Archive and research institution

The archives of the Robert Schumann House hold the world’s largest Schumann collection.

Focus is the rich autobiographical, literary and critical Nachlass of the composer, enhanced by the holdings of manuscripts by Clara Schumann and numerous other composers of the 19thcentury, even substantially larger in volume. Major handwritten music scores include the sketches for his opera Genoveva Op. 81 and for Dichterliebe [The Poet’s Love] Op. 48, the working manuscripts for the Album für die Jugend [Album for the Young] Op. 68 and the Faschingsschwank aus Wien [Carnival Jest from Vienna] Op. 26 as well as the autograph score of the Overture to Hermann and Dorothea Op. 136.  

Alongside, there are several autograph albums, amongst which the so-called Brautbuch [Bridal Book] and the Endenich Blumentagebuch [Flower Diary] of Clara Schumann. The abundant picture collections include numerous early forms of photographs, as well as original paintings by artists Eduard Bendemann, Carl Jäger, Franz von Lenbach and others. Highlights are the Schumann collection of the first editions of his complete works amongst numerous other items of printed sheet music, and Clara Schumann’s complete programme collection amongst the extensive holdings of concert programme leaflets. 

Part of these precious holdings can be viewed at the Schumann House Museum in the permanent exhibition on the life and work of Robert and Clara Schumann (see there).

New acquisitions of the Robert Schumann House, inter alia, are regularly presented to the public in alternating special exhibitions. 

The Robert Schumann House with its extraordinarily rich archival holdings provides unique opportunities for biographical and musicological research on the artist couple and their contemporaries. The archives are a contact point for scholars and researchers from all over the world. At the same time, independent and mainly biography-oriented research at the Schumann House in Zwickau is continuously carried on to this day. A project of the German Research Foundation, in cooperation with the Dresden College of Music, is currently preparing a Schumann letter edition in Zwickau.

1976 saw the opening of a series of academic seminars on issues relating to Schumann research, documented in regular proceedings in the Schumann Studies series (edited on behalf of Robert-Schumann-Gesellschaft Zwickau [Robert Schumann Society of Zwickau] by Dr Gerd Nauhaus and printed by publisher Studio • Verlag , Zehnthofstraße 2, 53489 Sinzig, tel.: 02642/5919, fax: 02621/5917, cf. http://www.studiopunktverlag.de, e-mail: mail@studiopunktverlag.de).

 (Thomas Synofzik, translated by Thomas Henninger)