Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [222]
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WEIMAR
03643 / pop 64,000
Neither a monumental town nor a medieval one, Weimar appeals to those whose tastes run to cultural and intellectual pleasures. After all, this is the epicentre of the German Enlightenment, a symbol for all that is good and great in German culture. An entire pantheon of intellectual and creative giants lived and worked here: Goethe, Schiller, Bach, Cranach, Liszt, Nietzsche, Gropius, Herder, Feininger, Kandinsky, Klee…the list goes on (and on, and on). You’ll see reminders of them wherever you go – here, a statue; there, a commemorative plaque decorating a house facade – plus scores of museums and historic sites. In summer, Weimar’s many parks and gardens lend themselves to taking a break from the intellectual onslaught.
Internationally, of course, Weimar is better known as the place where the constitution of the Weimar Republic was drafted after WWI (see the boxed text, Click here), though there are few reminders of this historical moment. The ghostly ruins of the Buchenwald concentration camp, on the other hand, provide haunting evidence of the terrors of the Nazi regime. The Bauhaus and classical Weimar locations are protected as Unesco World Heritage Sites.
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Orientation
It’s about a 20-minute walk south from the Hauptbahnhof to the start of the historic centre at Goetheplatz.
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Information
Police ( 8820; Markt 13)
Post office (Goetheplatz 7-8; 9am-6.30pm Mon-Fri, 9am-noon Sat)
Roxanne Internet Café ( 800 194; Markt 21; per 30min €1; 10am-late Mon-Sat year-round, 1pm-late Sun May-Sep, 3pm-late Sun Oct-Apr) Internet terminals and wi-fi. Smoking is permitted.
Sparkasse (Graben 4) Bank with ATM.
Thalia ( 828 10; Schillerstrasse 5a) Bookshop.
Tourist office ( 7450; www.weimar.de; Markt 10; 9.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, to 3pm Sat & Sun Apr-Oct, 9.30am-6pm Mon-Fri, to 2pm Sat & Sun Nov-Mar) Sells the WeimarCard (€10 for 72 hours) for free or discounted museum admissions and travel on city buses and other benefits. There are also desks of the Buchenwald Information ( 430 200) and the Klassik Stiftung Weimar ( 545 407; www.klassik-stiftung.de).
Welcome-Centre Weimar ( 7450; Friedensstrasse 1; 10am-6pm Mon-Sat) This tourist office branch is about 10 minutes south of the train station.
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Sights
GOETHE HAUS & NATIONALMUSEUM
No other individual is as closely associated with Weimar as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, who lived in this town from 1775 until his death in 1832, the last 50 years in what is now the Goethe Haus ( 545 401; Frauenplan 1; adult/concession/under 16 €8.50/7/free; 9am-6pm Tue-Fri & Sun, 9am-7pm Sat Apr-Sep, 9am-6pm Tue-Sun Oct, 9am-4pm Tue-Sun Nov-Mar). This is where he worked, studied, researched and penned Faust and other immortal works. If you’re a Goethe fan, you’ll get the chills when seeing his study and the bedroom where he died, both preserved in their original state. To get the most from your visit, get the audioguide (€2).
The ticket foyer also gives access to the Goethe Nationalmuseum, whose exhibits are expected to get an update in 2010. The focus will be less on the man himself than on his epoch, which is referred to as Weimar Classicism. Goethe, his contemporary Schiller, his ducal patrons (Anna Amalia and Carl August), his muse (Charlotte von Stein) and other cultural spear carriers feature in this loose collection of paintings, books, busts, letters and objets d’art. Details about admission and hours were not available at press time.
SCHILLER HAUS
Dramatist and Goethe buddy Friedrich von Schiller lived in Weimar from 1799 until his early death in 1805. Unlike Goethe, however, he had to buy his own house, now the Schiller Haus ( 545 401; Schillerstrasse 12; adult/concession/under 16 €5/4/free; 9am-6pm Tue-Fri & Sun, 9am-7pm Sat Apr-Sep, 9am-6pm Tue-Sun Oct, 9am-4pm Tue-Sun Nov-Mar). Study up on the man, his family and life in Thuringia in a new