The building in which the Romantikerhaus Jena is located used to belong to the philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte, who acquired it in 1795. Fichte not only lived here, but also held his lectures in the rooms.

Since the Schlegel brothers' former home in the Döderlein'schen Haus at Leutragasse 5 was badly damaged in the Second World War and then demolished, the "Museum zur deutschen Frühromantik", opened in 1981, could only be set up in another historical building. The Romantikerhaus Jena introduces the most important protagonists and works of early Romanticism (August Wilhelm Schlegel and his wife Caroline, Friedrich Schlegel and his companion Dorothea Veit, Novalis, Tieck, Fichte and Schelling) and now belongs to the municipal institution Eigenbetrieb JenaKultur.