Museumsportal Berlin

The Knoblauchhaus is an original town house at the Nikolaiviertel. As one of the few houses of the Old Berlin, it stayed mostly unharmed by war. Master craftsman Johann Christian Knoblauch commissioned it, as dwelling and office (Kontor) from 1759 to 1761; in 1806, its facade was redesigned in a classicist style. Until 1929, the building was property of the Knoblauch family. The family supplied the bigger part of its estate for the museum presentation which can be seen since 1989.

At the first upper floor, the well-known members of the family get introduced, their lives, and their merits for Berlin are documented. The genre of the "Zimmerbilder" (paintings on the interior of rooms) popular at the time of Biedermeier served as model to represent, with the legacy at the authentic place, the life style and the home decor of Henriette (1798-1821), Carl (1793-1859), Eduard (1801-1865), and Hermann (1820-1895) Knoblauch. The rooms are fit with the typical furniture of Biedermeier like davenport, work plate, and sofa, on the walls, there are family portraits and landscape paintings.

The binding in of individual lives into the economic, social, urban, and political context of the life in Berlin during the Biedermeier period takes place at the second upper floor. The topics dealt with are the Knoblauch silk trade, the Bohemian brewery, private parties and family life, construction in Berlin, and middle-class autonomy.