Ernst Barlach Museum Ratzeburg--Altes Vaterhaus, German expressionist art museum in Ratzeburg, Germany.

The Ernst Barlach Museum Ratzeburg occupies a residential building with classical architecture that displays sculptures, prints, and personal documents from the artist's life. The exhibition spreads across two floors and shows bronze sculptures alongside ceramics, lithographs, and woodcuts created throughout different periods of his career.

The single-storey eaves house with four garden columns was built around 1840 in rural classicist style and is attributed to Danish court architect Christian Frederik Hansen. In 1878 Dr. Georg Barlach bought it for 13,000 marks next to St. Petri Church, housing his practice and family; Ernst lived here six years until his father's death in 1884. From 1941 it served as the St. Petri pastors' residence and parish office; the Ernst Barlach Gesellschaft Hamburg acquired it in 1956 and opened West Germany's first Barlach museum that year.

Barlach called the building "my father's house" in his autobiography Ein selbsterzähltes Leben, recalling the six years he lived there as a child. Since 1956 the Ernst Barlach Gesellschaft Hamburg has run the museum, and for over a decade the artist's only son, Nikolaus Barlach, served as curator and lived in the house with his family.

The museum sits in the center of Ratzeburg and is easy to reach from the old town. Allow enough time to explore both the artworks and the documentary materials at a comfortable pace.

Barlach was not only a sculptor but also a writer and created plays that reflected his political beliefs. The museum displays these literary works alongside his visual art, showing how he expressed himself through multiple creative forms.