Museum Casa di Goethe
The Casa di Goethe Museum is the only German museum outside Germany. The Casa di Goethe is run by the Arbeitskreis selbständiger Kultur-Institute e.V. (AsKI) and is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. The museum is dedicated to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German writer, poet, dramatist, essayist, painter, theologian, philosopher, humanist, scientist, art and music critic, and in particular to his ‘Italian Journey’: an educational journey (Grand Tour) that Goethe undertook from 3 September 1786 to 18 June 1788 and whose travelogue was written down in the book of the same name published between 1813 and 1817. The museum is housed in a building complex from the second half of the 16th century, which only took on its current form after later restoration and remodelling in the second half of the 19th century. It extends over the first floor of the house, where the famous poet lived during his stay in Rome, and the second floor, where lectures, readings and conferences in Italian and German are held; these are dedicated to cultural exchange between the two nations. The second floor also houses the winners of the scholarship, which is funded by the Karin and Uwe Hollweg Foundation in Bremen. The Casa di Goethe also houses a Goethe library, the only one of its kind in Italy, which was created through the acquisition of Richard W. Dorn’s private collection and the constant updating and expansion by the AsKI. Since 2012, the Casa di Goethe has also housed the historical library and archive of the German Artists’ Association in Rome. With this collection, the museum has become an important research centre for the German presence and art in Rome, not only in Goethe’s time, but also throughout the 19th century.
