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Weimar

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For other uses, see Weimar (disambiguation).
Weimar
Town
Coat of arms of Weimar
Coat of arms
Location of Weimar
Map
CountryGermany
StateThuringia
DistrictUrban district
Subdivisions21 districts
Government
 • Lord mayorStefan Wolf (SPD)
Area
 • Total84.26 km2 (32.53 sq mi)
Elevation
208 m (682 ft)
Population
 (2022-12-31)[1]
 • Total65,620
 • Density780/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
Postal codes
99401–99441
Dialling codes03643, 036453
Vehicle registrationWE
Websitewww.weimar.de
Classical Weimar
UNESCO World Heritage Site
The city hall
CriteriaCultural: iii, vi
Reference846
Inscription1998 (22nd Session)

Weimar (IPA: [ˈvaɪmaʁ]) is a city in Germany. It is located in the Bundesland of Thuringia (German: Thüringen), north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 64,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899. Weimar was the capital of the Duchy (after 1815 the Grand Duchy) of Saxe-Weimar (German Sachsen-Weimar). In the 20th century, the city gave its name to the Weimar Republic.

History

File:HPIM7722.jpg
The Grand-Ducal Palace.
Goethe and Schiller in front of the Deutsches Nationaltheater.

18th and 19th centuries

Weimar is one of the great cultural sites of Europe, Having been home to such luminaries as Bach, Goethe, Schiller, and Herder; and in music the piano virtuosi Hummel (a pupil of Mozart) and Liszt. It has been a site of pilgrimage for the German intelligentsia since Goethe first moved to Weimar in the late 18th century. The tombs of Goethe and Schiller as well as their archives, may be found in the city. Goethe's Elective Affinities (1809) is set around the city of Weimar.

Weimar Republic

The period in German history from 1919 to 1933 is commonly referred to as the Weimar Republic, as the Republic's constitution was drafted here because the capital, Berlin, with its street rioting after the 1918 German Revolution, was considered too dangerous for the National Assembly to use it as a meeting place. Weimar was, beside Dessau, the center of the Bauhaus movement. The city houses art galleries, museums and the German national theatre. The Bauhaus University and the Liszt School of Music Weimar attracted many students, specializing in media and design, architecture, civil engineering and music, to Weimar.

World War II

During World War II, there was a concentration camp near Weimar, at Buchenwald, only 8 kilometers from the city center. More than 55,000 prisoners entered the gates bearing the mottos "Jedem das Seine" ("to each his due") and "Recht oder Unrecht—Mein Vaterland" ("right or wrong—my fatherland").[citation needed] The Buchenwald concentration camp provided slave labour for local industry.[3]

German Democratic Republic

Weimar was part of the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to 1990.

Recent years

The European Council of Ministers selected the city as a European Capital of Culture for 1999.

On September 3, 2004, a fire broke out at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library. The library contains a 13,000-volume collection including Goethe's masterpiece Faust, in addition to a music collection of the Duchess. An authentic Lutheran Bible from 1534 was saved from the fire. The damage stretched into the millions of dollars. The number of books in this historic library exceeded 1,000,000, of which 40,000 to 50,000 were destroyed past recovery. The library, which dates back to 1691, belongs to UNESCO world heritage, and is one of the oldest public libraries in Europe. The fire, with its destruction of much historical literature, amounts to a huge cultural loss for Germany, Europe, and indeed the world. A number of books were shock-frozen in the city of Leipzig to save them from rotting.


Famous residents of Weimar

File:HPIM5027.jpg
Schiller House.
File:HPIM5046.jpg
Goethe's garden house.
File:HPIM7741.jpg
Liszt's garden house.
File:HPIM4971.jpg
The Altenburg, Liszt's residence in Weimar.

Districts

Education

File:HPIM7618.jpg
Liszt School of Music Weimar.

Transportation

It is connected by one motorway and two routes:

Sister cities

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References

  1. ^ "Bevölkerung der Gemeinden, erfüllenden Gemeinden und Verwaltungsgemeinschaften in Thüringen Gebietsstand: 31.12.2022" (in German). Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik. June 2023.
  2. ^ Thüringer Landesamt für Statistik. "Population data". Retrieved 2007-08-10.
  3. ^ Edward Victor.Alphabetical List of Camps, Subcamps and Other Camps.www.edwardvictor.com/Holocaust/List %20 of %20 camps.htm
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