Hauptstaatsarchiv Stuttgart

Description

Housed in the Wilhelmspalais, the StadtPalais – Museum für Stuttgart presents the city’s history and was opened for this purpose in April 2018. The palais itself was once the residence of the last King of Württemberg, Wilhelm II, and from 1965 to 2011 served as the main headquarters of the Stuttgart City Library.

The establishment of the museum was the result of a subsequent urban planning decision: following the city council’s 1998 resolution, a new central library was built at Mailänder Platz in the Europaviertel, completed in October 2011. This freed the Wilhelmspalais for a new use. A realisation competition was held in 2009; after revision of the design the jury on 26 February 2010 unanimously recommended its further development. After a period of interim cultural use, conversion into the city museum began at the end of 2013; the museum opened on 14 April 2018. The conversion and fit-out costs were estimated at €38.3 million, including state funding.

The museum distributes its offerings across several levels: on the ground floor are the foyer, café, an event space and a special exhibition space. On the first floor the permanent exhibition “Stuttgarter Stadtgeschichten” presents central chapters of the city’s development across approximately 900 m². On the second floor there is another special exhibition area of around 450 m² with a focus on urban history and architecture. On the garden level the “Stadtlabor” houses the children’s area with a workshop of about 450 m² and an outdoor area.

The StadtPalais offers a broad educational programme for a variety of audiences: guided tours, workshops and formats for families, school classes, children and young people such as the “Kinderbaustelle”, participatory formats in the Stadtlabor, as well as accessibility-oriented offerings and public events such as discussion panels, film screenings and activity days. The Stadtmuseum Stuttgart also includes the Hegelhaus, the Stadtmuseum Bad Cannstatt, the Städtisches Lapidarium and the local history museums Möhringen and Plieningen.