Why Weimar?

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The apocalyptic period of German history separating the Second and the Third Reichs (1918–1933) is called the Weimar Republic, representing such a turbulent and portentous time in German and world history. So where does the name “Weimar” come from? The answer might sound a bit anti-climatic…it’s simply the name of a small city in the state of Thuringia in central German (population today about 65 thousand people). The connexion comes from the town being the location where the Weimar National Assembly met in early 1919 to establish the constitution governing the new republic that replaced imperial rule in Germany. Why was little Weimar, the home of the German humanistic tradition but a somewhat low-key venue, chosen over powerhouse Berlin? Precisely for that reason, Berlin was the centre of the Prussian state, the symbol of its overwhelming hegemony (and a hotbed of radical insurrection at the time) [K.S. Pinson, Modern Germany: Its History and Civilisation (1966 ed.)]. “Weimar” as a metonym for republican Germany first entered the vocabulary of right-wing politicians like Hitler as a derogatory phrase to vilify the republic as a scapegoat for all of Germany’s ills stemming from the Versailles signing.

A view of modern Weimar showing its Renaissance architectural past

Note: Before its association with Germany’s first ever republic immortalised its name as the harbinger to Nazism’s rise, the town was probably best known for being the home of Goethe – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Goethe, a German polymath (literary author, scientist, statesman, critic), is widely considered as the greatest and most influential writer in the German language. He resided in Weimar for the last 57 years of his life.