1999 - 1100 years since the first documentary mention of the town have passed by. Goethe would have celebrated his 250^th birthday, Schiller his 240^th. Eighty years ago it was the year of the resolution for the Weimar Constitution and the founding of the State Bauhaus. Ten years ago the wall dividing Germany fell.

For the cultural City of Europe its history is both a challengeand a responsibility. The town of poets and fine arts and often a place of political decisions and a town of National Socialist barbarity is presenting itself and its inheritance in a wealth of events for discussion on the past, the present and the future. A witness to the history of Weimar is the inclusion of the cultural assets “Classical Weimar” in the world heritage list of the UNESCO.

The “genius huius loci”, the “spirit of this place” is particularly attracting people from all over the world during his Cultural City Year. That, which makes the “Myth of Weimar”, is the unique exciting relationship between intellectual greatness and special closeness.