Weimar: A Lot of German Culture and History in One Place

The name alone simply oozes German history! The Weimar Republic, Goethe and Schiller, the Bauhaus school of architecture, and much more. This page serves as a brief introduction to all that Weimar represents in the fields of arts and architecture, politics, literature, music, and history. For such a small city (population 65,000 in 2020), Weimar packs quite a punch in German history. We won’t be able to cover it all on this page, but enjoy this brief introduction to a place that should be on any traveler’s itinerary for Germany.

A Brief Introduction to Weimar
Located in Central Germany on the Ilm River in the federal state (Bundesland) of Thuringia (Thüringen), Weimar is about 50 miles (80 km) southwest of Leipzig and 106 miles (170 km) north of Nuremberg. Along with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Jena, Weimar is part of the main metro area of Thuringia.

Weimar’s main square, the Theaterplatz, serves as a central location in the city. A statue in front of the Deutsches Nationaltheater honors the literary figures Goethe and Schiller. German-cast copies of this Goethe-Schiller Monument stand in several US cities. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

Weimar’s recorded history dates from 899. Over time the city’s famous name has had a few iterations: Wimares, Wimari, Wimar, and now Weimar. The name is derived from Old High German wīh- (holy) and -mari (swamp), roughly “holy swamp.” What began as a settlement around a count’s wooden castle and two churches gradually became a more urban development. By 1262 the town had its own city seal. By the 16th century, Weimar was a full city that adopted the Protestant Reformation in 1525. Martin Luther, the great Reformer himself, stayed several times in Weimar.

Weimar was a focal point of the German Enlightenment and home of the leading figures of the literary genre of Weimar Classicism, writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. In the 19th century, noted composers such as Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss made Weimar a music centre. Later, artists and architects such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger, and Walter Gropius came to the city and founded the Bauhaus movement, the most famous and important German school of design in the modern age.

The coat of arms for Weimar. PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons

On the political front, Weimar’s history has been both darkness and light. It has been the site where Germany’s first democratic constitution was signed after the First World War, giving its name to the Weimar Republic period in German politics (1918–1933). But it was also one of the German cities identified with National Socialist (Nazi) propaganda and mythology. The Weimar Synagogue was destroyed during the anti-Jewish pogroms of 1938. During World War II, Weimar suffered damage from Allied aerial bombing, but the city was quickly rebuilt due to its cultural significance.

We would be remiss if we failed to mention the Nazi concentration camp that was established near Weimar in 1937. The Buchenwald camp was named for the beech forest on the Ettersberg, only a few kilometers from Weimar, that was cut down to make way for its construction. Based on the Nazi’s own records and other data, the total number of deaths at Buchenwald is estimated to be just over 56,000. The camp was liberated when troops from the U.S. 9th Armored Infantry Battalion, 6th Armored Division, part of the U.S. Third Army, arrived at Buchenwald on 11 April 1945. Today the Buchenwald camp site serves as a Holocaust memorial. It has a museum with permanent exhibitions about the history of the camp.

Many places in Weimar’s city center have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Noted institutions in the city include the Bauhaus University, the new Bauhaus Museum, the Liszt School of Music, the beautiful Duchess Anna Amalia Library, and two leading courts of Thuringia: the Supreme Administrative Court and Constitutional Court. There is far more to be said about the city than we have space for here, but we’ll begin with something even very few Germans know about: Weimar’s World Time Clock.

The OTHER Weltzeituhr
Berlin is famous for its World Time Clock on Alexanderplatz. It’s a popular meeting spot that was erected in 1969, the same year as that other fairly well-known Berlin landmark, the TV tower (Fernsehturm). Both were originally symbols of a walled off East Berlin and the German Democratic Republic. But, while virtually everyone knows about the World Time Clock in Berlin, almost no one knows that it has a smaller, younger cousin in Weimar. And, while it may be smaller, it features some extras that aren’t found in Berlin.

Weimar’s World Time Clock came about in the mid-1980s when people began to notice that the city had a serious dearth of public clocks. Once you left the train station, it was almost impossible to learn the hour from a public clock as you strolled through the city. And this in a city known for its famous socialist public enterprise, the Weimar clock factory (VEB Uhrenwerk Weimar)! A nice spot for the new clock was selected, between the Theaterplatz and Schillerstraße. In July 1985 the mayor issued an official contract for a new street clock. The assignment for its design went to the head clock designer at the Uhrenwerk Weimar, Hendryk Spanier. The project was led by Herbert Taubner, then the director of the Uhrenwerk Weimar.

The Weltzeituhr in Weimar, shortly after its installation, as photographed on 14 October 1986. PHOTO: Bundesarchiv/Wikimedia Commons

The Weimaraner (the townspeople, not the dogs) didn’t want just another ordinary clock. Herr Spanier was given pretty much free rein to design something special. Besides a tall cylinder with a world map with the 24 time zones, he added three smaller cylinders to display local meteorologic conditions: barometric pressure, relative humidity, and temperature. The project was beyond what the local clock factory could handle, so more than 25 other concerns were involved in the project. After a year, and at a cost of about 100,000 East German marks just for material and contract labor, the city had a new world time clock structure that stands about 10 feet (3 m) tall. Crowning the installation are four conventional clock faces showing the local time, each facing one of the compass directions. Below, at around eye level, housed in a square glass case, are the four revolving cylinders indicating the time and current weather conditions. (See the photo above. The current version looks very similar.)

On 3 October 1986, the 40th anniversary of the GDR, Herbert Taubner officially handed over the new clock to the city, now also referred to as the “Stadtuhr” or city clock. Inside the unit, behind glass, was a metal plaque engraved with the words: “Der Stadt Weimar vom VEB Uhrenwerk Weimar. Gestaltung H. Spanier, 7. Oktober 1986” (“To the City of Weimar from the VEB Uhrenwerk Weimar. Designed by H. Spanier, 7 October 1986”). That original plaque was lost for about 25 years after German reunification. Only recently was it discovered and restored to its rightful place. In 1996/1997, for a period 15 months, the city clock was restored and rebuilt to reflect new technology, at a cost of about 60,000 DM. It still stands in its original location on the corner of Schillerstraße, just across from the Theaterplatz. Today the clock tower cylinder is powered by an electric motor, with the time provided remotely by a quartz movement that is located in the basement of the Wittumspalais Museum, the former Baroque palatial residence of the dowager Duchess Anna Amalia until her death in 1807. Both the time and weather data are fed to the city clock from there.

A closeup view of the Weltzeituhr in Weimar. The time-zone cylinder is seen at the top, with the time wheel above the barometric pressure wheel. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

Although over 30 East German cities expressed interest in having a similar clock, Weimar’s World Time Clock remains a unique item, one of a kind (ein Unikat). And that is exactly what the city of Weimar wanted. So now you know a bit about Weimar’s city clock, more than even many Weimar residents know!

The Bauhaus
The Bauhaus design movement began in Weimar in 1919. Because the Nazis didn’t like anything modern, avant-garde, or internationalist, the Bauhaus had to keep moving. As early as 1925, the first relocation occurred after government funding cuts in Weimar forced the Bauhaus to look elsewhere. The school moved down the road to Dessau, where the famous Bauhaus School building still stands today. The Bauhaus remained in Dessau longer than in any other location. But there would be another move following the labeling of Bauhaus art and architecture as “degenerate art” (entartete Kunst). The move to Berlin in 1932 did not survive Hitler’s rise to power.

Although the Bauhaus school in Germany closed, the staff continued to spread its ideas and principles after they left Germany and emigrated all over the world. For instance, Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius ended up in the United States via London in 1937. In the US Gropius and his Bauhaus protégé Marcel Breuer taught at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Gropius later became a senior partner in The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a major design firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Between 1937 and 1938 the Nazis confiscated over 16,000 modernist artworks from public institutions in Germany. Many of these paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings were destroyed. Others were sold to provide income for the National Socialist Party. A selection of Bauhaus art was even displayed in an exhibition called Entartete Kunst, which opened in Munich in July 1937, before touring across the Reich.

To learn more about the Bauhaus and its founder, see this German Way page: Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus.

More Weimar-Related Pages

• Goethe and Schiller in San Francisco – and a few other places in the US; copies of the Weimar Goethe-Schiller monument
• Weimar in the USA – Along with other towns and cities in the US named after German cities
• The Bauhaus – A Timeline Graphic – An overview of the Bauhaus and its influences

Watch for more about Weimar in Germany coming soon.

This Weimar is in California. There’s another one in Texas. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

More | City Guides – Germany

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AT THE GERMAN WAY

• City Guides: Germany – More cities
• Berlin and Potsdam
• Hotels and B&Bs
• Driving in Europe – Tips for driving in Germany and Europe
• Air Travel – Flying to, from or in Germany
• Rail Travel in Germany
• Travel and Tourism – Travel-related information for Germany, Austria, Switzerland
• Notable People – Bios of notable people from the German-speaking world

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