Erich Kästner Museum, Literary museum in Dresden, Germany
The Erich Kästner Museum is a literary memorial housed in the Villa Augustin, a late 19th-century villa in the Loschwitz district of Dresden. The rooms are arranged around different periods of the author's life and display first editions, handwritten manuscripts, and personal objects.
Kästner was born in Dresden in 1899 and grew up there before moving to Munich, where he spent most of his adult life and career. The museum opened in 1999 to mark the centenary of his birth, choosing the Villa Augustin as its home in his native city.
Kästner grew up in Dresden and later wrote about the city with a mix of affection and sharp observation. His most famous children's book, Emil and the Detectives, is set in Berlin, but his Dresden childhood shaped the way he saw and described the world.
The museum sits in the Loschwitz neighborhood, a hillside area above the Elbe, most easily reached by tram or the historic funicular that runs up from the riverbank. Once there, the villa and its garden are easy to navigate on foot.
A bronze sculpture of the young Kästner is set into a niche on the villa's facade, easy to miss if you walk straight inside. In front of the building, visitors hang pairs of shoes from an old tree, a habit that has quietly grown into a local custom over the years.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 60,000 contributors worldwide.
