Weimar

 

(vī'mär) , city (1994 pop. 58,807), E Thuringia, central Germany, on the Ilm River. It is an industrial, transportation, and cultural center. Manufactures include agricultural machinery, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and furniture. 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.

Weimar
Coat of arms	Location
Administration
Country	Germany
State	Thuringia
District	Urban district
Town subdivisions	21 districts
Lord Mayor	Stefan Wolf (SPD)
Basic statistics
Area	km² ( sq mi)
Elevation	m  (682 ft)
Population	Please give "Stand or population_as_of" in YYYY-MM-DD format , e. g. 2005-12-31 [1]
- Density	/km² ( /sq mi)
Other information
Time zone	CET/CEST ([[UTC+1]]/[[UTC+2|+2]])
Licence plate	WE
Postal codes	99401–99441
Area codes	03643, 036453
Website	www.weimar.de Coordinates: 50°59′0″N 11°19′0″E / 50.98333, 11.31667

Classical Weimar*
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party	Germany
Type	Cultural
Criteria	iii, vi
Reference	846
Region†	Europe and North America
Inscription History
Inscription	1998  (22nd Session)
* Name as inscribed on World Heritage List. † Region as classified by UNESCO.

Weimar (IPA: [ˈvaɪmaʁ]) 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 64,000. 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). The city also gives its name to the Weimar Republic.

History

Weimar is one of the great cultural sites of Europe, having been home to such luminaries as Bach, 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 and Schiller as well as their archives, may be found in the city. It is around the city of Weimar that Goethe's famous 1809 Elective Affinities is based.

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 Unrecht—Mein Vaterland" ("right or wrong—my fatherland").^{[citation needed]} The Buchenwald concentration camp provided slave labour for local industry.^[2]

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 past recovery. The library, which dates back to 1691, 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.

Famous residents of Weimar

• Johann Sebastian Bach
• Hector Berlioz
• Hans von Bülow
• Lucas Cranach the Elder
• Marlene Dietrich
• Lyonel Feininger
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• Walter Gropius
• Nina Hagen
• Johann Gottfried Herder
• John Horrocks
• Johann Nepomuk Hummel
• Johannes Itten
• Joseph Joachim
• Wassily Kandinsky
• Harry Graf Kessler
• Paul Klee
• Franz Liszt
• László Moholy-Nagy
• Friedrich Nietzsche
• Friedrich Preller
• Joseph Joachim Raff
• Friedrich Schiller
• Oskar Schlemmer
• Arthur Schopenhauer
• Frédéric Soret
• Rudolf Steiner
• Richard Strauss
• Henry van de Velde
• Richard Wagner
• Christoph Martin Wieland
• Carl Zeiss

Districts

• Ehringsdorf
• Gaberndorf
• Gelmeroda
• Holzdorf
• Legefeld
• Niedergrunstedt
• Oberweimar
• Possendorf
• Schöndorf
• Süßenborn
• Taubach
• Tiefurt
• Tröbsdorf

Education

• Bauhaus-University Weimar
• Liszt School of Music Weimar [1]

Transportation

It is connected by one motorway and two routes:

• Autobahn
  • A4
• Routes:
  • 7
  • 85

Sister cities

• Blois, France
• Hämeenlinna, Finland
• Sawtry, United Kingdom
• Siena, Italy
• Trier, Germany

External links

• Weimar's official website
• Historic tour in 49 pictures
• Ginkgo Museum, Weimar
• Deutsches Nationaltheater

References

Urban and rural districts in the Free State of Thuringia in Germany
Urban districts	Eisenach · Erfurt · Gera · Jena · Suhl · Weimar
Rural districts	Altenburger Land · Eichsfeld · Gotha · Greiz · Hildburghausen · Ilm-Kreis · Kyffhäuserkreis · Nordhausen · Saale-Holzland · Saale-Orla-Kreis · Saalfeld-Rudolstadt · Schmalkalden-Meiningen · Sömmerda · Sonneberg · Unstrut-Hainich · Wartburgkreis · Weimarer Land

European Capitals of Culture

1985 Athens · 1986 Florence · 1987 Amsterdam · 1988 West Berlin · 1989 Paris · 1990 Glasgow · 1991 Dublin · 1992 Madrid · 1993 Antwerp · 1994 Lisbon · 1995 Luxembourg City · 1996 Copenhagen · 1997 Thessaloniki · 1998 Stockholm · 1999 Weimar · 2000 Reykjavík · Bergen · Helsinki · Brussels · Prague · Kraków · Santiago de Compostela · Avignon · Bologna · 2001 Rotterdam · Porto · 2002 Bruges · Salamanca · 2003 Graz · 2004 Genoa · Lille · 2005 Cork · 2006 Patras · 2007 Luxembourg City and Greater Region · Sibiu · 2008 Liverpool · Stavanger · 2009 Linz · Vilnius · 2010 Essen · Pécs · Istanbul · 2011 Turku · Tallinn · 2012 Maribor · Guimarães

World Heritage Sites in Germany

Aachen Cathedral · Abbey and Altenmünster of Lorsch · Castles of Augustusburg and Falkenlust at Brühl · Town of Bamberg · Bauhaus and its Sites in Weimar and Dessau · Museumsinsel (Museum Island), Berlin · Classical Weimar · Cologne Cathedral · Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz · Dresden Elbe Valley · Mines of Rammelsberg and Historic Town of Goslar · Lübeck · Luther Memorials in Eisleben and Wittenberg · Maulbronn Monastery Complex · Messel Pit Fossil Site · Monastic Island of Reichenau · Muskauer Park (with Poland) · Collegiate Church, Castle, and Old Town of Quedlinburg · Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin · Pilgrimage Church of Wies · Old Town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof · Roman Monuments, Cathedral of St. Peter and Church of Our Lady in Trier · St. Mary's Cathedral and St. Michael's Church at Hildesheim · Speyer Cathedral · Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar · Town Hall and Roland on the Marketplace of Bremen · Upper German Raetian Limes (with UK) · Upper Middle Rhine Valley · Völklingen Ironworks · Wartburg Castle · Würzburg Residence with the Count Gardens and Residence Square · Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen

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