Estonian literary classic A. H. Tammsaare (1878-1940) is located in Kadriorg, in a historicist cottage-type house. It was in this building that the writer lived between 1932 and 1940 and where he died. The writer’s widow, Käthe Hansen, wanted their home to be a museum one day. This dream has now come true, with the opening of the museum on the centenary of the writer’s 30th birthday, 01. 1978. On the second floor of the house is the writer’s five-room apartment, furnished in its original style. It was here that Tammsaare wrote his work of the 1930s.

After the writer moved to what was popularly known as Luther’s furniture factory pasture, the building was soon dubbed “Tammsaare House”. At the time of the Republic of Estonia, Tammsaare’s house and the two outbuildings that were later built around it were surrounded by a large garden, which, as today, was bordered by Koidula, Faehlmann and Köler streets. The owner of the houses was ship’s captain Hermann Soone, who bought the house in 1920. Hermann Soone died in 1942. deported in Siberia.

Events related to Tammsaare’s house suggest its mythological nature. When the evacuation began during the war, Tammsaare’s widow Käthe was given material to build a shelter, which she brought from Lasnamäe in a horse-drawn carriage. The shelter ran in a straight line from the front façade towards Koidula Street: its walls and ceiling were covered with a board lining, with a high mound on top. In the event of an air raid, Käthe Hansen ran to the shelter with the children and the manuscripts of the novels packed in a suitcase.

Käthe Hansen also acted selflessly during the German occupation, going to the German commander and asking him to place anti-aircraft guns at the “Tammsaare house”, which was done: the guns were placed on two sides of the house. Unfortunately, during the March 9 air raid, one of the houses in the garden was hit by bombs and the house was in danger of catching fire, according to legend, a gust of wind from the “right direction” saved the house. Riita Hansen, daughter of Tammsaare, made a table lamp from the shell of an air-hammer.

The veranda of a house built in the second half of the 19th century is a separate attraction. The veranda windows with mouldings and stained glass speak of the luxury of a holiday home built for bathers. On the veranda, you could enjoy the light, brightness and warmth of the short Nordic summer to the full, drink coffee, read or chat.

In the second wing of the museum, there is an interactive exhibition on Tammsaare’s life and legacy, which tries to look at the world through Tammsaare’s eyes and approaches the writer through keywords such as landscapes, cities, people and society.

The museum’s collections include more than 9,000 items, including the writer’s death mask and violin, and his home archive, which contains manuscripts, correspondence, documents and photographs.

30.01.1978-01.03.1940

Anton Hansen-Tammsaare is Estonia’s most famous writer, whose main work “Truth and Justice” is known to almost every Estonian. Underneath the public status of writer, however, lies a man with a complex life, a sensitive nature and a very broad knowledge. In literary history, Tammsaari has been portrayed as a reclusive, self-absorbed man, a little boring. However, Tammsaare kept away from ceremonies and large crowds. In terms of his character, Tammsaare was in fact very sociable, talkative, amusing and charming.

Tammsaare finally moved to Tallinn on September 1, 1919. Before that, he had also lived in Tallinn for a short time and worked as a journalist. When I left journalism to join the University of Tartu, I often changed residence: In Tartu, he was forced to abandon his final exams and move away to his brother’s house in Koitjärvi to try to overcome his advanced tuberculosis; from Koitjärvi he travelled to the Caucasus, where he finally managed to put a stop to the disease in the Estonian settlement of Punase Lageda. After a couple of years in the Caucasus, Tammsaare returned to Koitjärvi, from where the road soon led to Tartu again – for a difficult stomach operation, the likelihood of success of which was considered remote.

The writer, who had miraculously escaped death twice, remained in Koitjärvi for several years after his operation, where the upheavals in his personal life and in society (World War I) provoked deep inner crises and changes in him, the result of which finally found expression in his magnificent and distinctive work.

In 1919, Tammsaare moved to Tallinn again in connection with his marriage. The writer’s first apartment was on Õuna Street, after that he lived on Toom-Kuninga Street, and the family’s (wife Käthe and their two children, daughter Riita and son Eerik) last residence was the house at Koidula 12A in Kadriorg. Tammsaare died of a heart attack at his home on 1 March 1940, aged 62.

A. H. Tammsaare’s books 1907 – 1940.

1907 “Under investigation” ; “Money-hole”
1908 “Long steps”
1909 “Young hinges”
1910 “Across the border”
1913 “Old and young”
1915 “The Boy and the Butterfly” ; “On Language and Poetry”
1917 “Shadows” ; “Fly”
1919 “Thoughts of war”
1920 “Money hole”
1921 “Judith” ; “Long Steps”
1922 “The innkeeper” ; “The boy and the butterfly” ; “In search of”
1923 “The Little Boy” ; “Young Souls” ; “Across the Border” ; “Shadows”
1924 “Two Couples and a Single and Other Stories” ; “Sic transit…”; “The Fly” ; “Old and Young”.
1925 “An important day and True Yes”
1926 “Truth and Justice” ; “The Landlord of the Abbey” ;
1929 “Truth and Justice” II ; “Truth and Justice” I
1931 “Truth and Justice” III
1932 “Truth and Justice” IV ; “Our fox”
1933 “Truth and Justice” V
1934 “Life and Love”
1935 “I loved a German”
1936 “The King is Cold” ; “Truth and Justice” V ; “Old and Young” ; “Judith”
1937 “Landlord of the Kõrboja” ; “Landlord of the Kõrboja” (play in collaboration with Andres Särevi); “Andres and Pearu” (dramatisation by Andres Särevi).
1938 “The Chinese and the Chinaman” ; “Truth and Justice” II
1939 “The New Old Pagan of the Bottomless Pit”
1940 “Truth and Justice” I ; “Truth and Justice” IV ; “The New Old Dwarf of the Hellhole” ; “The New Old Dwarf of the Hellhole” (dramatisation by Andres Särevi).
After Tammsaare’s death, numerous reprints and two series of his works have been published.
1952 – 1976 “Works”, 14 volumes
1978 – 1993 “Collected works”, 18 volumes

In A. H. Tammsaare’s translation has been published:
N.A. D´Essar “Song of lost love” (1901)
B. Lindemann “Earth” (1912)
M. Pemberton “The city under the sea” (1912)
E. Rosen “German hammock in America” (1912)
D. Merezkovski “Julianus Taganeja” (1913)
J. Schaffner “The iron false god” (1913)
N. Jevreinov “Wonders of Nature” I-II (1913-1914)
Leo Tolstoy’s “The Death of Ivan Ilyich” (1914)
M. Reissner “We – the Baltic” (1915)
L. Pihkala’s “Boys’ Sports Education” (1918)
H. G. Wells “In the Year of the Sabatah” (1920)
N. Jevreinov “The Most Important” (1921)
G.Schwab “Homer’s Iliad” (1923)
S.Lagerlöf “Mr. Arne’s Treasure”, “The Soosaun’s Daughter” , “The Story of a Manor” (1926).
W. Scott “Ivanhoe” (1926)
F. Marryat “The Pirate of Tubli, or, “The Pacific Shipwreck” (1927)
J. Galsworthy’s “White Ape” (1928)
K. Hamsun “Viktoria” (1928)
O.Wilde “Dorian Gray portrait” (1929)
F. Dostoyevsky “Crime and Punishment” I-II (1929)
J. Conrad “Lord Jim” (1931)
G. B. Shaw “Back to Metusala” (1931)
I. Goncharov “Oblomov” (1934)
T. H. Lawrence ” Seven Wisdoms” (1939)
Tammsaare’s translations as footnotes:
– N. Leikini’s news story “Double slavery”, “Teataja” 1903, no. 274-282
– St. Zeromski “The Ashes and the Inferno”, “The Journal” 1905 no. 138-245,
– G. Gussev-Orenbursky “The Land of the Fathers”, “Teataja” 1905 no. 246-268.
– K. Hamsun’s short story “Dreamer”, “Päevaleht” 1918, no.3-19

Koidula 12 A
Tallinn 10125
Phone: +3726013232
tammsaare@kirjanduskeskus.ee
Group bookings: mari@kirjanduskeskus.ee

Museum is open Tue, Thu-Sat 11-17, Wed 11-18.

You can get to the museum from the city center by trams 1 and 3 (Kadriorg stop) or by buses going towards Pirita (Uus-Sadama stop).
You can park in the courtyard of the museum (entrance from Köleri street).