Edith Stein House at 38 Nowowiejska Street in Wrocław is an exceptional place on the map of the capital of Lower Silesia. Edith Stein, Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, lived here between 1910 and 1933. After her death she was proclaimed a saint and co-patron of Europe.
Edith Stein settled here with her Jewish family at the age of 19. From this place she used to head for the University of Wrocław. Here she decided to continue her studies in Göttingen. She returned to this house from Fribourg, after resigning from her assistantship with Professor Husserl. Here, in the living room on the first floor, she was conducting her private philosophical seminar. In this house she told her mother and other family members that she wanted to be baptized in the Catholic Church. From this house she embarked on a journey to Carmel in Cologne, never to return to this house again…
Currently, the Edith Stein House, as the headquarters of the Edith Stein Society in Wrocław, is widely accessible to visitors. There are permanent exhibitions presented here: “Edith Stein. The Wroclawian woman, philosopher, saint, patroness of Europe” and “White Rose. Student resistance movement against Hitler in Munich 1942/1943”.
Edith Stein House acts as a research center dedicated to her ideas, persona and testimony. It is also a meeting place for Polish, German and Jewish nations and a place of an inter-religious Christian-Jewish dialogue. It organizes scientific conferences, lectures, exhibitions and concerts, film screenings and lectures, language courses and youth exchanges. It also houses the Library, the “Conference Center” and the “Cultural Cellar”.