I'm in the state of Thüringen, in a small city
that's been home to many cultural luminaries over the centuries.
Like: Poet and theologian Johann Gottfried Herder
Fellow poet and philosopher Christoph Martin Wieland.
And perhaps the two most famous of all:
the great writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller.
By now you may have guessed that I'm in Weimar.
The works of Goethe and Schiller are great German classics.
But 200 years ago they were considered extremely progressive.
Somehow, Weimar has managed time and again to attract pioneers and trailblazers, contributing to
the mix of new and old classics that today can be found all around town.
My tour of Weimar begins at Goethe’s former residence in the very heart of the city.
The author and naturalist lived here for 50 years.
The house was a gift to him from his patron, Grand Duke Carl August.
Goethe remodeled the home and had it furnished to his liking.
For instance, he put in this staircase built in the Italian style.
I wonder if the steps already squeaked like this in Goethe's day.
It's possible: He wrote that it's a staircase one never tires of going up and down.
In the front part of the house you find elegantly furnished rooms.
This is where Goethe welcomed his guests: artists, scholars, politicians, and members of the royal family.
Sculptures were to remind him of his time in Italy.
As well as Herder and Schiller. Beloved companions who died 30 years before him.
The Goethe family lived in the rear part of the house.
This room is refered to as Christiane’s room in honor of Christiane Vulpius, Goethe’s wife.
The couple lived together for 18 years before marrying, something the citizens of Weimar found scandalous.
When they finally did get hitched, their son was already 16 years old.
Goethe's study was simple and uncluttered.
He wanted nothing to distract him from thinking and writing.
And it was here in his bedroom, that Goethe died at the age of 82.
It's almost impossible to get lost in Weimar.
All you have to do is follow the enticing smell of grilled sausages and you’ll end up at the market square.
Delicious!
Also here on the Market Square is the most most famous hotel in town:
The Elephant, which has been welcoming prominent guests for 300 years.
It's definitely worth having a look inside.
This is one of the most beautiful rooms.
Hotel PR Manager Kerstin Seling regularly organizes concerts and readings here.
On the walls: paintings and drawings from the hotel's own collection.
A hotel with its own art collection. Is that something unique or standard practice in Weimar?
It is unusual.
This art collection was put together in the 1990s.
And it is something of a pillar on which the hotel stands.
Art, music, architecture, design and literature.
They are all things closely associated with the city of Weimar.
Celebrities have always felt at home here at the Elephant. How many guests are drawn to the
hotel's history and how many book a room because of its a beautiful place right in the center of town?
I think it's a mix.
But the Hotel Elephant is definitely famous for its long history and traditon as well as for its
many prominent guests who continue to come and stay with us.
And many of your prominent guests have signed a guestbook.
I've heard you have a few of them around here somewhere. Mind if we take a peek?
Athletes, actors, politicians - they've all stayed at the Elephant.
Mikhail Gorbechev, Joe Cocker, Chris Rea, and Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees.
Filmmaker Wim Wenders.
Writer Thomas Mann.
And fashion designer Wolfgang Joop. They've all signed the guest books!
Some even have works included in the collection.
Another Weimar classic is the Bauhaus School founded in 1919.
Today it's a university. Back then it was a school of architecture, crafts and fine arts.
Its director, architect Walter Gropius, invited famous artists to the city,
like Wassily Kandinski, Paul Klee, and Lionel Feininger.
The Bauhaus architects built their first model home in Weimar:
Haus am Horn, which introduced a new approach to housing.
As of 2019 there's a new building: a Bauhaus Museum in commemoration of the centennial.
You can download an app to your phone that’ll guide you through the museum.
This is Peter Keler's famous cradle.
It utilized Kandinsky’s color theory: circles must be blue, squares red and triangles yellow.
The design is still produced today and can be yours for 1.880 Euros.
The museum's centerpiece is the Walter Gropius collection.
He chose 170 pieces that were to stay in Weimar when the Bauhaus moved to Dessau in 1925.
Many of these objects became famous the world over:
like this lamp by Wilhelm Wagenfeld,
this teapot by Marianne Brandt
or Marcel Breuer’s Cantilever Chairs.
All of them modern classics.
The last stop on my visit to Weimar is the ACC gallery.
ACC stands for "Autonomous Culture Center“.
Its director Frank Motz founded the center with friends in 1987,
when Weimar was still part of communist East Germany.
They squatted in an abandoned building and saved it from decay.
Old newspaper articles document the sorry state of the building when they found it
and the amount of work they invested in fixing it up.
A camera team also caught it on film:
It was clearly a very democratic project. It seems every detail was discussed as a group.
Today, the ACC is a gallery with an international scholarship scheme.
In the past 30 years, the ACC has hosted nearly 250 exhibitions with over a thousand participating artists.
Setting up the ACC was a dream of yours. was a dream of yours what are your goals
What are your goals for the future? What’s still to come?
If it were up to me, things can stay just as they are.
This is our own building, we want to stay here and and breathe new life into Weimar's classical mindset
with our contemporary dalliances and artistry.
Would you say the ACC is a Weimar classic?
Absolutely! The ACC is definitely a Weimar classic.
Weimar doesn't exactly live for contemporary art and culture - rather, it looks more to the past.
So we're a good counteragent.
We have been for the last 30 years and we want to continue to be one.
What makes a classic? 30 years, like the ACC? 100 years, like Bauhaus?
Or are Goethe, Schiller and the likes the only true aspirants to the title?
At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter. One thing is for sure:
Here, in Weimar, you'll get to experience German history more vividly than in almost any other city in the country.