The Kirchner Museum Davos keeps numerous documents and correspondences relating to the life and work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. This specialist library holds more than 10,000 publications and is constantly expanded. Because the collection focuses on Kirchner and Expressionism, the library has books and magazines from 1905 to the present day, as well as copies of films and TV documentaries on Kirchner.
All of library’s titles are inventoried in the Graubünden library network and can be found in the online catalogue.
The specialist library and the archive are not open to the public. Please call or email to inquire about using the library and visitor hours:
In addition to documents related to Kirchner’s family history, the museum has been collecting manuscripts of the artist which contain information on the artist’s biography and theory of art.
Various correspondences between Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Erna Schilling have been archived, some in their original form and some in the form of transcripts or copies. In addition to the extensive Grisebach-Spengler letter archive (gift of the estate of Lothar Grisebach, 2010), the museum preserves correspondences with, among others, Frédéric Bauer, Erwin Friedrich Baumann, Rudolf Gaberel, Will Grohmann, Carl Hagemann, Ulrich Kirchner, Karl Im Obersteg, Karl Ernst Osthaus, and Georg Reinhart, which were gifted by private individuals and public institutions.
The estate of manuscripts of the Dresden-based Kirchner scholar Bernd Hünlich comprises four binders. The focus of these writings is on the topographical and historical identification of the subjects of Kirchner’s works – especially those of the Dresden and Berlin years. In addition, Hünlich’s lectures and essays are extensively documented.