Story and Photos by Monique Burns.
Feature Image: One of Weimar’s many UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Belvedere Castle and Park, a pleasure-palace surrounded by splendid gardens and fountains, typifies the charm that drew so many artists, philosophers and poets to this graceful city on the River Ilm. (Photo: Courtesy of Weimar Tourism)
Visiting Berlin, Germany’s “Capital of Cool,” I immersed myself in contemporary art and design and reached back in time to World War II and the Holocaust. In Dresden, the graceful Saxon capital and so-called “Florence on the Elbe,” I marveled at Renaissance treasures and bold Expressionist works, then explored counterculture shops and music clubs along hip Alaunstrasse. At the nearby Meissen Manufactory, I was dazzled by European porcelain, the “white gold” invented in Saxony. I then hiked through phantasmagoric sandstone mountains in the wilds of Saxon Switzerland National Park.
Now embarking on the fourth leg of my Eastern Germany odyssey, I bade farewell to Dresden and Saxony. Hopping aboard a high-speed Intercity-Express (ICE) train, I headed 2 1/2 hours west to the neighboring state of Thuringia and its cultural capital, Weimar.
Moments after arriving, I was exploring leafy cobblestone streets, pastel-colored houses and fountain-dappled squares, reasons enough to visit this compact and charming city on the River Ilm. Even more exciting was the thrill of following in the footsteps of Germany’s greatest poets, dramatists, philosophers, painters and composers.
The 16th-century monk Martin Luther—who launched the Protestant Reformation more than 500 years ago—frequently stopped in Weimar to visit artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, a close friend and religious ally who painted the Reformer several times. Two centuries later, in 1703, Johann Sebastian Bach became Weimar’s Court Musician, composing three-quarters of his organ works here, many based on Luther’s hymns. In the 1790s, poets, playwrights and philosophers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller founded the now-famous cultural movement known as Weimar Classicism.
That was just the beginning of Weimar’s march to greatness. Two hundred years later, in the mid-19th century, Hungarian virtuoso Franz Liszt became Weimar’s Court Musician, 140 years after Bach held that position. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche spent his last three years in Weimar until his death in 1900. Two decades later, architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus Movement in Weimar in 1919, shortly after Germany’s first democratic constitution established the so-called Weimar Republic.
Even the Nazis came to Weimar. Touting Weimar as a symbol of Teutonic intellectualism, Hitler and his henchmen built the Buchenwald concentration camp here in 1937 on a hilltop six miles from downtown. Today, visitors can still visit the notorious site by bus from Weimar’s center-city.
To experience the romance of 19th-century Weimar, I booked a room at the Boutique-Hotel Amalienhof in historic Altstadt, the old center-city, just steps from the Goethe Residence and National Museum. The hotel is named after the Duchess Anna Amalia, the illustrious arts patron who established Weimar as a 19th-center cultural enclave much as Saxony’s August the Strong had established Dresden as an artistic center in the 18th century. With 123 antique-filled rooms, an elegant breakfast room and a flower-bedecked terrace, the Amalienhof spirits you back to Weimar’s glorious Golden Age. Yet, incredibly, double-room rates start at about $115, including free breakfast, WiFi and parking.
Also right in the center-city, consider the four-star Familienhotel Weimar, especially if you’re traveling with kids. The contemporary-style hotel, constructed of eco-friendly sustainable woods, has one, two and three-bedroom suites, some with living rooms and all with kitchenettes and balconies. There’s also a rooftop garden where kids can root around in a sandbox while adults check their e-mail or relax with a cocktail.
Using locally grown meats, fish and produce from nearby farms and fisheries, the hotel eatery, Gretchen’s Restaurant & Café, crafts delectable dishes, including vegan and vegetarian specialties, with Mediterranean and Asian influences. The restaurant is adjacent to the children’s playroom, handy when little ones become bored at table with adult conversation. Rates at the Familienhotel Weimar start at a remarkably reasonable $180 per suite.
On nearby Market Square, you’ll find the elegant Hotel Elephant, where Adolf Hitler stayed whenever he visited Weimar. Remodeled in 1937 by Hermann Giesler, the Third Reich’s second-most celebrated architect after the notorious Albert Speer, its facade still features the wrought-iron Führer Balcony where Hitler spoke. Now part of Marriott Hotels’ deluxe Autograph Collection, the Hotel Elephant boasts a clubby bar, on-site parking, and a stylish eatery, Restaurant Anna, serving regional specialties, including vegan and vegetarian choices. Spacious rooms, with Art Deco and Bauhaus accents, cost as little as $180 a night.
The Weimar tourist office, also on Market Square, is a good place to buy the Weimar Card or Weimar Card Plus, offering free museum admission and transportation in Weimar and neighboring Thuringian towns. You’ll also find plenty of information about Weimar’s major tourist sites, including the 27 historic homes, castles and museums, many UNESCO World Heritage Sites, managed by the Classical Weimar Foundation.
The Lucas Cranach House, home of the 16th-century painter, is also right on Market Square. Outside, look for the mermaid and merman friezes above the windows, and the family crest above the door. Inside, feast your eyes on the creations of one of Germany’s greatest artists and his equally talented son. You’ll find portraits of Martin Luther and his wife, Katharina von Bora, along with other works by the two Lucas Cranachs, Elder and Younger, in Weimar’s City Palace museum, former residence of the grand ducal family of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach.
But the dazzling Cranach Altarpiece graces the City Church of Sts. Peter and Paul in Weimar’s nearby north end. Begun by the father and completed by the son in 1555, the wooden triptych, called “the single most influential monument of the German Reformation,” depicts Lucas Cranach the Elder and Martin Luther at the foot of the Cross.
On the Frauenplan, literally a stone’s throw from my charming digs at the Boutique-Hotel Amalienhof, I found the Goethe National Museum, a sprawling yellow mansion where poet and dramatist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe lived and worked for nearly 50 years. With grandeur befitting not only a celebrated man of letters but a local government official, the Goethe Residence is filled with Classical-style plaster busts, gilt-edged paintings and fine furnishings. Not surprisingly for a writer like me, the highlight was Goethe’s spacious study, with its burnished wood tables and bookcases.
Another highlight: Goethe’s large tree-shaded garden. Strolling the grounds, I imagined Germany’s great man walking the same gravel paths, thinking deep thoughts, perhaps composing poetry in his head, and stopping, from time to time, to gently caress a new green leaf or breathe in the scent of a just-opened rose blossom.
Right next to the Goethe residence and museum is the large white building that has housed the Gasthaus zum Weissen Schwan for over 350 years. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe frequently patronized the tavern, which still serves hearty Thuringian specialties. If you work up an appetite while sightseeing, order Goethe’s favorite dish, a specialty not only in Thuringia but in Germany’s Bavaria and Austria’s Vienna: Tafelspitz im Rinderfond, boiled beef in broth with horseradish and parsley potatoes.
Across from the Goethe Residence, the Erbenhof is another excellent dining choice. With its own bakery and café, it’s perfect for a morning coffee and pastry. But do save your appetite for dinner, as I did, and you’ll be rewarded with innovative new German cuisine, including vegan and vegetarian specialties, made with locally sourced meats, fish and vegetables, and served in an airy, contemporary-style setting with soft recessed lighting, and colorful abstract paintings gracing the muted walls.
From Goethe’s house, I strolled just 10 minutes north along the leafy pedestrian street, Schillerstrasse, to the Schiller Residence. The great man Johann Wolfgang von Goethe took his time warming up to the younger poet and dramatist Friedrich Schiller. But sometime around 1794, the pair became close friends. Eventually, they established the cultural movement known as Weimar Classicism. Joining them were local luminaries like philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder, and writer and professor Christoph Martin Wieland, who tutored the Duchess Anna Amalia’s son, Karl August, later Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
In the three-story Schiller Residence, with its pale yellow facade and gray shutters, the poet wrote several important works, including the 1804 play “Wilhelm Tell,” celebrating the Swiss archer and freedom fighter. Frau Schiller, the former Charlotte von Lengefeld, was one of Weimar’s coterie of creative women, along with the Duchess Anna Amalia, who composed an opera based on a Goethe text. Other members of the elite circle: Charlotte von Stein, the Duchess’ lady-in-waiting, who influenced both Goethe and Schiller, and writer Charlotte von Kalb, who carried on a long affair with Schiller before his marriage.
Not quite so grand as the Goethe house, the Schiller house, with large, airy rooms, parquet floors and period furniture, is still impressive. Alas, Schiller, reportedly delighted to finally settle down in so fine a house, lived there only three years, from 1802 until his death from tuberculosis in 1805. While visiting, don’t miss Schiller’s study, adorned with an etching based on the famous oil painting, “The Battle of Bunker’s Hill,” by 18th-century American artist John Trumbull, as well as the writer’s wooden desk topped with a manuscript, quill pen and small globe.
From the Schiller Residence, I meandered over to nearby Platz der Demokratie. Entering the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, I literally gasped at the splendidly ornate gold-and-white Rococo Hall with its soaring vaulted ceiling. Along with a treasury of rare books, the library houses busts of various dignitaries as well as portraits of Schiller and Goethe. Given the library’s precious contents and small size, visits must be booked in advance.
Continuing my walk, I wandered around the quiet tree-shaded square where a small bust commemorates the precise yet complex musician whose works I often listen to while writing: Johann Sebastian Bach, who lived in Weimar almost continuously for 15 years, from 1703 until 1717, as Court Musician and, later, Concert Master. The square is also home to the University of Music Franz Liszt. If you’re lucky, you’ll be in town when its students give one of their frequent concerts.
West of the Duchess Anna Amalia Library, a handsome bronze statue on Theaterplatz shows Goethe passing the laurel wreath of fame to the younger Schiller. The statue stands before the German National Theater, which still stages concerts, dramatic works and dance performances. It’s also where Germany’s first democratic constitution was signed in 1919. A bronze plaque designed by Bauhaus disciples commemorates the historic signing. Ironically, it was only a little over a decade before the 1933 Nazi takeover swept away Germany’s hard-won democracy.
Aiming to unify all the arts—including architecture, crafts and design, fine arts and photography—German architect Walter Gropius founded the Bauhaus Movement in Weimar in 1919. The movement, which some scholars have called the most influential arts movement of the 20th century, quickly attracted celebrated collaborators like German-American architect Mies van der Rohe, Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, Swiss painter Paul Klee, German-American painter Lyonel Feininger, and Hungarian painter and photographer László Moholy-Nagy.
The Bauhaus Museum, a short walk north of the National Theater, traces the history of Gropius’ movement, which spread throughout the world, including such far-flung locales as Israel’s Tel Aviv. To learn more about the Bauhaus Movement, head to the Bauhaus University, at Weimar’s south end, not far from the Liszt House, which features the composer’s Bechstein grand piano, and the Nietzsche Archive, the home where philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche died after late-stage syphilis triggered his tragic descent into madness.
At the Bauhaus University, students lead two tours for nominal fees: the 1 ½-hour “Short Walk” through the university, or the 2 ½- hour “Long Walk,” visiting the University, the ruins of the 19th-century House of the Templars, and, most importantly, the 1923 Haus am Horn. The first house ever built using Bauhaus principles, the flat-roofed Haus am Horn, features lights designed by the famous László Moholy-Nagy, and furniture and built-in cabinetry designed by the equally famous Marcel Breuer, then a lowly student at the Bauhaus University.
With acre upon acre of lush green spaces, Thuringia is known as “Germany’s Green Heart.” Just outside Weimar, the vast Thuringian Forest unfurls along with farmlands, vineyards, and small towns dotted with porcelain factories and studios. One day-trip took me to the high-tech Leuchtenburg Porcelain Worlds. After an hour-long train trip from Weimar to the town of Kahla, visitors either make the hour-long hike, or like me, take a short taxi ride to the village of Seitenroda, home of the 13th-century hilltop Castle Leuchtenburg.
There, the Leuchtenburg Porcelain Worlds explores the history of porcelain-making through more than 350 high-tech exhibits, including an interactive baroque-style dinner table. At the final exhibit, I, like so many other visitors, wrote my fondest wishes in invisible ink on porcelain crockery, then tossed the plate over the 12-foot-long, glass-and-steel Skywalk of Wishes for good luck.
Porcelain was invented in Thuringia in the 1750s, about four decades after the Meissen porcelain works opened in Saxony. Unlike the elegant Meissen pieces first created for Saxony’s high and mighty, traditional Thuringian porcelain is more down-to-earth. Adorned with country scenes, wildlife or flowers, and sometimes with today’s striking contemporary patterns, Thuringian porcelain is sold in Leuchtenburg Porcelain Worlds’ shop and at some of the more than 80 factories, museums, studios and shops along the Thuringian Porcelain Route, which stretches some 200 miles. Leuchtenburg Porcelain Worlds also offers combination tours of the castle and nearby porcelain manufacturers or vineyards.
Speaking of vineyards, on yet another day-trip from Weimar, I visited the rustic boutique winery Thüringer Weingut Bad Sulza. Catching the sleek Abellio regional train in Weimar’s Hauptbahnhof train station, I rode 19 minutes northeast to Bad Sulza, then took a short taxi ride to the winery. There, a young winery worker gave me a tour of the cool, dark cellars, with traditional oak barrels and tall contemporary-style steel tanks for aging wines, then treated me to a tasting of Bad Sulza’s superb red, white, rosé and sparkling wines, some for sale for as little as 10 euros a bottle.
Given my love of art, culture and history, my delight in fine foods, and my joy in exploring peaceful European enclaves, it was difficult to tear myself away from Weimar. But, when it was finally time to leave, I packed my carry-on bag and hopped an Intercity-Express (ICE) train for the final leg of my Eastern Germany odyssey, a 48-minute journey to Eisenach, birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach and beloved second home of Martin Luther, the Protestant Reformer.
For more on Dresden and Saxony, read here: https://travelexaminer.net/an-eastern-germany-odyssey-part-three-the-saxon-elblands/
IF YOU GO: Germany’s national carrier Lufthansa has frequent flights to Berlin from major U.S. cities. For train travel between Berlin, Dresden, and other cities in Saxony and Thuringia, purchase the German Rail Pass. For hotel stays and dining, consider Boutique-Hotel Amalienhof, Familienhotel Weimar, Hotel Elephant, Gasthaus zum Weissen Schwan and Restaurant Erbenhof. For Weimar’s historic sights, visit Classical Weimar Foundation and the Bauhaus University. For day-trips from Weimar, log on to the Buchenwald Memorial, Leuchtenburg Porcelain Worlds, Thuringian Porcelain Route and Thüringer Weingut Bad Sulza. For more information on Weimar, visit Weimar Tourism, Visit Thuringia and Germany Travel.