From May 1907 to October 1908, the Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863-1944) lived in the Baltic Sea resort of Warnemünde. He recovers from a deep life crisis in the fisherman's house Am Strom 53 and spends 18 artistically extremely productive months here.

In 1990, the house, which dates back to the 17th century, was placed under a preservation order. In order to preserve the memory of Edvard Munch and to preserve the historically interesting fisherman's house, the Edvard Munch House Association (Förderverein Edvard-Munch-Haus e.V. Warnemünde) was founded in December 1994.

With the help of generous donations from Norway and Germany, the house is renovated to be a listed building and opened in May 1998 by Bundestag President Rita Süssmuth and Stortings President Kirsti Kolle Grøndal.

Since then, artists of various media from Germany and Norway have been living, painting, writing and making music in the Edvard Munch House and then presenting their work to the public. The house is a studio, forum and shared stage in equal measure.

In October 2014, the Edvard Munch House was honoured with the Norwegian-German Willy Brandt Foundation Award for its extraordinary contribution to the promotion of German-Norwegian relations.