Cultuurhuis Edith Stein is the former town hall of Echt in the Dutch province of Limburg. The building dates from the nineteenth century and was converted into a cultural center and museum in 2019. It houses the Museum of the Woman, the Edith Stein Foundation, the Royal Harmony St. Caecilia and the local history association Echter Landj, Veldeke.
The culture house is named after Edith Stein, a learned religious woman who came to the Carmelite convent in Echt in 1938 in an attempt to escape the persecution of the Jews. However, during the Second World War she was arrested by the Gestapo, taken away and killed in Auschwitz.
The building was originally a town hall with public primary school and teacher's house. It was built in the years 1887-1888 in neo-Renaissance style after a design by the architects Johannes Kayser and Jean Speetjens. The building replaced an older building with the same function, the basement of which was preserved in the new building.
After some changes in the thirties and fifties of the twentieth century, the building was radically renovated in 1981 and a library was built on the site of the former classrooms on the ground floor and the walled playground behind the school. The former laundry room has been converted into a transformer room.
In 2019, the building was converted into a cultural center and museum.