to fulfil its role as a museum and research centre, as well as its cultural significance far beyond Lübeck.

The Buddenbrookhaus at Mengstaße 4 will probably remain closed until 2023 because the renovation is proving to be complex. In order to gain space, the neighbouring property at Mengstraße 6 has also been acquired. The parts of the two houses that are not listed (reconstructions from the 1950s) will be demolished in the course of the conversion. The baroque façade of the Buddenbrookhaus and the Gothic-looking façade of the adjacent house at Mengstraße 6 as well as the medieval vaulted cellars and the historic fire walls will be preserved.

"From the parental home to humanity" - these words of Heinrich Mann set the direction of the new permanent exhibition. It aims to create an arc from the Lübeck origins of the writer brothers Heinrich and Thomas Mann to their "becoming of the world", which springs from their cosmopolitan attitude and their international success. The NEW Buddenbrookhaus traces this line biographically and literarily. Modern exhibition technology - including innovative mediaguide and museum assistance systems - enables personalised visitor guidance that is geared to the individual needs, expectations and interests of the visitors. They become protagonists in a museum that functions as a sensory experience space.

No, not in this form. The Beletage of the permanent exhibition from 2000 to 2019 will not be restaged in the new house. The world of Buddenbrooks, however, awaits visitors on the ground floor of the new building. In a scenography and architecture that is historically inspired and quotes in form and structure the floorboards of old Lübeck merchants' houses, the visitors get a feeling for the historical space and the splendour of the merchant patriciate, to which the Manns also belonged. The Lübeck novels of Thomas and Heinrich Mann fit into this world of bourgeois merchant tradition.

Yes, the Buddenbrooks and the Mann family can be found at three locations in the city in the meantime. At location 1, the property at Mengstraße 4 and 6, a spectacular construction site will cause amazement. At a second location, the Museum Behnhaus Drägerhaus at Königstraße 9-11, the Buddenbrooks as well as Heinrich and Thomas Mann will be guests in an interim exhibition. At location 3 - prominently situated between the town hall and St. Mary's Church in the inner courtyard of the town hall - the information centre "Buddenbrooks am Markt" has everything you need to know about the reconstruction. Here, we answer your questions digitally, in print and in person. In addition, a selected assortment of texts by and about the Mann family, as well as original souvenirs and gift ideas, are offered.