Weimar

Weimar, a small but interesting town of Germany, capital of the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, and residence of the grand-duke, 31 miles E. of Gotha and 155 SW. of Berlin. It stands in a pleasant valley on the left bank of the Ilm; but the environs are in no way remarkable, and the town itself is irregularly and rather poorly built. Though the residence of the court, Weimar carries on neither trade nor manufactures, and seems a dull, provincial-looking town. The lustre conferred on it by the residence here, at the close of the 18th and the earlier portion of the 19th century, of Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and Wieland, at the court of Karl-August, has faded since that group was broken up by death; and now the interest of the place (Thackeray's 'Pumpernickel') is almost wholly derived from its monuments, traditions, and associations. The town church (Stadtkirche), dating from the year 1400, has a 'Crucifixion' by Cranach, and contains a number of memorable tombs, among which are those of Bernhard of Weimar and Herder. The ducal palace, rebuilt in 1790-1803 after the fire of 1774, is a handsome building, some of the apartments of which are decorated by frescoes illustrating the works of Goethe, Schiller, Herder, and Wieland. Other buildings are the Rothes Schloss (1574); the Grünes Schloss, with a library of 180,000 volumes, and relics of Luther and Gustavus Adolphus; the court theatre (rebuilt 1825), where Liszt produced Wagner's Lohengrin; and the houses of Cranach, Goethe, Schiller, and Herder. The park and gardens of the palace, within which is the summer residence of Goethe, are much esteemed as a promenade. Pop. (1871) 15,998; (1890) 24,546. See works by Schöll (1857), Gräf (3d ed. 1880), Springer (1868), and Francke (1886).