Weimar Things to Do

A small museum with a collection of drawings, paintings, furniture, designs and sculptures from the Bauhaus school. Weimar was the center of the Bauhaus movement (a contemporary architectural style) at the beginning of the twentieth century.

This clock tower with one little window quite at the top reminded me of the Rapunzel story. I guess this can't be it as the tower where Rapunzel was imprisoned is supposed to have no door, but it was kind of fun to imagine those things.

While Weimar's historic city center is bursting with signs of the best that German culture can offer – enlightened nobility, the genius of Goethe and Schiller, outstanding architecture and a sense for art, you'll find the symbol for Germany's darkest and most barbaric years just outside of Weimar – the former concentration camp Buchenwald. It lies on the Ettersberg (Etters mountain) and if you approach Weimar from the west, you can see the monument dedicated to those who lost their lives in Buchenwald rising high over the mountain. A long street leads you to Buchenwald through the woods, the street was built by concentration camp inmates. The barracks are not standing anymore, but the administrative buildings are still there and feature a museum telling visitors about the horrors that took place there. Strong nerves are needed to go through the buildings, I have seen quite some visitors breaking down crying there. You will see the medical rooms, which were definitely not dedicated to healing, the infamous stoves and other remains of those years. The largest building now has a permanent exhibition about the history of the camp and of those years, the lives of inmates and – finally – also about the people that were interred here by the Russian occupation forces after the war. The exhibition is compellingly informative and shocking, stretching over three floors and it won't leave you untouched.

Old cemetaries always have a special atmosphere of peace about them and so does the Weimar Historic Cemetary (Historischer Friedhof) with the added value that you'll find the graves of many famous and brilliant poets, thinkers and nobles here. The central point surely is the large memorial building in which Goethe and Schiller are buried next to each other. The inside features not much more than two coffins so unless standing in front of the coffins of the two main German writers is special to you, there is not much reason to go inside. Right next to the memorial building you will find a somewhat unsual sight for a German cemetary – a Russian chapel. It is the burial chamber of the Russian great duchess who married a duke of Weimar. After her death, she was buried in Weimar – Russian soil had been brought to Weimar especially for this occasion. The chapel is small inside but definitely worth a visit. However, don't concentrate solely on those two buildings, but also walk through the large and quiet cemetary, look at the historic gravestones with their elaborate inscripts. You will find the graves of Goethe's daughter-in-law and grandchildren here as well as the graves of several great actors of Weimar's hightime and that of the famous Frau von Stein – Goethe's long-year close friend.

The Ilm park stretches along all of Weimar's center, also forming the Eastern border of the old town. The tiny river Ilm runs through it. The park was mainly influenced by Goethe and was created between 1778 and 1828. It features pleasant lawns, groups of trees and plants, artificial water falls, small bridges and interesting buildings, the garden house of Goethe just being one of them. The park successfully attempts a natural look, a conscious move away from the artificial gardens that were en vogue back then. Another new development was that the park was open to everyone, not just the nobility. Today it is inviting for a lengthy stroll. You can enjoy the lovely nature around you, climb up and down the little stairs and walls you find at some spots and discover the interesting buildings you will find all through the park.

The garden house of Goethe, situated in the lovely Ilm park, is very small and extremely simple. It was Goethe's very first own dwelling. You get to see the dining room and kitchen on the first floor, sparsely and spartanically furnished. Upstairs you will find the study, the bedroom and the library. Take a note of the weird desk chair in the study, basically just a large block on three legs on which one had to sit as if on a horse. Looks extremely uncomfortable for my taste. The view from the rooms in the upper floor is gorgeous, you can see the Ilm park in its full glory. The house always was special to Goethe, also because close to it he met his future wife Christiane. He only moved to the house at Frauenplan because he was advancing in rank and therefore needed more suitable housing. However, be prepared for the garden house to be very small, there isn't exactly very much to see. Still, it is worth a visit as it gives a good impression of how Goethe used to live in his early years.

Friedrich von Schiller, one of Germany's most famous poets lived in Weimar for some years of his life, being a good friend of Goethe, though not as well off financially. This can be seen in his house, especially if compared to the Goethehaus in Frauenplan. The Schillerhaus, as it is called, is far simpler, featuring small rooms, but having a charme of its own. Schiller bought this house in 1802, it had been a life-long dream of his to have his own house and he finally fulfilled it at the age of 43. Tragically, he died only three years later. The house has been a museum ever since 1847. It's small and simply but friendly furnished rooms feature several pieces of furniture that actually belonged to Schiller and in his study, on his desk, you can even see his very last manuscript. Little details give a good impresion of the daily life in the Schiller household, like a houseold book showing the expenses of the household. The wallpapers have actually been specially reprinted to look like those used in 1802. You also get to see the private rooms of Schiller's wife Charlotte and the somewhat more elegant reception room. The adjoining Schiller museum gives you some background of the life and work of this poet.

I happily out myself as a Goethe-fan and so whenever I am lucky enough to be in Weimar, I visit the places where he lived and worked. The most remarkable of these places is the Goethehaus at the Frauenplan, a large an impressive mansion that was given to Goethe in 1794 by Weimar's Duke Carl August – the kind of gift we'd surely all appreciate. Goethe lived in this house for almost fifty years and it has been carefully renovated – leaving unchanged as much as possible - to show a good picture of his life. The visitor can wander through Goethe's study (an almost spartanic room compared to the rest of the house), see the room where he died and some of the rooms in the front part of the house, which were mainly for entertaining and therefore look more elegant. A minor setback is the lack of informational plaques (at least during my last visits, maybe that has been changed) which leave the visitor without the little details that make the rooms more personal, but the many original pieces of furniture, pictures and artefacts give a good picture of the life of a well-to-do citizen in the late 18th and early 19th century and of course of Goethe's life in particular. Don't miss out on the small garden behind the house and also visit the carriage Goethe used, as well as the charming little courtyard the house surrounds. Several statues and other pieces of art that had been collected by Goethe, adorn the house. Goethe had used art to decorate his house rather than pompous furniture or other finery that was often found in the houses of high-ranking people of those times. I, as a hopeless fan of old books, was very impressed by Goethe's library, a narrow, unassuming room, filled with books over books of remarkable age. In the back part of the house, close to Goethe's private rooms, you will also get to see the rooms of his long-year lover and later wife Christian Vulpius. Goethe had these rooms changed after his wife's death, but a few original pieces of her furniture have now been put back there.