WEIMAR
History
History I
Sightseeing I
Practical I Hotels in Weimar
Known in the 10th cent., Weimar became
important only in the 16th cent. when it was made the capital of the
duchy (after 1815 the grand duchy) of Saxe-Weimar. It developed as a
cultural center of international importance. Under Elector John
Frederick I, the painter Lucas Cranach, the elder, worked there (16th
cent.), and from 1708 to 1717 Johann Sebastian Bach was court organist
and concertmaster at Weimar. Under Dowager Duchess Amalia (1739–1807)
and her son, Charles Augustus (1775–1828), Weimar reached the peak of
its fame as a cultural center.
After the arrival (1775) of Goethe at
the court, Weimar and Goethe became virtually synonymous. Goethe not
only made Weimar the literary capital of Europe during his lifetime, but
he
also attracted such men as Herder and Schiller, established and
directed the Weimar theater, and as chief minister of Charles Augustus
was active in the physical improvement of the city. The Weimar state
theater was the site of the first performances of most of Goethe’s and
many of Schiller’s plays. After Goethe’s death (1832) Weimar lived
mainly on its past reputation, but its active cultural life continued.
Franz Liszt was musical director there in the mid-19th cent., and
Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin was first performed (1850) in Weimar.
The fact that Friedrich Nietzsche lived
and died at Weimar resulted in the foundation there of the important
Nietzsche Archives by his sister. In 1919, Weimar was the scene of the
German national assembly that established the republican government
known as the “Weimar Republic.” The Bauhaus art school was first
established (1919) in Weimar. Among the landmarks of the city are the
parish church, with the graves of Lucas Cranach and Herder and with an
altarpiece by Cranach; the former grand ducal palace (built 1789–1803)
and the ducal crypt with the graves of Goethe and Schiller; Belvedere
castle (1724–32); the residences of Goethe, Schiller, and Liszt;
Goethe’s garden cottage; the state theater; the Goethe National Museum;
and the nearby ducal castle of Tiefurt. The city has a state college of
music and an academy of art and architecture, and it is the seat of the
Goethe and Schiller archives. Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration camp
(1937–45), was located nearby; it is now the site of a memorial to the
56,000 who died there.F
