The New International Encyclopædia/Weimar

WEIMAR, vī′mär. The capital of the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar, Germany, situated 50 miles west-southwest of Leipzig (Map: Germany, D 3). The quaint old town lies in agreeable surroundings on the Ilm. The Stadtkirche, dating from 1488, rises in the middle of Weimar. It contains Cranach the Elder's valuable “Crucifixion,” in which are to be discerned the faces of Luther and Melanchthon.

On the east side of the town looms the grand ducal palace, an interesting edifice, begun in 1790, and constructed under Goethe's supervision. Near the palace is the modern building completed in 1896, and devoted to the preservation of the precious and extensive Goethe and Schiller archives. South of the palace is the fine library, with over 200,000 volumes and more than 8000 maps. Southwest of the palace, in the market place, rises the striking Gothic town hall, with the remarkable house of the two Cranachs close at hand. Not far distant is the Schiller house, owned by the municipality since 1847. In front of the Court theatre, which bears such high repute, is the great bronze Goethe-Schiller monument, by Rietschel. It was unveiled in 1857. Toward the southern part of the town is the famous Goethe home, where the poet lived. It is open to the public as the Goethe National Museum. In the cemetery on the southern edge of Weimar are buried Goethe and Schiller. To the east lies the beautiful park through which the Ilm flows. Weimar has among its many public and special schools a good art school, dating from 1800. With it are connected several names prominent in the German art world. The valuable new museum is housed in a striking yellow and red stone Renaissance structure. The finest of the contents is the cycle of frescoes by Preller on subjects from the Odyssey. There are also a natural history museum, with ethnological and antiquarian collections, the Liszt museum, a geographical institute, large orphanages, etc. Weimar has manufactures of iron, wood, straw, cloth, leather, and stoves, and is an important seat of the book trade. The population in 1900 was 28,509, nearly all Protestants. Weimar dates from the ninth century. It passed to the Ernestine line of Saxony about 1500. Owing to the enlightened patronage of Duke Charles Augustus (q.v.), it is famous for literary associations pertaining to the classic epoch of German literature. Goethe resided here more than fifty years of his life; Schiller, Wieland, and Herder also lived liorc; and it wna for decades a pil- j!iiiiuij;c lowii for those famed or interested in letters.