Friedrich Hölderlin lived in a tower in Tübingen from 1807. The poems he wrote there still invite questions, as do the circumstances of his life. The tower’s permanent exhibition tells the story of those years through his poetry, the people who visited him and the care provided by the Zimmer family. Questions about Hölderlin’s mental health remain a matter of debate.
A temporary exhibition, Schreiben für die Seele – von Hölderlin bis heute (‘Writing for the Soul: From Hölderlin to Today’), begins with those poems and asks what part writing might play during a crisis. Open since 11 September 2026 and curated by Sabrina Rosalie Rösch, it brings together autobiographical writing, literary accounts and forms of personal expression from the digital age. Interviews with writers, therapists, researchers and people who have experienced a crisis bring different kinds of knowledge and experience into the conversation.
The exhibition also traces changing ideas about writing and wellbeing. According to the museum’s introduction, writing could be regarded as a risk to health in Hölderlin’s time; today, it is often suggested as a possible aid to psychological wellbeing. Neither view makes writing a treatment with guaranteed effects. Instead, the exhibition considers what it may offer and where its limits lie.
At the end of the visit, a wall and a space in the tower’s second room offer prompts and exercises for anyone who wants to put their own thoughts into words. After encountering accounts written across different centuries and in different forms, visitors can decide for themselves what, if anything, they want to write.
