Goethe Oak (or Goethe ' s Oak ), is a name given to a number of oak trees in Germany that are referred to in this way because they allegedly bear some sort of connection to the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe .
140-509: Perhaps the most famous one is the oak tree near Weimar , Germany, on the Ettersberg , at the foot of which was the castle of Charlotte von Stein . The oak, in the middle of a beech forest, is named thus because it is supposedly the tree under which Goethe wrote " Wanderer's Nightsong ", or, alternatively, the location where he composed the Walpurgisnacht passages of his Faust . The fate of
280-405: A Ferris wheel . There are several clubs with live music once or twice a week. There is also a student club in the city centre which also features disco and live music events on Friday- and Saturday nights (Kasseturm). There are several smaller theatre and cabaret venues other than the large "DNT" (Deutsches National Theater). There are four cinemas including a 3-D cinema, and a Bowling Alley in
420-476: A World Cultural Heritage site , as "an outstanding example of new town planning and architecture in the early 20th century." The citation recognized the unique adaptation of modern international architectural trends to the cultural, climatic, and local traditions of the city. Bauhaus Center Tel Aviv organizes regular architectural tours of the city, and the Bauhaus Foundation offers Bauhaus exhibits. As
560-699: A culture war of far right-wing provocation. In September 2020, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen introduced the New European Bauhaus (NEB) initiative during her State of the Union address. The NEB is a creative and interdisciplinary movement that connects the European Green Deal to everyday life. It is a platform for experimentation aiming to unite citizens, experts, businesses and institutions in imagining and designing
700-665: A town hall and the current main church. In 1438 Weimar acquired trade privileges for woad, a plant from which blue dye was made. The castle and the walls were finished in the 16th century, making Weimar into a full city. After the Treaty of Leipzig (1485) Weimar became part of the electorate of the Ernestine branch of Wettins with Wittenberg as capital. The Protestant Reformation was introduced in Weimar in 1525; Martin Luther stayed several times in
840-505: A "spatial implementation of intellectual decisions", which effectively meant an adoption of his own aesthetics. Neither Mies van der Rohe nor his Bauhaus students saw any projects built during the 1930s. The Bauhaus movement was not focused on developing worker housing. Only two projects, the apartment building project in Dessau and the Törten row housing fall into the worker housing category. It
980-557: A Bauhaus-influenced art foundation course, was introduced at Camberwell School of Art and the Central School of Art and Design, whence it spread to all art schools in the country, becoming universal by the early 1960s. One of the most important contributions of the Bauhaus is in the field of modern furniture design. The characteristic Cantilever chair and Wassily Chair designed by Marcel Breuer are two examples. (Breuer eventually lost
1120-623: A basic course in aesthetic principles, courses in color theory , industrial design, and architecture. Vkhutemas was a larger school than the Bauhaus, but it was less publicised outside the Soviet Union and consequently, is less familiar in the West . With the internationalism of modern architecture and design, there were many exchanges between the Vkhutemas and the Bauhaus. The second Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer attempted to organise an exchange between
1260-665: A city of clerks, artists and rentiers. During the German Revolution of 1918–19 the last reigning grand duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach , William Ernest, had to abdicate and went in exile to Heinrichau in Silesia. The period in German history from 1919 to 1933 is commonly referred to as the Weimar Republic , as the Republic's constitution was drafted there rather than Berlin . The capital
1400-448: A design school in the tradition of the Bauhaus. The school is notable for its inclusion of semiotics as a field of study. The school closed in 1968, but the "Ulm Model" concept continues to influence international design education. Another series of projects at the school were the Bauhaus typefaces , mostly realized in the decades afterward. The influence of the Bauhaus on design education
1540-749: A great fire in 1774. The tower and the Bastille building at its south-western edge are relics of older castles in this place. The Fürstenhaus at Platz der Demokratie was the first parliament building in Weimar, established in the 1770s. Today it is in use by the Weimar School of Music. The Green Castle next to the Fürstenhaus was built in the 1560s in Renaissance style and hosts today the Duchess Anna Amalia Library . The Yellow Castle at Grüner Markt
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#17328523956771680-483: A legal battle in Germany with Dutch architect/designer Mart Stam over patent rights to the cantilever chair design. Although Stam had worked on the design of the Bauhaus's 1923 exhibit in Weimar, and guest-lectured at the Bauhaus later in the 1920s, he was not formally associated with the school, and he and Breuer had worked independently on the cantilever concept, leading to the patent dispute.) The most profitable product of
1820-436: A lengthy debate over who should head the institution and the socio-economic meanings of a reconciliation of the fine arts and the applied arts (an issue which remained a defining one throughout the school's existence), Gropius was made the director of a new institution integrating the two called the Bauhaus. In the pamphlet for an April 1919 exhibition entitled Exhibition of Unknown Architects , Gropius, still very much under
1960-708: A major impact on art and architecture trends in Western Europe, Canada, the United States and Israel in the decades following its demise, as many of the artists involved fled, or were exiled by the Nazi regime. In 1996, four of the major sites associated with Bauhaus in Germany were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List (with two more added in 2017). In 1928, the Hungarian painter Alexander Bortnyik founded
2100-416: A microclimate caused through the basin position with sometimes inversion in winter (quite cold nights under −20 °C (−4 °F)). Annual precipitation is only 535 mm (21.1 in) with moderate rainfall throughout the year. Light snowfall occurs, mainly from December through February, but snow cover does not usually remain for long. The Weimar ( Erfurt–Weimar Airport ) weather station has recorded
2240-430: A migrant background (according to 2011 EU census ). Differing from the national average, the biggest groups of migrants in Weimar are Vietnamese people , Russians and Ukrainians . During recent years, the economic situation of the city improved: the unemployment rate declined from 20% in 2005 to 5.1% in 2019. Due to the official atheism in the former GDR , most of the population is non-religious. 21.1% are members of
2380-474: A mind towards preserving Germany's economic competitiveness with England. In its first seven years, the Werkbund came to be regarded as the authoritative body on questions of design in Germany, and was copied in other countries. Many fundamental questions of craftsmanship versus mass production, the relationship of usefulness and beauty, the practical purpose of formal beauty in a commonplace object, and whether or not
2520-491: A moderate growth of approximately 0.35% per year, whereas the population in bordering rural regions is shrinking with accelerating tendency. Suburbanization played only a small role in Weimar. It occurred after the reunification for a short time in the 1990s, but most of the suburban areas were situated within the administrative city borders. The birth surplus was +3 in 2012, this is +0.0 per 1,000 inhabitants (Thuringian average: −4.5; national average: −2.4). The net migration rate
2660-410: A new period of history had begun with the end of the war. He wanted to create a new architectural style to reflect this new era. His style in architecture and consumer goods was to be functional, cheap and consistent with mass production. To these ends, Gropius wanted to reunite art and craft to arrive at high-end functional products with artistic merit. The Bauhaus issued a magazine called Bauhaus and
2800-576: A population of 65,000. Weimar is well known because of its cultural heritage and importance in German history. The city was a focal point of the German Enlightenment and home of the leading literary figures of Weimar Classicism , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller . In the 19th century, composers such as Franz Liszt made Weimar a music centre. Later, artists and architects such as Henry van de Velde , Wassily Kandinsky , Paul Klee , Lyonel Feininger , and Walter Gropius came to
2940-597: A profound influence on subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design , and typography . Staff at the Bauhaus included prominent artists such as Paul Klee , Wassily Kandinsky , Gunta Stölzl , and László Moholy-Nagy at various points. The school existed in three German cities— Weimar , from 1919 to 1925; Dessau , from 1925 to 1932; and Berlin , from 1932 to 1933—under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928; Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930; and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when
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#17328523956773080-547: A range of materials and processes. This approach to design education became a common feature of architectural and design school in many countries. For example, the Shillito Design School in Sydney stands as a unique link between Australia and the Bauhaus. The colour and design syllabus of the Shillito Design School was firmly underpinned by the theories and ideologies of the Bauhaus. Its first year foundational course mimicked
3220-544: A school of design in Budapest called Műhely, which means "the studio". Located on the seventh floor of a house on Nagymezo Street, it was meant to be the Hungarian equivalent to the Bauhaus. The literature sometimes refers to it—in an oversimplified manner—as "the Budapest Bauhaus". Bortnyik was a great admirer of László Moholy-Nagy and had met Walter Gropius in Weimar between 1923 and 1925. Moholy-Nagy himself taught at
3360-481: A series of books called "Bauhausbücher". Since the Weimar Republic lacked the number of raw materials available to the United States and Great Britain, it had to rely on the proficiency of a skilled labour force and an ability to export innovative and high-quality goods. Therefore, designers were needed and so was a new type of art education. The school's philosophy stated that the artist should be trained to work with
3500-458: A single proper form could exist, were argued out among its 1,870 members (by 1914). German architectural modernism was known as Neues Bauen . Beginning in June 1907, Peter Behrens ' pioneering industrial design work for the German electrical company AEG successfully integrated art and mass production on a large scale. He designed consumer products, standardized parts, created clean-lined designs for
3640-591: A storm in 2007). Weimar Weimar is a city in the German state of Thuringia , in Central Germany between Erfurt to the west and Jena to the east, 80 km (50 mi) southwest of Leipzig , 170 km (106 mi) north of Nuremberg and 170 km (106 mi) west of Dresden . Together with the neighbouring cities of Erfurt and Jena, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia, with approximately 500,000 inhabitants. The city itself has
3780-444: A sustainable, aesthetic and inclusive future. Sport and physical activity were an essential part of the original Bauhaus approach. Hannes Meyer, the second director of Bauhaus Dessau, ensured that one day a week was solely devoted to sport and gymnastics. 1 In 1930, Meyer employed two physical education teachers. The Bauhaus school even applied for public funds to enhance its playing field. The inclusion of sport and physical activity in
3920-452: A tool for creating an ideal form, which is the basis of the architectural concept. After Germany's defeat in World War I and the establishment of the Weimar Republic , a renewed liberal spirit allowed an upsurge of radical experimentation in all the arts, which had been suppressed by the old regime. Many Germans of left-wing views were influenced by the cultural experimentation that followed
4060-507: Is Thuringia's largest festival. The festival is held over 3 days and approximately 500 stalls and more than 100 stage performances are put up across the city. Weimar first celebrated the Onion Market in 1653. Stalls typically offer onion plaits, themed arts and crafts and numerous onion-based foods, including onion cakes, onion soups and onion breads. The festival also hosts numerous beer gardens , live music, fairground attractions and
4200-611: Is dedicated to the Sacred Heart and was built between 1888 and 1891 in historicist forms imitating Florence Cathedral . Another church is the Russian Orthodox Chapel within the historic cemetery. It was built in 1862 as the funerary chapel of Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna and was one of the first Russian-styled buildings in Germany. Interesting churches in the suburban districts are the Lutheran parish church of Gelmeroda , which
4340-616: Is estimated at 56,545. The Buchenwald concentration camp provided slave labour for local industry, including the Wilhelm-Gustloff-Werk arms factory. The city centre was partially damaged by US Air Force bombing in 1945 with some 1,800 people killed and many historic buildings destroyed. Nevertheless, most of the destroyed buildings were restored soon after the war because of their importance in German cultural history. The Allied ground advance into Germany reached Weimar in April 1945, and
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4480-413: Is set around the city of Weimar. In comparison to many major German states, the dukes' policy was liberal and tolerant in this period. The liberal Saxe-Weimar constitution was brought into effect in 1816. The time after Goethe's death is denoted as the "silver" age because Weimar remained an influential cultural centre. The first emphasis was fostering music. In 1842, Franz Liszt moved to Weimar to become
4620-627: Is the Evangelical St. Peter and Paul on the Herderplatz (known as Die Herderkirche). It was rebuilt in late Gothic style after a fire around 1500. Between 1726 and 1735, the interior underwent a Baroque remodelling by Johann Adolf Richter. Johann Gottfried Herder was the dean of the church between 1766 and 1803. The second old Evangelical church of Weimar is St. James on Rollplatz, rebuilt in 1712 in Baroque style. The Roman Catholic parish church of Weimar
4760-447: The Bauhaus ( German for 'building house'), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts . The school became famous for its approach to design , which attempted to unify individual artistic vision with the principles of mass production and emphasis on function . Along with the doctrine of functionalism, the Bauhaus initiated
4900-517: The Park an der Ilm in the southeast, whereas the western and northern quarters are more basic and mixed with industrial areas in their outer parts. During the GDR period, two new Plattenbau settlements were developed in the west and the north of the city. After 1990, suburbanization occurred for a short time and the rural districts of Weimar saw significant growth as part of the larger city. The city's main church
5040-723: The Aluminum City Terrace in New Kensington, Pennsylvania and the Alan I W Frank House in Pittsburgh. The Harvard School was enormously influential in America in the late 1920s and early 1930s, producing such students as Philip Johnson , I. M. Pei , Lawrence Halprin and Paul Rudolph , among many others. In the late 1930s, Mies van der Rohe re-settled in Chicago, enjoyed the sponsorship of
5180-776: The Bauhaus University , the Liszt School of Music , the Duchess Anna Amalia Library , and two leading courts of Thuringia (the Supreme Administrative Court and Constitutional Court). In 1999, Weimar was the European Capital of Culture . Archaeological finds dating back to the Thuringii epoch (3rd to 6th centuries) show that the Weimar part of the Ilm valley was settled early. A tight network of settlements occupied much of
5320-777: The Bundesschule des Allgemeinen Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes (ADGB Trade Union School) in Bernau bei Berlin . Meyer's approach was to research users' needs and scientifically develop the design solution. He intended to place emphasis on Gropius' objective analysis of the properties determining an object's use value, known as Wesensforschung . Gropius believed that it was possible to design exemplary products of universal validity that should be standardized. Mies van der Rohe repudiated Meyer's politics, his supporters, and his architectural approach. As opposed to Gropius's "study of essentials", and Meyer's research into user requirements, Mies advocated
5460-623: The Evangelical Church in Central Germany and 6.8% are Catholics (according to 2011 EU census). Two World Heritage Sites converge in Weimar: Weimar has a great variety of museums: The historic city centre of Weimar is situated between the Ilm river in the east, Grabenstraße in the north, Goetheplatz and Theaterplatz in the west and Schillerstraße in the south. Its two central squares are
5600-457: The GDR period, Weststadt and Nordstadt as well as two industrial areas in the north and west. The 11 suburban districts are villages which became incorporated during the 20th century; however, they have mostly stayed rural to date: Over the centuries, Weimar remained a small town of less than 5,000 inhabitants. When it became the capital of Saxe-Weimar in 1572, population growth was stimulated and
5740-711: The Grand-Ducal Saxon Academy of Fine Art and the Grand Ducal Saxon School of Arts and Crafts for a newly affiliated architecture department. Its roots lay in the arts and crafts school founded by the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in 1906, and directed by Belgian Art Nouveau architect Henry van de Velde . When van de Velde was forced to resign in 1915 because he was Belgian, he suggested Gropius, Hermann Obrist , and August Endell as possible successors. In 1919, after delays caused by World War I and
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5880-502: The Reithaus (1710s) within the Park an der Ilm . Furthermore, there are some impressive ducal country residences around Weimar. They are marked by their beautiful parks and gardens. Schloss Belvedere , south-east of Weimar was built between 1724 and 1732 in Baroque style with an orangery near to a ducal hunting forest. North-east of Weimar, at Ettersburg lies another ducal hunting lodge next to
6020-471: The Russian Revolution , such as constructivism . Such influences can be overstated: Gropius did not share these radical views, and said that Bauhaus was entirely apolitical. Just as important was the influence of the 19th-century English designer William Morris (1834–1896), who had argued that art should meet the needs of society and that there should be no distinction between form and function. Thus,
6160-455: The Via Regia . The settlement around Saint James Church developed into a suburb during the 13th century. After becoming part of Wettin territory in 1346, urban development improved. The Wettins fostered Weimar by abolishing socage and granting privileges to the citizens. Now Weimar became equal to other Wettinian cities like Weißensee and grew during the 15th century, with the establishment of
6300-469: The Vorkurs and focused on the elements and principles of design plus colour theory and application. The founder of the school, Phyllis Shillito, which opened in 1962 and closed in 1980, firmly believed that "A student who has mastered the basic principles of design, can design anything from a dress to a kitchen stove". In Britain, largely under the influence of painter and teacher William Johnstone, Basic Design,
6440-541: The Vorkurs or "preliminary course" that was the introduction to the ideas of the Bauhaus. Itten was heavily influenced in his teaching by the ideas of Franz Cižek and Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel . He was also influenced in respect to aesthetics by the work of the Der Blaue Reiter group in Munich , as well as the work of Austrian Expressionist Oskar Kokoschka . The influence of German Expressionism favoured by Itten
6580-559: The Weimar School of painting with representatives such as Max Liebermann and Arnold Böcklin . The Kunstgewerbeschule Weimar was found by Henry van de Velde with the support of Grand Duke William Ernest in 1902 and represents the other root of Bauhaus , known as "Das Neue Weimar" ("The New Weimar") around Harry Graf Kessler . It was a foundation against Prussia 's restrictive arts policy favouring Historicism instead of international Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau . As early as
6720-712: The Weissenhof Estate , films, and sometimes fierce public debate. The Vkhutemas, the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow , has been compared to Bauhaus. Founded a year after the Bauhaus school, Vkhutemas has close parallels to the German Bauhaus in its intent, organization and scope. The two schools were the first to train artist-designers in a modern manner. Both schools were state-sponsored initiatives to merge traditional craft with modern technology, with
6860-792: The " Januskopf Deutschlands ", the Weimar-Buchenwald dichotomy. The tree gave its name to another book by a survivor, Pierre Julitte 's L'Arbre de Goethe (1965). The oak was sketched by Léon Delarbre , who used to sit under its "charred limbs" and compose poetry. Another Goethe oak is in Krásný Dvůr Castle in Bohemia (today in the Czech Republic), estimated to be 1000 years old. The Arnsberg Forest Nature Park in Sauerland claims one as well (a beech named for Friedrich Schiller fell victim to
7000-460: The 1923 Haus am Horn , student architectural work amounted to un-built projects, interior finishes, and craft work like cabinets, chairs and pottery. In the next two years under Meyer, the architectural focus shifted away from aesthetics and towards functionality. There were major commissions: one from the city of Dessau for five tightly designed "Laubenganghäuser" (apartment buildings with balcony access), which are still in use today, and another for
7140-710: The 1930s by German Jewish architects who emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine after the rise of the Nazis . Tel Aviv has the largest number of buildings in the Bauhaus/International Style of any city in the world. Preservation, documentation, and exhibitions have brought attention to Tel Aviv's collection of 1930s architecture. In 2003, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ( UNESCO ) proclaimed Tel Aviv's White City
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#17328523956777280-522: The 1930s, the barracks in Weimar was greatly extended. One famous person serving as a soldier in Weimar was Wolfgang Borchert , later a well known poet and playwright. As it was the capital of Thuringia, the Nazis built a new Roman-fascist-style administrative centre between the city centre and the main station. This Gauforum [ de ] , designed by Hermann Giesler , was the only Nazi governmental building completed outside Berlin (though there were plans for all German state capitals). Today it hosts
7420-418: The 19th century, the curation of Weimar and its heritage started. Many archives, societies and museums were founded to present and conserve the cultural sights and goods. In 1846, Weimar was connected by the Thuringian Railway . In the following decades, the city saw a construction and population boom (like most late-19th century cities in Germany). Nevertheless, Weimar did not become industrialised, and remained
7560-474: The Bauhaus "un-German" and criticized its modernist styles, deliberately generating public controversy over issues like flat roofs. Increasingly through the early 1930s, they characterized the Bauhaus as a front for communists and social liberals. Indeed, when Meyer was fired in 1930, a number of communist students loyal to him moved to the Soviet Union . Even before the Nazis came to power, political pressure on Bauhaus had increased. The Nazi movement, from nearly
7700-438: The Bauhaus School by a merger of the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School with the Kunstgewerbeschule Weimar. The Bauhaus in Weimar lasted from 1919 to 1925, when it moved to Dessau , after the newly elected right-wing Thuringian council put pressure on the school by withdrawing funding and forcing its teachers to quit. Many buildings in Weimar today have influences from the Bauhaus period. However, only one original Bauhaus building
7840-418: The Bauhaus aesthetic to America and taught at both Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis . Herbert Bayer , sponsored by Paepcke, moved to Aspen , Colorado in support of Paepcke's Aspen projects at the Aspen Institute . In 1953, Max Bill , together with Inge Aicher-Scholl and Otl Aicher , founded the Ulm School of Design (German: Hochschule für Gestaltung – HfG Ulm) in Ulm, Germany,
7980-451: The Bauhaus as a projection of utopia marked by mechanistic views of human nature…Home hygiene without home atmosphere." Subsequent examples which have continued the philosophy of the Bauhaus include Black Mountain College , Hochschule für Gestaltung in Ulm and Domaine de Boisbuchet. The White City ( Hebrew : העיר הלבנה), refers to a collection of over 4,000 buildings built in the Bauhaus or International Style in Tel Aviv from
8120-446: The Bauhaus curriculum had various purposes. First, as Meyer put it, sport combatted a “one-sided emphasis on brainwork.” In addition, Bauhaus instructors believed that students could better express themselves if they actively experienced the space, rhythms and movements of the body. The Bauhaus approach also considered physical activity an important contributor to wellbeing and community spirit. Sport and physical activity were essential to
8260-421: The Bauhaus forms and shapes: simple geometric shapes like rectangles and spheres, without elaborate decorations. Buildings, furniture, and fonts often feature rounded corners, sometimes rounded walls, or curved chrome pipes. Some buildings are characterized by rectangular features, for example protruding balconies with flat, chunky railings facing the street, and long banks of windows. Some outlines can be defined as
8400-435: The Bauhaus moved to Dessau, a school of industrial design with teachers and staff less antagonistic to the conservative political regime remained in Weimar. This school was eventually known as the Technical University of Architecture and Civil Engineering, and in 1996 changed its name to Bauhaus-University Weimar . The Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925 and new facilities there were inaugurated in late 1926. Gropius's design for
8540-485: The Bauhaus style, also known as the International Style , was marked by the absence of ornamentation and by harmony between the function of an object or a building and its design. However, the most important influence on Bauhaus was modernism , a cultural movement whose origins lay as early as the 1880s, and which had already made its presence felt in Germany before the World War, despite the prevailing conservatism. The design innovations commonly associated with Gropius and
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#17328523956778680-442: The Bauhaus under Gropius in the early 1920s. In 1979 Bauhaus-Dessau College started to organize postgraduate programs with participants from all over the world. This effort has been supported by the Bauhaus-Dessau Foundation which was founded in 1974 as a public institution. Later evaluation of the Bauhaus design credo was critical of its flawed recognition of the human element, an acknowledgment of "the dated, unattractive aspects of
8820-422: The Bauhaus was its wallpaper. The physical plant at Dessau survived World War II and was operated as a design school with some architectural facilities by the German Democratic Republic . This included live stage productions in the Bauhaus theater under the name of Bauhausbühne ("Bauhaus Stage"). After German reunification , a reorganized school continued in the same building, with no essential continuity with
8960-425: The Bauhaus was the Sommerfeld House , which was built between 1920 and 1921. A tumultuous year at the Bauhaus, 1922 also saw the move of Dutch painter Theo van Doesburg to Weimar to promote De Stijl ("The Style"), and a visit to the Bauhaus by Russian Constructivist artist and architect El Lissitzky . From 1919 to 1922 the school was shaped by the pedagogical and aesthetic ideas of Johannes Itten , who taught
9100-526: The Bauhaus' international architecture in the world. The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. For example, the pottery shop was discontinued when the school moved from Weimar to Dessau, even though it had been an important revenue source; when Mies van der Rohe took over the school in 1930, he transformed it into a private school and would not allow any supporters of Hannes Meyer to attend it. Several specific features are identified in
9240-402: The Bauhaus—the radically simplified forms, the rationality and functionality, and the idea that mass production was reconcilable with the individual artistic spirit—were already partly developed in Germany before the Bauhaus was founded. The German national designers' organization Deutscher Werkbund was formed in 1907 by Hermann Muthesius to harness the new potentials of mass production, with
9380-400: The Berlinische Galerie (6 September 2019 to 27 January 2020) presented 1,000 original artefacts from the Bauhaus-Archive's collection and recounted the history behind the objects. The Bauhaus Museum Dessau also opened in September 2019, operated by the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation and funded by the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the German Federal government. It is set to be the permanent home of
9520-416: The Dessau city council, it moved to close the school. In late 1932, Mies rented a derelict factory in Berlin (Birkbusch Street 49) to use as the new Bauhaus with his own money. The students and faculty rehabilitated the building, painting the interior white. The school operated for ten months without further interference from the Nazi Party. In 1933, the Gestapo closed down the Berlin school. Mies protested
9660-430: The Dessau facilities was a return to the futuristic Gropius of 1914 that had more in common with the International style lines of the Fagus Factory than the stripped down Neo-classical of the Werkbund pavilion or the Völkisch Sommerfeld House. During the Dessau years, there was a remarkable change in direction for the school. According to Elaine Hoffman, Gropius had approached the Dutch architect Mart Stam to run
9800-405: The Ettersberg mountain and its forest, Schloss Ettersburg . It was established between 1706 and 1711 also in Baroque style. The third summer residence, Schloss Tiefurt , is located in Tiefurt , north-east of Weimar. The small lodge in a wide park in Ilm valley was rebuilt in 1775 in late-Baroque forms. The Onion Market (Weimarer Zwiebelmarkt) is an annual festival held in October in Weimar and it
9940-566: The German government sold them to west German businessmen who closed them to avoid competition to their own enterprises. On the other hand, the federal government started early in the 1990s to subsidize the foundation of new companies, but it took long time before the economic situation got stabilized around 2006. Since this time, unemployment decreased and overall, new jobs develop. Today, there are many small and medium-sized companies in Weimar with electro-technics and engineering in focus. Nevertheless, settlement of new factories isn't much in focus of
10080-576: The Grand Ducal court conductor. Liszt organized the premiere of Richard Wagner 's Lohengrin (1850) as well as the world première of Saint Saëns ' opera Samson et Delilah (1877) in the city. The Weimar School of Music was founded in 1872 as Germany's first orchestra school. Richard Strauss worked in Weimar between 1889 and 1894 as second conductor in the acclaimed Staatskapelle Weimar (the court orchestra founded in 1491). Several of his encores for works such as Don Juan and Macbeth were performed by
10220-560: The Marktplatz in the south (with the town hall) and the Herderplatz in the north (with the main church). Despite its medieval origin, there are only a few medieval buildings, many being destroyed by frequent fires throughout the city's history. Most buildings in this area date back to the 17th and 18th century. Furthermore, Weimar has two old suburbs: in the north, the Jakobsvorstadt around St. James' Church (medieval origin) and another one in
10360-872: The Műhely. Victor Vasarely , a pioneer of op art , studied at this school before establishing in Paris in 1930. Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer , and Moholy-Nagy re-assembled in Britain during the mid-1930s and lived and worked in the Isokon housing development in Lawn Road in London before the war caught up with them. Gropius and Breuer went on to teach at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and worked together before their professional split. Their collaboration produced, among other projects,
10500-627: The NSDAP came to power in Thuringia under Fritz Sauckel . In 1933, the first Nazi concentration camps were established around Weimar in Nohra (the first one in Germany) and Bad Sulza . Most prisoners at this time were communists and social democrats. After Kristallnacht in 1938, harassment of Jews became more intense, so that many of them emigrated or were arrested. The Weimar Synagogue was destroyed in 1938. During
10640-542: The Staatskapelle Weimar. He also premièred Humperdinck's opera Hänsel and Gretel 1893 in Weimar. Friedrich Nietzsche moved to Weimar in 1897, and died there three years later. In 1860 the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School , the precursor of today's Bauhaus University , was founded. This was the beginning of academic arts education in Weimar. The institution created its own painting style,
10780-774: The Thuringian State Administration. Other Giesler buildings are the Villa Sauckel [ de ] , the governor's palace and the Hotel Elephant [ de ] in the city centre. In 1937, the Nazis established Buchenwald concentration camp 8 km (5.0 mi) from Weimar city centre. Between July 1938 and April 1945, some 240,000 people were incarcerated in the camp by the Nazi regime, including 168 Western Allied POWs . The number of deaths in Buchenwald
10920-547: The Weimar Atrium, the local mall. The area around Weimar is relatively fertile and 48% of the municipal surface are used for agricultural production. Most common agricultures are cereals, maize and rapeseed , while famous agricultural products from the Weimar region are potatoes (especially from Heichelheim , 7 km (4.3 mi) to the north) for dishes with Thuringian dumplings ( Knödel from potatoes), onions (from Heldrungen and Oldisleben , 45 km (28 mi) to
11060-441: The applied arts side of the debate. Although this shift was an important one, it did not represent a radical break from the past so much as a small step in a broader, more gradual socio-economic movement that had been going on at least since 1907, when van de Velde had argued for a craft basis for design while Hermann Muthesius had begun implementing industrial prototypes. Gropius was not necessarily against Expressionism , and in
11200-480: The area of today's city. The oldest records regarding Weimar date to 899. Its name changed over the centuries from Wimares through Wimari to Wimar and finally Weimar; it is derived from Old High German wīh- (holy) and -mari (standing water, swamp). The place was the seat of the County of Weimar , first mentioned in 949, which was one of the most powerful jurisdictions in early Middle Ages Thuringia. In 1062 it
11340-520: The area. The beech forest was cleared in 1937 to make way for the Buchenwald concentration camp . Originally the camp was to be called KL Ettersberg ("KL" for Konzentrationslager ), but this was abandoned because the Ettersberg name was so closely connected to the life of Goethe. The tree stood in the center of the camp, and is reputed to have served also for the hanging and torture of prisoners. The tree
11480-463: The arts. Swiss painter Johannes Itten , German-American painter Lyonel Feininger , and German sculptor Gerhard Marcks , along with Gropius, comprised the faculty of the Bauhaus in 1919. By the following year their ranks had grown to include German painter, sculptor, and designer Oskar Schlemmer who headed the theatre workshop, and Swiss painter Paul Klee , joined in 1922 by Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky . The first major joint project completed by
11620-576: The centenary of the founding of Bauhaus, several events, festivals, and exhibitions were held around the world in 2019. The international opening festival at the Berlin Academy of the Arts from 16 to 24 January concentrated on "the presentation and production of pieces by contemporary artists, in which the aesthetic issues and experimental configurations of the Bauhaus artists continue to be inspiringly contagious". Original Bauhaus, The Centenary Exhibition at
11760-471: The city and founded the Bauhaus movement, the most important German design school of the interwar period . The political history of 20th-century Weimar was volatile: it was the place where Germany's first democratic constitution was signed after the First World War , giving its name to the Weimar Republic (1918–33). It was also one of the cities mythologized by Nazi propaganda . Until 1948, Weimar
11900-462: The city hosted the first trilateral meeting between the foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland giving its name to the Weimar Triangle format. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996 (Bauhaus) and 1998 (Classical Weimar). The European Council of Ministers selected the city as European Capital of Culture for 1999. Tourism has become an important economic factor over
12040-605: The city surrendered to the US 80th Infantry Division on 12 April 1945. The residents of Weimar were ordered to walk through Buchenwald, to see what had been happening so close to the city, as documented in Billy Wilder 's film Death Mills . The city ended up in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany , so US troops were soon replaced by Soviet forces. From 1945 to 1950, the Soviet Union used
12180-409: The city, so that it saw a first construction boom in the 16th century. The 17th century brought decline to Weimar, because of changing trade conditions (as in nearby Erfurt ). Besides, the territorial partitions led to the loss of political importance of the dukes of Saxe-Weimar and their finances shrunk. The city's polity weakened more and more and lost its privileges, leading to the absolutist reign of
12320-654: The city. As the Ernestines lost the Schmalkaldic War in 1547, their capital Wittenberg went also to the Albertines, so that they needed a new residence. As the ruler returned from captivity, Weimar became his residence in 1552 and remained as such until the end of the monarchy in 1918. The first Ernestine territorial partition in 1572 was followed by various ones, nevertheless Weimar stayed the capital of different Saxe-Weimar states. The court and its staff brought some wealth to
12460-437: The company's graphics, developed a consistent corporate identity, built the modernist landmark AEG Turbine Factory , and made full use of newly developed materials such as poured concrete and exposed steel. Behrens was a founding member of the Werkbund, and both Walter Gropius and Adolf Meyer worked for him in this period. The Bauhaus was founded at a time when the German zeitgeist had turned from emotional Expressionism to
12600-665: The concepts of the Bauhaus to other countries, including the "New Bauhaus" of Chicago: Mies decided to emigrate to the United States for the directorship of the School of Architecture at the Armour Institute (now Illinois Institute of Technology ) in Chicago and to seek building commissions. The simple engineering-oriented functionalism of stripped-down modernism, however, did lead to some Bauhaus influences living on in Nazi Germany . When Hitler's chief engineer, Fritz Todt , began opening
12740-487: The conceptual understanding of architecture and design. The Bauhaus was founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar . It was grounded in the idea of creating a Gesamtkunstwerk ("comprehensive artwork") in which all the arts would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus style later became one of the most influential currents in modern design, modernist architecture , and architectural education. The Bauhaus movement had
12880-474: The counts of Weimar founded the town, which was an independent parish since 1249 and called civitas in 1254. From 1262, the citizens used their own seal. The regional influence of the Weimar counts was declining as the influence of the Wettins in Thuringia increased. Hence, the new small town was relatively marginal in a regional context, also due to the fact that it was located far from relevant trade routes, such as
13020-458: The court's organist in Weimar. The period from the start of the regencies of Anna Amalia (1758–1775) and her son Carl August (1775–1828) through to Goethe's death in 1832 is denoted as the "golden" or the "classical" age because of the high level of cultural activity in Weimar. The city became an important cultural centre of Europe, having been home to literary figures including Goethe , Schiller , Herder , Wieland and Bertuch ; and in music
13160-451: The decades. Weimar is now a popular residence of people working in Erfurt and Jena , both less than 20 minutes away. In 2004, a fire broke out at the Duchess Anna Amalia Library . The library contains a 13,000-volume collection including Goethe's masterpiece Faust , as well as the duchess's music collection. An authentic Luther Bible from 1534 was saved from the fire. The library is one of
13300-563: The decision, eventually speaking to the head of the Gestapo, who agreed to allow the school to re-open. However, shortly after receiving a letter permitting the opening of the Bauhaus, Mies and the other faculty agreed to voluntarily shut down the school. Although neither the Nazi Party nor Adolf Hitler had a cohesive architectural policy before they came to power in 1933, Nazi writers like Wilhelm Frick and Alfred Rosenberg had already labelled
13440-589: The dukes in the early 18th century. On the other hand, this time brought another construction boom to Weimar, and the city got its present appearance, marked by various ducal representation buildings. The city walls were demolished in 1757 and during the following decades, Weimar expanded in all directions. The biggest building constructed in this period was the Schloss as the residence of the dukes (north and east wing: 1789–1803, west wing 1832–1835, south wing: 1913–1914). Between 1708 and 1717 Johann Sebastian Bach worked as
13580-405: The following extreme values: Weimar abuts the district of Weimarer Land with the municipalities Berlstedt , Ettersburg , Kleinobringen , Großobringen and Wohlsborn in the north, Kromsdorf , Umpferstedt and Mellingen in the east, Vollersroda , Buchfart , Hetschburg , Bad Berka and Troistedt in the south and Nohra, Daasdorf am Berge , Hopfgarten and Ottstedt am Berge in
13720-513: The industry. Weimar was in the German state of Thuringia , and the Bauhaus school received state support from the Social Democrat -controlled Thuringian state government. The school in Weimar experienced political pressure from conservative circles in Thuringian politics, increasingly so after 1923 as political tension rose. One condition placed on the Bauhaus in this new political environment
13860-565: The influence of William Morris and the British Arts and Crafts Movement , proclaimed his goal as being "to create a new guild of craftsmen, without the class distinctions which raise an arrogant barrier between craftsman and artist." Gropius's neologism Bauhaus references both building and the Bauhütte, a premodern guild of stonemasons. The early intention was for the Bauhaus to be a combined architecture school, crafts school, and academy of
14000-572: The influential Philip Johnson , and became one of the world's pre-eminent architects. Moholy-Nagy also went to Chicago and founded the New Bauhaus school under the sponsorship of industrialist and philanthropist Walter Paepcke . This school became the Institute of Design , part of the Illinois Institute of Technology . Printmaker and painter Werner Drewes was also largely responsible for bringing
14140-501: The local government, because it concentrates itself on developing tourism and services. The biggest companies with production in Weimar are Bayer (pharmaceutical factory), Coca-Cola (beverages) and Hydrema (dump truck factory). A new big commercial zone was established in the 1990s in the neighbouring municipality of Nohra with focus on logistics and distribution. Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus ( German: [ˈʃtaːtlɪçəs ˈbaʊˌhaʊs] ), commonly known as
14280-400: The matter-of-fact New Objectivity . An entire group of working architects, including Erich Mendelsohn , Bruno Taut and Hans Poelzig , turned away from fanciful experimentation and towards rational, functional, sometimes standardized building. Beyond the Bauhaus, many other significant German-speaking architects in the 1920s responded to the same aesthetic issues and material possibilities as
14420-481: The new autobahns (highways) in 1935, many of the bridges and service stations were "bold examples of modernism", and among those submitting designs was Mies van der Rohe. The paradox of the early Bauhaus was that, although its manifesto proclaimed that the aim of all creative activity was building, the school did not offer classes in architecture until 1927. During the years under Gropius (1919–1927), he and his partner Adolf Meyer observed no real distinction between
14560-670: The newly founded architecture program, and when Stam declined the position, Gropius turned to Stam's friend and colleague in the ABC group, Hannes Meyer. Meyer became director when Gropius resigned in February 1928, and brought the Bauhaus its two most significant building commissions, both of which still exist: five apartment buildings in the city of Dessau, and the Bundesschule des Allgemeinen Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes (ADGB Trade Union School) in Bernau bei Berlin . Meyer favoured measurements and calculations in his presentations to clients, along with
14700-452: The north), which are sold at Weimar Onion Market in October, and Saale-Unstrut wine from Bad Sulza , 25 km (16 mi) to the north-east. Industry has never been dominant in Weimar, nevertheless there were several big factories from different sectors until 1990. After reunification, nearly all factories got closed, either because they failed the adoption of free market economy or because
14840-538: The oak became in due course associated with the fate of Germany: if the one were to fall, so would the other. According to the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, the name 'Goethe Oak' was simply an epithet made up by the inmates of Buchenwald camp in commemoration of the walks Goethe was known to have made in the area. The large, old tree had previously been labeled the Dicke Eiche (English:"thick oak") on maps of
14980-623: The occupied Buchenwald concentration camp as a NKVD special camp to imprison defeated Nazis and other Germans. The camp slogan remained Jedem das Seine . On 6 January 1950, the Soviets handed over Buchenwald to the East German Ministry of Internal Affairs . In 1948, the East German government declared Erfurt as Thuringia's new capital, and Weimar lost its influence on German contemporary culture and politics. (The state of Thuringia itself
15120-552: The oldest in Europe, dating back to 1691, and is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Over one million volumes were housed in the library, of which forty to fifty thousand were damaged beyond repair. A number of books were shock-frozen in Leipzig to save them from rotting. The library was reopened in 2007. Weimar is situated within the valley of the Ilm river, a tributary of the Saale river on
15260-459: The orientation of the school further to the left than it had been under Gropius, he didn't want the school to become a tool of left-wing party politics. He prevented the formation of a student communist cell, and in the increasingly dangerous political atmosphere, this became a threat to the existence of the Dessau school. Dessau mayor Fritz Hesse fired him in the summer of 1930. The Dessau city council attempted to convince Gropius to return as head of
15400-740: The output of his architectural office and the school. The built output of Bauhaus architecture in these years is the output of Gropius: the Sommerfeld house in Berlin, the Otte house in Berlin, the Auerbach house in Jena , and the competition design for the Chicago Tribune Tower , which brought the school much attention. The definitive 1926 Bauhaus building in Dessau is also attributed to Gropius. Apart from contributions to
15540-473: The piano virtuoso Hummel . It has been a site of pilgrimage for the German intelligentsia since Goethe first moved to Weimar in 1775. Goethe was also active in civic duties while living there. He served as Privy Councilor to the Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach for an extended period. The tombs of Goethe and Schiller, as well as their archives, may be found in the city. Goethe's Elective Affinities (1809)
15680-442: The population increased from 3,000 in 1650 to 6,000 in 1750. Around the year 1800, Weimar had 7,000 inhabitants. Their number grew constantly over the years to 13,000 in 1850, 28,000 in 1900 and 35,000 at the beginning of World War I. During the interwar period, the new capital of Thuringia saw a population boom, which led to 65,000 inhabitants in 1940. Since that time, the population levels have stagnated. The years 2009 to 2012 brought
15820-415: The prisoners the tree pointed to a different Germany from the one they experienced in the camp. According to Amos Oz , the incorporation of the oak in the camp and its subsequent destruction are evidence that the Nazis destroyed their own heritage,. In Der Totenwald , camp survivor Ernst Wiechert recalls standing under the oak and reflecting on the two Germanies it represented—what later scholars would call
15960-509: The same 1919 pamphlet proclaiming this "new guild of craftsmen, without the class snobbery", described "painting and sculpture rising to heaven out of the hands of a million craftsmen, the crystal symbol of the new faith of the future." By 1923, however, Gropius was no longer evoking images of soaring Romanesque cathedrals and the craft-driven aesthetic of the " Völkisch movement ", instead declaring "we want an architecture adapted to our world of machines, radios and fast cars." Gropius argued that
16100-525: The school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime, having been painted as a centre of communist intellectualism. Internationally, former key figures of Bauhaus were successful in the United States and became known as the avant-garde for the International Style . The White city of Tel Aviv to which numerous Jewish Bauhaus architects emigrated, has the highest concentration of
16240-500: The school, but Gropius instead suggested Ludwig Mies van der Rohe . Mies was appointed in 1930 and immediately interviewed each student, dismissing those that he deemed uncommitted. He halted the school's manufacture of goods so that the school could focus on teaching, and appointed no new faculty other than his close confidant Lilly Reich . By 1931, the Nazi Party was becoming more influential in German politics. When it gained control of
16380-524: The school. They also responded to the promise "to promote the object of assuring to every German a healthful habitation" written into the new Weimar Constitution (Article 155). Ernst May , Bruno Taut and Martin Wagner , among others, built large housing blocks in Frankfurt and Berlin. The acceptance of modernist design into everyday life was the subject of publicity campaigns, well-attended public exhibitions like
16520-475: The second largest Bauhaus collection at 49,000 objects, while paying homage to its strong influence in the city when Bauhaus arrived in 1925. In 2024, the German far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfG) sought to attack celebrations of Bauhaus because of their view that Bauhaus did not follow tradition. Bauhaus was also crushed by the Nazi's before World War II, and according to political scientist Jan-Werner Mueller, AfG's condemnation seeks to use it in
16660-400: The south around Frauenplan square. The majority of buildings in these areas are also of 17th- and 18th-century origin. During the late 19th and early 20th century, Weimar grew in all directions. Because of its function as an "officials' city", the houses in these areas are more substantial than in many comparable Gründerzeit quarters in Germany. The most uptown areas are those right and left of
16800-791: The south of Weimar rises up to 370 m and is part of the Ilm Saale Plate Muschelkalk formation. The eastern, central and western parts of the municipal territory are in agricultural use, whereas the Ettersberg and some southern areas are wooded. Weimar has a humid continental climate ( Dfb ) or an oceanic climate ( Cfb ) according to the Köppen climate classification system. Summers are warm and sometimes humid with average high temperatures of 23 °C (73 °F) and lows of 12 °C (54 °F). Winters are relatively cold with average high temperatures of 2 °C (36 °F) and lows of −3 °C (27 °F). The city's topography creates
16940-608: The southern border of the Thuringian Basin , a fertile agricultural area between the Harz mountains 70 km (43 mi) to the north and the Thuringian Forest 50 km (31 mi) to the southwest. The municipal terrain is hilly; the height of the city centre in the Ilm valley is approximately 200 m of elevation. To the north, the terrain rises to Ettersberg , the city's backyard mountain, 482 m in height. The range of hills in
17080-470: The start, denounced the Bauhaus for its " degenerate art ", and the Nazi regime was determined to crack down on what it saw as the foreign, probably Jewish, influences of "cosmopolitan modernism". Despite Gropius's protestations that as a war veteran and a patriot his work had no subversive political intent, the Berlin Bauhaus was pressured to close in April 1933. Emigrants did succeed, however, in spreading
17220-401: The two schools, while Hinnerk Scheper of the Bauhaus collaborated with various Vkhutein members on the use of colour in architecture. In addition, El Lissitzky 's book Russia: an Architecture for World Revolution published in German in 1930 featured several illustrations of Vkhutemas/Vkhutein projects there. The school was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar on 1 April 1919, as a merger of
17360-436: The use of off-the-shelf architectural components to reduce costs. This approach proved attractive to potential clients. The school turned its first profit under his leadership in 1929. But Meyer also generated a great deal of conflict. As a radical functionalist, he had no patience with the aesthetic program and forced the resignations of Herbert Bayer , Marcel Breuer , and other long-time instructors. Even though Meyer shifted
17500-526: The west. The city itself is divided into 10 inner urban and 11 suburban districts. The centre is formed by the district Altstadt (old town) and the Gründerzeit districts Nordvorstadt in the north, Parkvorstadt in the east and Westvorstadt in the south and west. Later additions are Südstadt in the south and Schönblick in the southwest. Finally, there are the Plattenbau settlements, constructed during
17640-464: Was +4.5 per 1,000 inhabitants in 2012 (Thuringian average: -0.8; national average: +4.6). The most important regions of origin are rural areas of Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony as well as foreign countries like Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia, Romania and Bulgaria. Like other eastern German cities, Weimar has a relatively small foreign population (compared to the German average): circa 4.0% are non-Germans by citizenship, while 7.9% have
17780-483: Was analogous in some ways to the fine arts side of the ongoing debate. This influence culminated with the addition of Der Blaue Reiter founding member Wassily Kandinsky to the faculty and ended when Itten resigned in late 1923. Itten was replaced by the Hungarian designer László Moholy-Nagy , who rewrote the Vorkurs with a leaning towards the New Objectivity favoured by Gropius, which was analogous in some ways to
17920-543: Was built in 1703 and is the municipal library today. The neighbouring Red Castle is also part of the library and was built in the 1570s. The Wittumspalais is a smaller widow mansion near Theaterplatz, established in 1768. Outbildings of the ducal residence are the Husarenstall (1770), the later residence of Charlotte von Stein at Ackerwand street, the Marstall (1870s) at Kegelplatz, today used as Thuringian State Archive and
18060-422: Was chosen as the host city. In 1920, the federal state of Thuringia was founded by an association of eight former microstates (Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Gotha , Saxe-Altenburg , Saxe-Meiningen , Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt , Schwarzburg-Sondershausen , Reuss-Gera and Reuss-Greiz ) and Weimar became its capital. Due to that fact, the city experienced another period of growth. In 1919, Walter Gropius founded
18200-573: Was considered too dangerous for the National Assembly to use as a meeting place because of street rioting during the Spartacist uprising . Reich President Friedrich Ebert favored Weimar because he hoped it would remind the victorious Allies of Weimar Classicism while they were deliberating the terms of the Treaty of Versailles . Since the calm and centrally located Weimar had a suitable place of assembly (the theatre ), hotels and infrastructure, it
18340-519: Was constructed during 1919–1925, the Haus am Horn , now used for exhibitions and events on Bauhaus culture. The Weimar Republic era was marked by a constant conflict between progressive and Völkisch forces, the former represented by Harry Graf Kessler and the latter by Adolf Bartels in Weimar. The Weimarer Zeitung was published in Weimar as a local newspaper. After 1929, the right-wing forces prevailed and Weimar became an early centre of Nazism . Weimar
18480-673: Was dissolved in 1952 and replaced by three Bezirke (districts) in a local government reform; Weimar belonged to the Bezirk of Erfurt.) The city was the headquarters of the Soviet Union's 8th Guards Army as part of the Group of Soviet Forces in Germany . Due to its fame and importance for tourism, Weimar received more financial subsidies from the GDR government and remained in better condition than most East German cities. After German reunification in 1990, Weimar experienced significant economic hardship, but funding restored much that had deteriorated. In 1991,
18620-556: Was hit by an Allied incendiary bomb on 24 August 1944 and burned all night long. It is preserved (being cast in concrete under the auspices of the DDR government , which also laid a plaque saying "Goethe Eiche") and is part of the Buchenwald memorial. For the SS guards and the prisoners, the tree held two completely different meanings: for the SS it was a link to the Germany they thought they represented, but for
18760-488: Was important to the Nazis for two reasons: first, it was where the hated Weimar Republic was founded, and second, it had been a centre of German high culture in recent centuries. In 1926, the NSDAP held its party convention in Weimar. Adolf Hitler visited Weimar more than forty times prior to 1933. In 1930, Wilhelm Frick became minister for internal affairs and education in Thuringia – the first NSDAP minister in Germany. In 1932,
18900-480: Was significant. One of the main objectives of the Bauhaus was to unify art, craft, and technology, and this approach was incorporated into the curriculum of the Bauhaus. The structure of the Bauhaus Vorkurs (preliminary course) reflected a pragmatic approach to integrating theory and application. In their first year, students learnt the basic elements and principles of design and colour theory, and experimented with
19040-524: Was the Bauhaus contemporaries Bruno Taut , Hans Poelzig and particularly Ernst May , as the city architects of Berlin, Dresden and Frankfurt respectively, who are rightfully credited with the thousands of socially progressive housing units built in Weimar Germany . The housing Taut built in south-west Berlin during the 1920s, close to the U-Bahn stop Onkel Toms Hütte , is still occupied. The Bauhaus had
19180-500: Was the capital of Thuringia. Many places in the city centre have been designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites , either as part of the Classical Weimar complex (containing monuments to the classical period of Weimar in 18th and 19th centuries) or the Bauhaus complex (containing buildings associated with the Bauhaus art school). Heritage tourism is one of the leading economic sectors of Weimar. Noted institutions in Weimar are
19320-456: Was the exhibition of work undertaken at the school. This condition was met in 1923 with the Bauhaus' exhibition of the experimental Haus am Horn . The Ministry of Education placed the staff on six-month contracts and cut the school's funding in half. The Bauhaus issued a press release on 26 December 1924, setting the closure of the school for the end of March 1925. At this point it had already been looking for alternative sources of funding. After
19460-462: Was the inspiration for many paintings by Lyonel Feininger , and the Lutheran parish church of Oberweimar , which was a former monastery, and is a good example of Gothic architecture in Weimar. Due to its function as a ducal residence, Weimar is rich in early-modern castles and palaces. The biggest one is the Stadtschloss at Burgplatz in the city centre. Today's four-wing building was started after
19600-471: Was united with the County of Orlamünde into the new County of Weimar-Orlamünde, which existed until the Thuringian Counts' War in 1346. It fell to the Wettins afterwards. The Weimar settlement emerged around the count's wooden castle and two small churches, dedicated to Saint Peter (which later became the main church), and to Saint James , respectively. In 1240, the count founded the dynasty's monastery in Oberweimar, run by Cistercian nuns. Soon after,
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