Weimar, Jena, Apolda – A Short Glimpse In Pictures

Weimar – the best and the worst of Germany

Goethe was here, Schiller, the Romantics, the Philosophers, the Bauhaus. The Weimar Republic – the first German democratie – emerged here. Sternstunden (great moments) of German history.

But there was also Buchenwald concentration camp around the corner, in viewing distance. And everyone was aware of what happened there. Hitler liked Weimar, he came here to hold his dramatic speeches. And while the city looks flawless and romantic, much better than most cities in the former West, the AfD (a racist, nationalist party) is comparatively popular around Weimar.

Weimar is a very well preserved, very beautiful and very touristic town and holds a lot of contradictions.

Schillers’ garden residency in Jena

Phyletisches Museum in Jena

The didactic exhibits in the museum indeed look a little bit like they belong in a museum themselves, but if you look beyond that, what they tell you is very well told evolutionary history. The founder, Ernst Haeckel, Physician, zoologist, philosopher, draftsman and free thinker, was a revolutionary spirit. His famous book Kunstformen der Natur today still is an unclassifiable piece of work: Art? Science? Psychedelism? Look for yourself and decide.

Apolda: A Small Town That Could Be Picturesque

There is a very beautiful architecture and a lot of potential in the town center of Apolda but there is also the ugly side of it: Magnifique art nouveau buildings destroyed by commercial concepts, a parking spot in midst of a picturesque place, ugly commercial decoration, thick plastic windows on buildings that should rather be listed, indications of nationalist target groups in the shops. At least some people seam to party in the park at night 🙂

There is so much potential. But man, what a fail. How can small town mayors miss this?

Anyway, we came here to see the Eiermannbau. And this was really worth every step we made.