The Kleist Museum is the city's most distinctive museum and the main reason literary travellers come to Frankfurt an der Oder. It is devoted to Heinrich von Kleist, who was born here in 1777, and covers his short, intense life and the afterlife of his plays and stories.
The museum occupies a former garrison school with a modern extension. Exhibitions change, but the focus is always Kleist, his family circle, and the literary world around 1800. It is a focused stop rather than a general city museum, and best for visitors who already know a little of the writer or want to understand why the city claims him so strongly.