Weimar: Cultural Capital of Europe in 1999

The German National Theater in Weimar and the statues of Goethe and Schiller (© Wikipedia)

In 1999 the German city of Weimar was honoured as the Cultural Capital of Europe. This title is awarded annually to cities with an especially rich cultural heritage. Weimar was not only home to some of Germany’s greatest writers and thinkers– including Goethe and  Schiller, no less–  but it was also an important center of 19th -century classical music and the home of the Bauhaus, one of the most important schools of 20th-century design—until that is, Hitler’s Nazis exploited Weimar’s reputation to their own dark ends.

Produced and presented by Marijke van der Meer

Broadcast in Aural Tapestry May 23, 1999