The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-02-06
HOME OF FAMOUS MEN CHOSEN FOR
 FIRST GERMAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY '

fKSl LEHMAN NA Weimar, capital of the grand duchy of Saxe- W Weinlar- -Eisenach, 50 miles southwest of Leipzig and 141 miles southwest of Berlin, known as "the poets city, and the German Athens was chosen for the gathering of the first German National Assembly, it is said, because 1t is a non-Prussian town. It Is situated in d fertile val ley on the river Ihn, a small tributary of the Saale, and has a population of less than 50,00o.
 Here, amid the old buildings that remind one of a medieval past, the 40 representatives of the German people elected on January 20 assem- ble to accept, reject or amend the draft of a. constitution which has been prepared by the Ebert government and to form, perhaps, a union of States on the modern American prin- l ciple.
 Sleepy old Weimar, famous as the h Ale of Goethe, Schiller and Idszt, is said to have existed more than eleven
 
 Grand Duke of Saxe- Weimar- Elise mach, the town became a centre of Liberalism as well as art. Its most important building Is the Palace, de scribed as "a huge structure forming three sides of a quadrangle, erected i Q789-18O3) under the superlntendence of Goethe" only remnant of which, however, with tower Is Gtill stand ing.
 1t contains a series of rooms dedi- cated to the poets Goethe, Schiller, Herder and Wieland, all of which are decorated favishly with mural paint ings. Nearby is the house where Goethe lived from t7S2 to 1892, a home of luxury for that day, built as a gift to the poet by Charles Augustus and presented to him by his patron upon Goethe's return from his Italian tour
 Houses with high-p1tched gables and roofs give the town a picturesque ap- pearance, while the narrow wirding, streets of the older portion of the place, and the vestiges of the medi- eval walls, continually remind the vis- ttOr of its historic character. The Stadtkirchie or parish house of wor- ship, a Gothic structure dating from about 400, is Building of rare in terest. It has been slightly modern ized but enough of the original edi- flee remains to show it's age and c1as- sic outlines.
 Among the notabIes whose tombs are beneath it's roof are those of the princes of Saxe- Weimar- Eisena,eh, in cilbding the eIector John Frederick the Magnanimous and his wife, and Duke Bernhard of Wetmar, a. hero of the Thirty Years War. The altar piece is a triptych,' one writer says, "the center piece representing the cruel f1xion: beside the cross stands Martin Luther, an open Bible in his hand, while the blood from the pierced side of the Saviour pours upon his head"
 Another ancient church is the Ja- coios or HofkirCher, or court church whose disused cemetery contains the graves of Lucas Cranach, the artist and Johann Musaeus, anthor of Ger man folk lore. Another burial ground contains the grand ducal family vault in which Goethe and Schiller also lie sido by side. Bronze statues of both poets, the work of Rietschel, and grouped on one pedestal. stand in front of the site of a theatre built in 1925 under the direction of Goethe a time memorable as the golden age of German drama" Here many of Wagner's compositions were first given to the world. In 1907 the old structure was replaced by a new building.
 The genius of Goethe and Schiller characterize Weimar in other forms of ctvt? beauty. Goethe, some years before his death, laid out large pub lie park in the form of a garden and without an enclosure of any kind. There quaint relic of its originator remains in the stone altar round which serpent climbs to eat the vo- tive bread. Upon the altar is an in scription to the genius hujus loci.'' ! Statues Of Wieland, who came tc Weimar as the tutor of Grand Duke Charles Augustus In 1772, the, com poser Hummel and Franz Liszt art among the other public embellish ments of the city. The Grune Schloss, built in the 18th century, ant containing 100000 volumes, is an il teresting library and contains also valuable collection of portraits, bust and literary and other curiosities.
 Other public buildings are the Wit
 tumspalais, the old ducal dove house, containing Prefers famou mural paintings of the Odyssey; tn Gotthe-Schiller Archive, an imposin
 edif1ce on an eminence above tn river I'm, in which are treasure manuscripts by famous Germal writers; the Iiszt Museum; a gymna sium; Realschule, or school fo i girls, founded by the Grand Duches Sophia; g. grand ducal school of art
 technical, commercial and musi schools, geographical institute, teach CTS seminaries and other institution 1 of learning