View of the Ernst Haeckel House from the east

Ernst-Haeckel-Haus

View of the Ernst Haeckel House from the east
Image: Jürgen Scheere (University of Jena)

The Ernst-Haeckel-Haus, built in the Italian country house style as a “Villa Medusa” in 1882-3, was the residence and workplace of the biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). The house together with its archive and memorial museum were opened as a research site external to the university on the 31st of October 1920, one year after his death. While it was previously a commemorative site, it now fosters critical perspectives on the history of science in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Today the Ernst-Haeckel-Haus is an institution of the Faculty of Biological Sciences and houses the Chair for the History and Philosophy of Science as well as a museum and an archive. To mark Ernst Haeckel’s centenary (2019), the building underwent a renovation and restoration in the years 2017-2021.

Ernst Haeckel Haus (Historisches Arbeitszimmer)
Exhibition on the Life and Work of Ernst Haeckel
The drawer cabinet in the Villa Medusa
Nachlässe and Research Library
Ernst Haeckel in profile, oil painting by Karl Bauer
Supporting Association Ernst-Haeckel-Haus e.V.
Die Rittersche Ladungssäule im Ernst-Haeckel-Haus
Historical retrospective & former employees
Title page of Ernst Haeckel's "Anthropogeny and Evolutionary History of Man" from 1874
Historical-critical perspectives on Ernst Haeckel