Weimar
Weimar is a
city in
Germany. It is located in the
Bundesland of
Thuringia (
German:
Thüringen), north of the
Thüringer Wald, east of
Erfurt, and southwest of
Halle and
Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 62,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year
899. Weimar was the capital of the duchy (after 1815 the grand duchy) of
Saxe-Weimar (German
Sachsen-Weimar).
Weimar is one of the great
cultural sites of
Europe, having been home to such luminaries as
Goethe,
Schiller, and
Herder. It has been a site of
pilgrimage for the German intelligentsia since Goethe first moved to Weimar in the late
18th century. The tombs of Goethe, Schiller, and
Nietzsche, as well as their archives, may be found in the city.
The period in
German history from
1919-
1933 is commonly referred to as the
Weimar Republic, as the Republic's
constitution was drafted here because the capital,
Berlin, with its street
rioting after the
1918 German Revolution, was considered too dangerous for the National Assembly to convene there.Weimar was beside
Dessau the center of the
Bauhaus movement. The city houses
art galleries, museums and the German national
theatre. The
Bauhaus University and the
Liszt School of Music Weimar attracted many students, specializing in media and design, architecture, civil engineering and music, to Weimar.During
World War II, there was a
concentration camp near Weimar, at
Buchenwald, a little wood that Goethe had loved to frequent only 8 kilometers from the city center. More than 55,000 prisoners entered the gates bearing the mottos "Jedem das Seine" ("to each his due") and "Recht oder Unrechtâ€"Mein Vaterland" ("right or wrongâ€"my fatherland").
From 1949 to 1990 Weimar was in
East Germany.
The
European Council of Ministers selected the city as a European Capital of Culture for
1999.
On
September 3,
2004, a
fire broke out at the
Duchess Anna Amalia Library. The library contains a 13,000-volume collection including Goethe's masterpiece
Faust, in addition to a
music collection of the
Duchess. An authentic
Lutheran Bible from
1534 was saved from the fire. The damage stretched into the millions of dollars. The number of books in this historic library exceeded 1,000,000, of which 40,000 to 50,000 were destroyed. The library belongs to
UNESCO world heritage, and is one of the oldest public libraries in Europe. The fire, with its destruction of much historical
literature, amounts to a huge cultural loss for Germany, Europe, and indeed the world. A number of books were shock-frozen in the city of Leipzig to save them from rotting.
*
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe*
Friedrich Schiller *
Johann Sebastian Bach *
Friedrich Nietzsche*
Rudolf Steiner *
Hector Berlioz *
Walter Gropius*
Johann Gottfried Herder*
Johann Nepomuk Hummel*
Lyonel Feininger*
Johannes Itten*
Wassily Kandinsky *
Paul Klee *
Franz Liszt *
Laszlo Moholy-Nagy *
Arthur Schopenhauer *
Richard Strauss*
Richard Wagner *
Christoph Martin Wieland*
Lucas Cranach the Elder*
Carl Zeiss*
Ehringsdorf*
Gaberndorf *
Gelmeroda *
Holzdorf *
Weimar-Kromsdorf *
Kromsdorf *
Legefeld *
Niedergrunstedt *
Oberweimar*
Possendorf *
Schöndorf *
Süßenborn *
Taubach *
Tiefurt *
Tröbsdorf*
Hämeenlinna,
Finland*
Blois,
France*
Trier,
Germany*
Siena,
ItalyIt is connected by one motorway and two routes:
*Autobahn
**
A4*Routes:
**
7**
85*
TC Weimar 1912 e.V.*
Weimar's official website*
Art galleries in Weimar*
Ginkgo Museum, Weimar*
Deutsches Nationaltheater*
Bauhaus-University Weimar*
Liszt School of Music Weimar [
1]
