Weimar

Yesterday my class went to Weimar.  It was about a two hour train trip from school on the slow train.  Weimar was first recorded in 899.  Germany's first democratic constitution was signed here after World War I.  It is a city known for it's rich history of prominent intellectuals.  It was the home of Goethe (of whom my school is named after - he was a famous German poet, novelist, playwright, natural philosopher, diplomat, and civil servant), Schiller (a friend of Goethe's and also a poet, philosopher, playwright, as well has historian), Liszt, and Bach.

Goethe's House in Weimar

Schiller's House - now part of a cafe like many other important buildings in the area.

Weimar was in the DDR (German Democratic Republic).  This means that it was a part of East Germany and after the reunification of Germany required massive sums of money, as did all other cities of East Germany, to "modernify" to catch up to West Germany.  Walking through Weimar today, you wouldn't be able to tell easily that it had not always had cafes on every corner and such beautiful buildings.

One of the most important buildings of Weimar is the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek (library), built in 1691.  This houses a collection of over a million original works of classic German writers and others.  Included in this is the original text of Goethe's Faust (his most famous work), and an original copy of the Lutheran Bible from 1534.  Sadly, between 40,000 and 50,000 books were destroyed beyond recovery in a massive fire in 2004.  This was a huge cultural loss for Germany.  The library reopened in 2007.

 Statue in front of the Bibliothek.

Weimar also has several very old churches, some dating back to the Middle Ages.  A few of Weimar's elite are buried in these churches and services are still held in them today.

The "meeting place" of almost any German town is near the Rathaus (courthouse).  Almost every town's Rathaus is extremely beautiful and old.  Weimar's has Meissner Porcelain bells in the tower.  This is the most expensive porcelain in all of Germany.

(btw. - Every stand said they had the best/only real/original Thuringen Bratwurst.  I had one from this stand... it was pretty good. It may have actually been the original.)

So, that's Weimar in a nutshell.  It's extremely early Saturday morning for me right now. I'm heading out later this morning to head to Rothenburg. We switched up our plans. I'm heading out with Kathleen (from Kansas), and Bernadett (from Hungary).  It's good that Bernadett will be with us because she can't speak any English so we have to stay speaking German the whole time.  More pictures when I get back. 

Tschüss!