Pick-A-Day

Archives

Off the beaten path: Weimar

There’s no doubt about it, Weimar is one heck of a tourist trap, especially for the Germans and the Germanphiles of the world. It’s the spiritual home of both Goethe and Schiller, as well as the European Capital of Culture (1999). For the Americans, it’s home of Buchenwald, a Nazi concentration camp described by Edward R. Murrow.

The paths to these sites are well worn.

For me, though, there are two other Weimar sites that never fail to move me and never fail to make me think, and both are closely linked with World War II.

Thanking US Soldiers.

Thanking US Soldiers.

First is a quiet little monument on the southwest corner of Fuldaer Straße and Schwanseestraße (actually in the wedge between Fuldaer Straße and Jean-Sibelius-Straße). The monument thanks US soldiers for liberating Thüringen from the Nazi dictatorship:

Im Gedenken an die US Soldaten die Thüringen im April 1945 von nationalsozialistischer Diktatur befreiten.

Whenever I see the monument, I wonder when it was built—I doubt that the East German government would have wanted to have this message out there—plus the design is a bit industrial.

3 names on each side

3 names on each side

Secondly, and there are examples of this all over eastern Germany, I find the presence of a Soviet World War II era cemetery, right in Weimar’s Park an der Ilm, to be a stark reminder of the cost of hatred. I visit the cemetery several times a year, walking through the hammer and sickle gate into the grounds, where each headstone marks the burial site for six soldiers. The birth and death dates are clearly visible—and young men died fighting the Nazis. It was pointed out to me by Katya that kids would lie about their ages in order to join the army and fight the Nazis—so the fact that you can find soldiers as young as 18 or 19 buried in the park is misleading: many were probably younger.

There’s a second Soviet Cemetery on the grounds of Belvedere, but it doesn’t quite have the same impact on me. It’s clear that the on in the park was designed to remind Germans of their history vis-à-vis the Soviets.

There are more photos in my Soviet Cemetery Flickr Set.

This is my contribution to Amiexpat’s Off the Beaten Path Travel Guide series and challenge.

2 comments to Off the beaten path: Weimar

  • Thanks for participating! These sound like two interesting places to visit. I have to admit that when I visited Weimar several years ago, I only hit the tourist spots. Next time I’d like to explore the city more and see these spots.

  • Thanks! Both are quiet, free, and easily overlooked!