Telemann Museum

The Telemann Museum in Hamburg, opened in May 2011 by the Hamburg Telemann Society, is the first museum in the world dedicated to the composer Georg Philipp Telemann. Following a move as part of the creation of a composers' quarter on Peterstraße, it has housed its exhibitions in larger rooms since 2015. The display focuses on the more than forty years during which Telemann shaped the musical life of the Hanseatic city. Here you can learn more about his wide-ranging work as a church musician, as an opera composer at the Gänsemarkt Opera, and as a shaper of public musical life. At the heart of the exhibition are valuable original documents, including the handwritten text of the dedication cantata for the Nienstedten Church from 1751 and a libretto of the oratorio for the consecration of the new St. Michael's Church from 1762. One particular highlight is a spinet by the instrument maker Thomas Hitchcock from 1730, which is displayed in the room. The museum's offerings are rounded out by a library that has been collecting books on Telemann and Hamburg's musical culture of the 18th century since 1958.