Willkommen...

in Weimar, der Kulturstadt Europas 1999! (Welcome to Weimar, the city of culture in Europe 1999!) This way or similar you were greeted at least once every half an hour at the daytime on the main train station of Weimar. Maybe you will be greeted that way even today.

The recently renovated and still in construction station with its bright, classicistic building is the first matching impression of the town. Anyways, the train is really accordant for reaching Weimar. It costs a bit more than four hours to the travel by regional lines from Berlin Zoologischer Garten over Halle to Weimar main station. If it is neccessary to return at the same day, the return time - depending on the season and route - is four and a half to six hours.

Compared to the three hours rush on the autobahn for one tour, travelling by train is somewhat more time consuming and you have to leave Weimar before eight. But compared to the danger for nerves and life on the speedways around Berlin the loss of time is somewhat irrelevant.

The first mentioning of Weimar is stated for the year 899 AD. This was one of the reasons for the festivities in 1999. Another big anniversary was the 250th birthday of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), who resided most of his time from 1775 on until his death in Weimar. He influenced Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805) in 1787 to settle in Weimar. Schiller has his 240th birthday in 1999. Something a bit lesser to find in the city at that year: 1999 is also the 80th anniversary of the foundation of the Weimar Republic, the first democratic period of Germany, and the 50th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), of which Weimar belonged to for 40 years.

After the fall of the wall in 1989 in search of a single capital for both parts of Germany besides of Frankfurt/Main also Weimar was handled as a possible location for the future parliament and government. In a positive way the town near the center of Germany had deserved the chance for a second experiment of a Weimar Republic. But this had meant that the governmental institutions had to move from one small town to another, without a near airport, without a fast train connection, without further infrastructure. So 1999 became also the year of the movement of the German government - from Bonn to Berlin.

Pictures of Weimar

One of the motivation for the visit of Weimar was the rumour about a sundial. It was uncommon to know that the town was the European city of culture this year. The following collage (115kB GIF) is referencing to 17 views on Weimar and the Ilm park at a first visit in the summer of 1999:

The collage is an image map, leading to the following photos at a click on the corresponding part if the map:

• Weimar main station (39kB JPEG) - see above.
• Neues Museum (42kB JPEG) - the museum for modern art, from 1864 on built and 1869 initiated is placed at the end of the Carl-August-Allee, which is leading townwards from the station. It is noticable that the museum has some similarities to the historical Berlin Reichstag building, previously to all the downsized but very likewise center dome. The above image is showing the personally first impression.
• Weimar, Arcades (23kB JPEG) - remembering the architecture of the IIIrd Reich are the arcades near the same location of which the first impression of the Neues Museum came from. The arcades are part of the former Thuringia Gau center.
• Theater des Friedens (34kB JPEG) (Theatre of Peace) - besides of the somewhat ugly Karl-Liebknecht-Platz, Weimar has at least some memorabilias of its time in the former GDR, ten years after the fall of the wall. One of it is the fassade of the cinema "Theater des Friedens".
• "Weimar Haus" at the Schillerstr. (41kB JPEG) - the Weimar House contains a small restaurant and waxworks with sceneries from Weimar history, to see for 2 1/2 times of the entry fee compared to the Berlin waxworks museum at the Kudamm before closing time.
• Within "Weimar Haus" at the Schillerstr. (46kB JPEG) - besides the other things within the inner yard of the Weimar House there are souvenirs to find - with Goethe and Schiller as hand puppets!
• Schiller House at the Schillerstr. (41kB JPEG) - this house was bought by Schiller in 1802, he lived until and died in 1805 in it.
• Goethe House at the Frauenplan (35kB JPEG) - in this 1709 built house at the Frauenplan location Goethe lived from 1782 on, first for rent, later as the owner of the house. Both houses - Schiller and Goethe house - are now museums for the corresponding poet.
• Grave of the Goethe family on the historical cemetary (42kB JPEG) - from 1818 on the historical cemetary in Weimar was in use. In its center there is the emperors vault with a Russian Orthodox church, to see for fee with photos etc. forbitten. Within this vault Goethe and Schiller were layed to rest, the other members of the Goethe family, Charlotte von Stein, the Coudray family and Vulpius family have their places outside of the vault.
• The emperors vault on the historical cemetary (70kB) - This vault was built from 1823 to 1828 according to plans by the architect Clemens Wenzeslaus Coudray by order of the duke Carl August, in which the family of the duke was layed out.
• Outhouses of the gardening administration at the Ilm park behind the Liszt House (39kB JPEG) - the English Garden of the park at the Ilm is ca. two kilometer long and at its broadest ca. one kilometer wide. At this location the Liszt House is placed near the park. The park was installed from 1778 until 1787.
• View to the house of the Frau von Stein and the city castle (33kB JPEG) - one of the classical lines of vision within the Ilm park.
• Goethe garden house (57kB JPEG) - from 1776 until 1782 Goethe was living within the formerly vine hill house, which he restaurated and fit up according to his ideas and where he layed a garden around it.
• Garden gate of the duplicate garden house within the Ilm park (36kB JPEG) - within the Park at the Ilm also a second version of the Goethe Garden House is to find, where an exhibition of original furniture of the first garden house is to see. The otherwise useless gate of this second house is showing the location of the garden gate at the first house.
• Goethe garden house seen from within the Ilm park (79kB JPEG) - Another classical line of vision within the Ilm park from a position below the Belvedere avenue.
• Roman House within the Ilm park (38kB JPEG) - built partly under the supervision by Goethe from 1792 until 1797 the Roman House was a summer house for duke Carl August. Now this house has a museum about the history of the park.
• Ruin within the Ilm park (83kB JPEG) - This ruin within the Ilm park is part of the ensemble with the park cave and the former shooting wall of the Weimar riflemen. (A bad tag at the building is removed on the image electronically.)

Pictures from the Belvedere

The following collage (107kB GIF) is referencing to 10 views from the Belvedere near Weimar in 1999:

The Belvedere near Weimar was a summer residence of duke Ernst August, erected from 1724 on south of Weimar. 1730 the center part of the main building was ready for moving-in. The main yard is framed by the "clock houses". Besides of the English park, part of the Belvedere were also a pheasantry, menagery, bird cages, and an orangery, where only the orangery with garden and sundial are left.

• Weimar Belvedere (54kB JPEG) - complete view. At the day of the photo the Berlin radio symphonic orchester played Beethovens 9th Symphony in the backyard of the castle. Behind the information poster in the right doorway one can see a small part of the stage tent for orchester and choir.
• Belvedere clock house (39kB JPEG) - the left one of the clock houses (if seen from vis-a-vis of the castle).
• Belvedere small fountain and cavalier house (45kB JPEG) - besides of the clock houses, which are also cavalier houses with the clocks as special features, some more buildings for personnel are framing the main yard.
• Belvedere orangery, west (35kB JPEG) - coming from the castle first the western part of the orangery is visible. Also on the picture the sundial is hiding...
• Belvedere orangery, east (45kB JPEG).
• Belvedere orangery, red tower (32kB JPEG) - finishing the eastern part of the orangery the red tower is at the end of the building, and you can visit it even without an entry fee. Inside of it are some classical drawings and you can look outside into the wide Weimar countryside. The viewpoint of the photo is looking to the center of Weimar. At that day it was a wonderful kite weather.
• Belvedere orangery, sundial (40kB JPEG) - ok, thats it. The inscription of the clock is nearly not readable, the first word might be "Solarium". Also a date is missing, but it can be assumed that the originating year is within the first half of the 18th century, which is corresponding to the sundial in Potsdam Sanssouci.
• Belvedere orangery, small house (60kB JPEG) - vis-a-vis of the sundial is a small garden house, where at that day was a small photography exhibition - also to see without fee! Behind the house there is a small circuit walled by a high hedge with exotical big plants.
• Belvedere orangery, goldfish in the water-lily pond (46kB JPEG) - detail.
• Weimar city border(70kB JPEG) - behind the Belvedere there is one of the outleading streets from Weimar with a muddy lake, remembering a bit to the origin of the name of Weimar: "wide marsh" (Vy(e) Mar).

Pictures from the onion market and some more Weimar views

The following collage (92kB GIF) is referencing to 11 photos from the onion market (Zwibbelmarkt) in Weimar and to some remaining views on Weimar:

The onion market in Weimar is stated to be the biggest public festivity in Thuringia. - It takes place at one of the weekends within the first half of October in the inner city of Weimar. 1999 this was from October 8 - 10. Although the weather was somewhat mixed, the city was one single crowded pedestrian zone.

• Onion market onions (73kB JPEG) - What's it all about. The main role are weaved onions or garlic bulbs, but besides of masses of Thuringia stake sausages, onion tartes, beer and wine specialities there are also handworked products to buy. (The onion tartes I haven't tried because there were looking somewhat cheap. But - as usual - at times before the fall of the wall these tartes might had been better...)
• The Theaterplatz at onion market (76kB JPEG) - Goethe and Schiller in the crowd. Besides of the numerous stalls there are also some stages with different programs. At the time of the picture a Bulgarian traditional group played and danced on a stage to the right side.
• The Pyramid of hopes (66kB JPEG) - Dunno whether it was really called this. It was made of a metal skeleton with many children drawings on paper triangles.
• Carl August monument at the Place of Democracy with the view to the city castle (46kB JPEG) - One of the lines of view within Weimar, with the people of the onion market.
• View to the city hall with onion market (46kB JPEG) - The special items of the Weimar city hall at the Markt are the porcellane bells of the tower. This day they were too quiet.
• Onion market at the Markt (42kB JPEG) - At the Markt there were many rows of stalls. This photo is showing the view vis-a-vis of the city hall, where the Cranach house (at the right picture side hidden by the stake sausages stall) and the guild house, probably of the carpenter or weaver. At the left side there was a stage with an orchester playing at that time.
• House of the Misses von Stein (78kB JPEG) - in this house near the Place of Democracy the family von Stein was living, where Charlotte von Stein was living in a liaison with Wolfgang von Goethe.
• Herder monument (62kB JPEG).
• Graffiti on a Mauer of a gateway (34kB JPEG) - This photo is done without peeking through the seeker of the camera, holding the camera through the fence of the gate.
• Weimar main station (74kB JPEG) - Despite the daylight savings time in mid October before 1900h its getting dark already, providing a view of the illuminated main railway station of Weimar.
• Sundial in the park of the Tiefurt castle (74kB JPEG) - In Weimar and Weimar country there are at least five sundials to find, and one of them is the one in the park around the Tiefurt castle. This sundial is in creation time and also with its shape very similar to the sundial within the park of Potsdam Sanssouci. The park around Tiefurt castle with its sculptures and the castle is really worth a look. - So even three day visits are clearly not enough to even get a glance of half of Weimar...

Links+Infos

Weimar is a city of the (new) German federal state Thuringia (Thüringen). Main city of Thuringia is Erfurt. As from Berlin one has to cross also the states Brandenburg with the main city Potsdam, and Saxxon-Anhalt with the main city Magdeburg.

The following links provide some more infos about Weimar (some of the links may point to pages with German languange):

• www.weimar.de - the portal site of the tourist information of Weimar (Weimar Online) with Webcam.
• www.weimar-klassik.de+www.kunstsammlungen-weimar.de - the main pages to museums and art in Weimar and around by the foundations Weimar Klassik and Kunstsammlungen Weimar. (Both pages are suffering a bit on featureritis, so that there is no direct link to a language possible, but English and French pages are available, here...)
• www.uni-weimar.de - the homepage of the Bauhaus-University of Weimar (with the Weimar Info System and the KulturStadtBauen).
• Deutsche Bahn AG - Fahrplanauskunft - the train schedule information pages, the indispensable online aid for the travel to Weimar by regional trains, t.i. RE, RB, SE, S, and U. With this the tour to Weimar on a day of the weekend costs 35DM for 1 to 5 persons. (That is somewhat half of the cost for fuel for there and back from Berlin.) The ticket is valid from 0 a.m. of the start day to 3 a.m. of the next day, should be bought previously and must be dedicated for a specific day. Also the route by the Fahrplanauskunft should be planned for the true day, because times and routes can change. If I'm not mistaken, the train schedule information pages are only available in German.
• bauhaus-archiv - museum für gestaltung (Berlin, English pages are under construction ;-)
• More about the Bauhaus School (by A. Lilleystone, Germany Today)
• www.buchenwald.de - The homepage of the memorial area of the former concentration camp Buchenwald, ca. ten kilometer north of the centrum of Weimar.
• More images of Weimar and around are at the pages Views of Weimar (Winfried Schön) and at the Weimar Gallery (Marcel Saft).

The following links are referencing to some famous citizens of Weimar:

• Hoffmann von Fallersleben, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder, August von Kotzebue, Friedrich Nietzsche, Friedrich von Schiller, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Christoph Martin Wieland at the Project Gutenberg-DE (in German).
• Walter Gropius (biography of the bauhaus-archiv, bauhaus 1919-33) - Walter Gropius (biography at the Academic Computing Service, Appalachian State Univ., USA)
• The Goethe and Schiller archive of the Foundation Weimar Klassik.
• The address to the Goethe Year 1999 in Frankfurt/Main.
• The Goethe Society in Weimar e.V. (in German).
• The homepage of the Goethe Institute.
• www.johann-wolfgang-goethe.de further informations about Goethe (in German).
• Informations and more links to Franz von Liszt at the Emory Univ., Atlanta, U.S.A.

Source of most of the historical facts on this page is the book "Weimarer Museumsführer" by Siegfried Seifert, 1st edition, L&H Verlag Hamburg 1999. This book is currently only available in German.

Nearly all images except the Weimar 1999 logo are from the author of this page. The photo of the Tiefurt castle park sundial was done in Summer 1999 by D. Tost and is used with kindly permission.