The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Weimar

WEIMAR, vī'mär, Germany, the capital of the grand duchy of Saxe-Weimar, on the Ilm, 13 miles east of Erfurt It stands in a beautiful valley surrounded by hills, on ground partly elevated and partly flat. It is irregularly built except in the suburban portions. Its notable public edifices are the grand-ducal palace, a handsome structure erected partly under the superintendence of Goethe; the so-called Red and Yellow castles, now united and occupied by several public departments; the grand-ducal library (in the Green Castle), containing 300,000 volumes and a large collection of maps; the museum; the Stadtkirche, with an altar-piece, one of the finest works of Lucas Cranach, in which he has introduced portraits of himself and Luther and Melanchthon; and the modern Gothic town-house. The public monuments comprise the Goethe-Schiller monument in bronze, statues of Herder, Wieland, the composer Hummel, the Grand-Duke Karl August and various others, and a monumental fountain. Goethe's house is now used as a Goethe National Museum, and Schiller's contains relics of its former distinguished owner. A Goethe and Schiller Archives building was opened in 1896. Goethe and Schiller are interred in the grand-ducal vault in the new cemetery. Stretching away from the palace is a fine park on the banks of the Ilm. Weimar has a gymnasium, a realgymnasium, academy of painting, school of drawing, normal school and other educational institutions. It has neither trade nor manufactures of much consequence, the manufactures of iron, wood, straw, leather and cloth being carried on to some extent, but as the capital of the duchy it is the seat of the legislature and of all the more important courts and public offices. It long ranked as a sort of “German Athens” in consequence of the enlightened patronage which the Duke Karl August (d. 1828) afforded to the four great literary men of Germany, Goethe, Schiller, Herder and Weiland. In 1919 the National Assembly of the German nation met at Weimar and there the constitution of the new German Republic was made and adopted. The Treaty of Versailles (1919) was ratified at Weimar during the session of the assembly. Pop. 33,000.