Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1919-04-18
WH YEIMAR, the little city which
VN is the capital of the duchy
of Saxe-Weimar and which


Wj is the capital of the duchy
of SaXe-Weimar and which
was selected as the meeting
place for the German national assem-
bly,, has long been denominated the
ATHENS of Germany" 1t stands for
| what was the best in German life.
For Weimar was once great capt
tai in the world of letters; around
1T cluster many of the finest recOl-
lections and traditions of the Ger
many that was.
Goethe and Schiller, topmost among
the German poets, lived and died
there. Some of the finest cOmpo-
sitions of List and Mendelssohn were
conceived in Weimar. In this quaint
old town Schopenhauer dwelt in the
unutterable gloom that permeates his
philosophy. To its restful solitude
and it's greatest memories came Metz
sche, apostle of dreadfulness, to die.
And it drew George Eliot, Thackeray,
Bayard Taylor and many other no.
tables of other lands who sought in
spiratiOn in this spot which had
lured the immortals Of an earlier
day, remarks the Kansas City Star.
Where Famous Women Lived.
Weimar it was which produced two
of the best remembered of German
women, the Grand Duchess Anna
Amalie, whose efforts gave Germany
its first real standing in art and let
ters, and Charlotte Won Stein, the
gifted, brilliant woman whom Goethe
loved long and in vain. All Germany
has laid homage at the feet of Duchess
Anna Amalie And of Charlotte Won
Stein it has been said that no other
woman, not even Dante's Beatrice
or Petrarch's Laura, has been so hon
ored in song.
All the glory of Weimar belongs to
the time before the Prussian arch
militarist and materialist With the
ascendancy of the HohenZOllerns and
the elevation of force and greed above
the things of the mind and spirit Wei
mar faded into background memory.
Its selection by the new government
as q seat for elaboration may serve
to bring back to it some of it's depart
ed glory.
The beginning of Weimar's great
ness came about 1856, when Anna
Amalie, niece of Frederick the Great,
went there as a bride of the duke.
She summoned Weiland, poet and stu
dent, to act as tutor for her boys.
Three years later young Goethe went
TO Weimar. Others followed. Elm
siedel, the poet, musician and actor
Bode, the translator of Smollett and
Cervantes; Knebel, the classicist
Corona Schroter, the brilliant and
beautiful actress and singer; Herder,
the'preacher poet and father of Ger
man folk song, and finally Schiller,
who eventually was to take rank with
Goethe.
Goethe the Master There.
The names of Goethe and Schiller
dominate Weimar. The former lived
in the town fifty-six years. He was
all things to Weimar, the adviser of
it's rulers, architect of it's chief struc
lures, dictator of it's thought, and
finally its greatest and best loved
memory. His house on the Goethe
Plata is one of the towns "sights,"
and monuments of him occupy the
most prominent positions. Even his
garden house has been preserved in
reverent memory.
An indication of the way in which
Goethe was regarded in old Weimar is
cleaned from an oft told incident.
The poet coveted the house that later
was to be his. Its owner would not
sell to him, however. So Duke Karl
August went forth one day and un-
tremendously took charge of the
house
But me no butts" he replied to the
reluctant owner. "Goetne wants it
and we must give it u him or we
shall Tot keep him."
The thousands of lettels the adoring
Goethe wrote to Charlotte Won Stein
all are kept in the building that
houses the Goethe ana Schiller ar
chives. For ten years he paid de-
voted court TO her, but she was the
wife of another man and, although
she valued the homage of this man,
who was one of the handsomest and
most distinguished in Europe, it is
generally believed that she did not in
any way return his affections.
CarlyIe's Tribute to Schiller.
Schiller's old home has been bought |
By the town and converted into a
museum. His rooms are almost as he |
left them, the floors bare, the ceiling |
low and the furniture scanty, plain |
and almost primitive. OF this place |
Carlyle has written: