10 largest cities in Germany
Berlin
Hamburg
Munich
Cologne
Frankfurt am Main
Hanover
Dusseldorf
Leipzig
Bremen
Dresden
Weimar is an independent city in Thuringia in Germany, which is
best known for its cultural heritage. The middle town is located on
an arch of the Ilm, southeast of Ettersberg, the highest mountain in
the Thuringian Basin at 478 meters. The city is the fourth largest
in Thuringia after Erfurt, Jena and Gera and is located about
halfway between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east.
Weimar is a medium-sized center that partially fulfills the
functions of a regional center and has been officially designated as
a university town since 2004. In addition to the Bauhaus University,
the city is home to the Liszt School of Music and the Duchess Anna
Amalia Library. In addition, numerous authorities have their
headquarters in Weimar, for example the Thuringian Higher
Administrative Court, the Thuringian State Administrative Office,
the Thuringian Constitutional Court and the Thuringian State Office
for Monument Preservation and Archeology.
In addition to the
traditions of the Weimar Classics around Wieland, Goethe, Herder and
Schiller, the city's cultural heritage also includes the Bauhaus and
a large number of other high-ranking cultural legacies from the 16th
century (Lucas Cranach the Elder and the Younger), 17th century
Century (founding of the Fruit Bringing Society), 18th century
(Johann Sebastian Bach), 19th century (to be mentioned are Franz
Liszt, Richard Strauss, Friedrich Nietzsche, the landscape painters
of the Weimar School of Painting at the Grand Ducal Saxon Art School
Weimar) and 20th century (Harry Graf Kessler, Henry van de Velde).
The Bauhaus and its sites in Weimar (and Dessau) were declared a
World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996, the “classic Weimar” in
December 1998. The last-mentioned decision was justified by the
"great art-historical importance of public and private buildings and
park landscapes from the heyday of classical Weimar." Humanity
recorded as World Document Heritage (Memory of the World). Since
2015, early writings of the Reformation have also been part of the
world document heritage, some of which are kept in the Duchess Anna
Amalia Library in Weimar. National and international cultural
heritage is presented in over 25 museums and exhibition venues.
Weimar had been the capital and residence of the Duchy of Saxony
and Saxony-Weimar from 1547/52, later Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach (from
1815: Grand Duchy). In 1816 this became the first state in Germany
to adopt a constitution. Parallel to the meeting of the National
Assembly from February 6, 1919 to September 1919, Weimar was
temporarily the seat of government of the Weimar Republic, which was
being constituted. From 1920 to 1952 Weimar was the capital of the
state of Thuringia. In 1999 it was the European Capital of Culture.