This is the house where Germany's most famous graphic artist, painter and art theoretician, Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), lived for almost 20 years from 1509 onwards, and it is also where he died. Miraculously, it has survived almost unaltered – the only Renaissance artist's home still in existence outside Italy. It is also one of the few surviving merchant's houses from Nuremberg's Golden Age, and is the only 15th century artist's home to survive in Northern Europe. The City of Nuremberg opened it in 1828 as the world's first memorial to an artist. It became a museum in 1871. Today, its rooms convey an authentic feel of the times, and reflect the building's history as the first German museum dedicated to an artist. The Graphic Art Cabinet houses changing exhibitions from the city's extensive art collections, and the Dürer Room presents rare copies of Dürer's paintings.

The Albrecht Dürer's House is part of the network of the Nuremberg Municipal Museums, which includes the following institutions: Museum Tucher Mansion and Hirsvogel Hall, City Museum at Fembo House, Art Collections, Toy Museum, Museum for Industrial Culture, Documentation Center Nazi Party Rally Grounds, Memorium Nuremberg Trials, German Games Archive, World War II Art Bunker and Medieval Dungeons.