Free State of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach

The State of Thuringia (German: Land Thüringen, [lant ˈtyːʁɪŋən]) was a state of the Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1933, of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945 and of East Germany from 1949 to 1952. Following German reunification, the renamed Free State of Thuringia became a member state of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1990. The State of Thuringia formed in the aftermath of World War I and the German revolution of 1918–1919. The eight small Thuringian states that had been part of the German Empire drove out their ruling royal houses and adopted republican constitutions in 1918–1919. On 1 May 1920, all except Coburg, which chose to become part of Bavaria, combined to create the State of Thuringia within the Weimar Republic. From the beginning, Thuringia's Landtag (state assembly) was politically fractured, leading to a series of short-lived, unstable governments. When the Communist Party was brought into a coalition in 1923, the German government sent troops into Thuringia's major cities to force the communist ministers to withdraw. In 1929 Thuringia became the first German state to have members of the Nazi Party in its government. The year they were in office is seen as Adolf Hitler's trial run for his rise to power. The Nazis gained full control of the Thuringian government in August 1932, five months before Hitler became chancellor of Germany. After World War II, Thuringia became part of the Soviet Occupation Zone and then of East Germany. It was enlarged by the addition of the Erfurt district, which had been part of Prussia, and in 1948 Erfurt replaced Weimar as the state's capital. In 1952, Thuringia was split into three regional districts and formally dissolved by the East German government in 1958.

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 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 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 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 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.

The church of St Peter and Paul in Weimar, Germany, is also known as Herderkirche (Herder Church) after Johann Gottfried Herder. It is the most important church building of the town, and is called Stadtkirche (town church), opposed to the courtly Schloßkirche (court chapel). It has been the church of a Lutheran parish since 1525, after the Reformation. The church is part of the World Heritage Site Classical Weimar, together with other sites affiliated with the Weimar Classicism movement. Inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1998, these sites bear testimony to the cultural importance of Weimar during the late 18th and 19th centuries and the outstanding architecture that arose in response to the cultural values of the time.

The Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium is a secondary school on Herderplatz 14 in Weimar, Germany. Founded in 1712 by Duke William Ernest of Saxe-Weimar, it is the oldest school building in the city. Numerous notable figures such as Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Heinrich Voss, Friedrich Wilhelm Riemer and Johann Karl August Musäus studied here. It is a designated historic site and is one of the few secular buildings of the pre-classical period still remaining in Weimar. It is prominently located in the urban center and is one of three sites forming the UNESCO World Heritage Site Classical Weimar, created in 1998.

The Jacobsfriedhof, also known as the Jakobskirchhof ("St. James's Burial Ground" or "Churchyard"), is the oldest extant burial ground in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany, on land round the Jakobskirche (St. James's Church). The first burials took place here as early as the 12th century. The burial ground is located in the Jacobsvorstadt, which in the Middle Ages provided accommodation outside the city walls for pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela (and today forms part of the historic Old Town under UNESCO protection). From 1530 to 1818 it was the only burial ground in Weimar. After 1818, when the "Neue Friedhof vor dem Frauentore" ("New Burial Ground before the Gate of Our Lady") was opened, now known as the Historical Cemetery, Weimar, many of the graves in the Jacobsfriedhof were levelled. From 1840 no more burials took place here, and the burial ground fell slowly into disrepair. Later the Weimar municipal authorities took it over and converted the burial ground into gardens. The Jacobsfriedhof today is part of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar.

Schloss Weimar is a Schloss (palace) in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. It is now called Stadtschloss to distinguish it from other palaces in and around Weimar. It was the residence of the dukes of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach, and has also been called Residenzschloss. Names in English include Palace at Weimar, Grand Ducal Palace, City Palace and City Castle. The building is located at the north end of the town's park along the Ilm river, Park an der Ilm. It forms part of the World Heritage Site "Classical Weimar", along with other sites associated with Weimar's importance as a cultural hub during the late 18th and 19th centuries.In history, it was often destroyed by fire. The Baroque palace from the 17th century, with the church Schlosskirche where a number of works by Johann Sebastian Bach were premiered, was replaced by a Neoclassical structure after a fire in 1774. Four rooms were dedicated to the memory of poets who worked in Weimar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schiller and Christoph Martin Wieland. From 1923, the building has housed the Schlossmuseum, a museum with a focus on paintings of the 15th and 16th centuries and works of art related to Weimar, a cultural centre.

The University of Music Franz Liszt Weimar (in German: Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar) is an institution of music in Weimar, Germany.

The Goethe-Nationalmuseum is a museum devoted to the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in the town of Weimar in Germany. Originally comprising the Goethe House, where Goethe lived intermittently for 50 years from 1782 to 1832, the museum was founded on 8 August 1885 as a result of the will of Goethe's last living heir, his grandson Walther von Goethe, who left the Goethe House to the state.After the Land of Thuringia was formed, the Goethe-Nationalmuseum, along with several buildings erected during the classical age and the Weimar palaces, became the property of Thuringia. In the 1920s, more Weimar buildings were assigned to the Goethe-Nationalmuseum. In 1953, these buildings became the property of the "Nationale Forschungs- und Gedenkstätten der klassischen deutschen Literatur in Weimar, NFG" (national research establishments and memorials of German classical literature in Weimar). Since October 1991, the Goethe-Nationalmuseum belongs to the "Klassik Stiftung Weimar" (foundation of Weimar classicism) which succeeded the NFG. It administers the main house and 22 other historical houses and museums throughout and around the Weimar municipal area.

The original Goethe–Schiller Monument (German: Goethe-Schiller-Denkmal) is in Weimar, Germany. It incorporates Ernst Rietschel's 1857 bronze double statue of Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), who are probably the two most revered figures in German literature. The monument has been described "as one of the most famous and most beloved monuments in all of Germany" and as the beginning of a "cult of the monument". Dozens of monuments to Goethe and to Schiller were built subsequently in Europe and the United States.Goethe and Schiller had a remarkable friendship and collaboration that was "like no other known to literature or art." Both men had lived in Weimar, and were the seminal figures of a literary movement known as Weimar Classicism. The bronze figures of the Goethe–Schiller statue are substantially larger than life-size; notably, both are given the same height, even though Goethe was nearly 20 cm shorter than Schiller.The figures were mounted on a large stone pedestal in front of the Court Theater that Goethe had directed, and that had seen premieres and countless performances of Schiller's plays. Goethe is on the left in the photograph, his left hand resting lightly on Schiller's shoulder. Goethe grasps a laurel wreath in his right hand, and Schiller's right hand is stretched out toward the wreath. Goethe wears the formal court dress of the era; Schiller is in ordinary dress.Four exact copies of Rietschel's statue were subsequently commissioned by German-Americans in the United States for the Goethe–Schiller monuments in San Francisco (1901), Cleveland (1907), Milwaukee (1908), and Syracuse (1911). 65,000 people attended the dedication of the Cleveland monument. A fifth copy of reduced size was installed in Anting, China, in 2006; Anting New Town is a "German-themed" town near Shanghai that was developed around 2000.

The Goethe House (Goethes Wohnhaus) is a building located in Weimar, Germany. It is the primary house lived in by the influential writer, poet, and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from 1782 to 1832 (although he did live in several others in the town). The house was built in 1709 by Georg Caspar Helmershausen. However, the rooms were personally redesigned by Goethe once he arrived in Weimar to reflect the ideals of the burgeoning Weimar Classicism movement, in which Goethe was especially prominent. Many of the original furnishings are still present in the house. Adjacent to the house is a garden, which primarily served to provide produce for Goethe's family, including asparagus, artichokes, apricots, and grapes. In 1817, Goethe extended the garden to the east and built a pavilion to store his mineral collection.The home serves as the main location of the Goethe-Nationalmuseum, and in 1998 it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List along with other buildings and sites associated with Weimar Classicism, because of their exceptional architecture and testimony to Weimar's influence as a cultural hub during the late 18th and 19th centuries.

Classical Weimar (German: Klassisches Weimar) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of 11 sites located in and around the city of Weimar, Germany. The site was inscribed on 2 December 1998. The properties all bear testimony to the influence of Weimar as a cultural centre of the Enlightenment during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A number of notable writers and philosophers lived in Weimar between 1772 and 1805, including Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder, Friedrich Schiller, and Christoph Martin Wieland. These figures ushered in and participated in the Weimar Classicism movement, and the architecture of the sites across the city reflects the rapid cultural development of the Classical Weimar era.

The Duchess Anna Amalia Library (German: Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek) in Weimar, Germany, houses a major collection of German literature and historical documents. In 1991, the tricentennial of its opening to the public, the Ducal Library was renamed for Duchess Anna Amalia. Today, the library is a public research library for literature and art history. The main focus is German literature from the Classical and the late Romantic eras. The library was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Classical Weimar site because of its testimony to the global cultural importance of Weimar during the late 18th and early 19th centuries during the Weimar Classicism movement.In 2004 a fire destroyed the main wing and a substantial part of the collection; restoration of salvaged volumes lasted until 2015.