Why not Weimar?
What is this place Weimar? I had heard the name many times over the years. It was almost always in the context of the Weimar Republic. But just what was that? The more I read and the more I researched, amazingly the more I discovered. Funny how that works!
Weimar revealed itself in layers: layers of learning, like an onion. I should say like pages of a book– many, many books. Weimar as I learned was a hot-bed of thought. It drew thinkers and writers. It collected designers. And it enthralled me with its charm. I too was captivated.
Markt Platz in Weimar
Once ignited, Weimar drew the thinkers like moths to a flame. Perhaps it started with Goethe. Who in turn invited his friend Schiller to his home. He promptly moved there, helping to create the magical period known as Weimar Classicism lasting from 1788-1832.
Goethe’s house overlooking a square
Goethe’s garden
Goethe probably best known in literature for Faust, was an influential 18th and early 19th century thinker who also wrote scientific texts such as the Theory of Colours and influenced Charles Darwin with his writings on plant morphology.
His friend and colleague, Schiller was a poet, dramatist, philosopher and historian. His seminal piece is William Tell. Remember the overture? It was a story about a father, a son, an arrow and an apple.
Schiller’s house and museum
And what is literature without libraries? For a small town, Weimar has a beauty. The Herzogin Anna-Amalia Bibliotheka.
The newly restored Anna-Amalia Bibliotheka
I wondered just what is a Herzogin? I learned that she is a duchess. And boy, oh boy did she have a library. Restoration work had been completed only a few months prior. There had been a devastating fire four years ago. Many of the priceless manuscripts and maps had been lost to the flames and many more to water damage.
In a testament to the resiliency that was in evidence throughout our travels in eastern Germany, its reincarnation was stunning.
But Weimar wasn’t just for book learning alone, it was also the original home to the Bauhaus Design School. Walter Gropius founded it in 1919. In 1925 it moved to Dessau, but it all started here.
A Bauhaus take on a chandelier A Jugendstil newel post
There is a small museum with original Bauhaus student work. And when I say original student work I mean paintings by Kandinsky and Klee. There are also early prototypes of Mies van der Rohe’s tubular tables and chairs and Josef Albers color-topped side tables. These are the conceptual designs and amateur student construction of pieces that would later become icons of modernity in the world of furniture.
Elephant Hotel on Markt Platz
During our brief stay in Weimar, we were fortunate to stay at Hotel Elephant. It is one of the longest running hotels in Europe. It has been in existence since the early 16th century.
Lobby view from the sweeping staircase of the hotel
Its interior possesses a brilliant combination of early modern furnishings and art held within a container of beautifully inlaid wood paneled walls and assured liberal use of black.
The sun-drenched dining hall at the Elephant Hotel
A restorative cocktail after a day of touring house museums
We found Weimar irresistible, a jewel of a town brimming with small, but important house museums, lovely squares ringed with cafes, and cobbled streets lined with ginkgo trees.
With fond memories of our adventures here, we boarded our train to our final destination. Berlin awaited us.
Our dining car on the train to Berlin
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 at 3:07 pmand is filed under travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.