About Erfurt, Germany

The present-day capital of Thuringia was one of central Germany's most important cities in the late Middle Ages. The city is situated on the Via Regia, a medieval trade and pilgrims' road network. It was part of the Electorate of Mainz during the Holy Roman Empire, and later became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1802. From 1949 until 1990 Erfurt was part of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). Modern day Erfurt is a hub for ICE high speed trains and other German and European transport networks.

Erfurt lies in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, within the wide valley of the Gera river. It is located 100 km south-west of Leipzig, 300 km south-west of Berlin, 400 km north of Munich and 250 km north-east of Frankfurt. Together with neighbouring cities Weimar and Jena it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants.



The university was founded in 1379, making it the first university to be established within the geographic area which constitutes modern-day Germany. Martin Luther is presumably the best-known student of the University of Erfurt. He was enrolled in 1501 as ‘Martinus Ludher ex Mansfeldt’. He completed his course four years later and received his master’s degree from the philosophical faculty. One of the most important periods in Luther’s life also began in Erfurt: the young student joined the monastery of the Augustinian Hermits on July 17, 1505. He studied theology and was later ordained as a priest in the Erfurt Cathedral in 1507.

The Protestant reformer retained close ties to the city of Erfurt for his entire life and would later visit it multiple times. For this reason, a statement made by Luther in 1513 sounds like a declaration of love: 'The University of Erfurt is my mother, to whom I owe everything.'

Other noted Erfurters include the medieval philosopher and mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1328), the Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706), the sociologist Max Weber (1864-1920), singer Clueso (Thomas Hübner) (1980-), and Gunda Niemann (1966- ), three-times Olympic speed skating gold-medal winner.

Alexander Müller (1808 - 1863) pianist, conductor and composer, was also born in Erfurt. He later moved to Zürich, where he served as leader of the General Music Society's subscription concerts series. The city is the birthplace of one of Johann Sebastian Bach's cousins, Johann Bernhard Bach, as well as Johann Sebastian Bach's father Johann Ambrosius Bach. Bach's parents were married in 1668 in a small church, the Kaufmannskirche (Merchant's Church), that still exists on the main square, Anger. After 1906 the composer Richard Wetz (1875 - 1935) lived in Erfurt and became the leading person in the town's musical life. His major works were written here, including three symphonies, a Requiem and a Christmas Oratorio.

Erfurt's cityscape features a medieval core of narrow, curved alleys in the centre surrounded by a belt of Gründerzeit architecture, created between 1873 and 1914. In 1873, the city's fortifications were demolished and it became possible to build houses in the area in front of the former city walls. In the following years, Erfurt saw a construction boom. In the northern area (districts Andreasvorstadt, Johannesvorstadt and Ilversgehofen) tenements for the factory workers were built whilst the eastern area (Krämpfervorstadt and Daberstedt) featured apartments for white-collar workers and clerks and the southwestern part (Löbervorstadt and Brühlervorstadt) with its beautiful valley landscape saw the construction of villas and mansions of rich factory owners and notables.

Compared to many other German cities, little of Erfurt was destroyed in World War II. This is one reason why the centre today offers a mixture of medieval, Baroque and Neoclassical architecture as well as buildings from the last 150 years.

Plan and Book:

Erfurt, Germany: See and Do

The city centre has about 25 churches and monasteries, most of them in Gothic style, some also in Romanesque style or a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic elements, and a few in later styles. The various steeples characterize the medieval centre and led to one of Erfurt's nicknames as the "Thuringian Rome".

Public green spaces are located along Gera river and in several parks like the Stadtpark, the Nordpark and the Südpark. The largest green area is the Egapark (de), a horticultural exhibition park and botanic garden established in 1961.

Erfurt has a great variety of museums. One not to misss is The Stadtmuseum (municipal museum), which shows aspects of Erfurt's history with a focus on the Middle Ages, early modern history, Martin Luther and the university. Other parts of the Stadtmuseum are the Neue Mühle (new mill), an old water mill still in operation, and the Benaryspeicher (Benary's magazine) with an exhibition of old printing machines.

Krämerbrücke

The medieval Krämerbrücke (Merchants' bridge) is lined with inhabited, half timbered buildings on both sides. The footbridge spans the Breitstrom, a branch of Gera River, connecting Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt. The bridge was built next to a ford and was part of the Via Regia, a medieval trade and pilgrims' road network, which linked Rome with the Baltic Sea, and Moscow with Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The Krämerbrücke is on the route from the river Rhine to Silesia, which was awarded the title of a European Cultural Route by the Council of Europe in 2005. This is also one of the main routes of the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James pilgrimage.

Originally constructed from wood, the bridge was first mentioned in 1117 after its destruction by one of many fires. After a fire in 1472, which destroyed nearly half of the city and the market stalls on the bridge, it was reconstructed of limestone and sandstone in its current form with 62 half-timbered buildings. The 79 m long arch bridgconsists of six visible barrel vaults with diameters ranging from 4.8 m to 7.8 m.

The Alte Synagoge (Old Synagogue) is one of the oldest synagogue buildings in Europe. The museum housed in it was opened in 2009 and has exhibitions on the history of Erfurt's Jewish Community. It houses facsimiles of medieval Hebrew manuscripts and the Erfurt Treasure, a hoard of coins, goldsmiths' work and jewellery that is assumed to have belonged to Jews who hid them in 1349 at the time of the Black Death pogroms. The oldest parts of Erfurt's Alte Synagoge (Old Synagogue) date to the 11th century. It was used until 1349 when the Jewish community was destroyed in a pogrom known as the Erfurt Massacre. The building had many other uses since then. It was conserved in the 1990s and in 2009 it became a museum of Jewish history.[41] A rare Mikveh, a ritual bath, dating from c.1250, was discovered by archeologists in 2007. It has been accessible to visitors on guided tours since September 2011. In 2015 the Old Synagogue and Mikveh were nominated as a World Heritage Site.

The Erinnerungsort Topf and Söhne (memorial site of Topf and Sons) stands on the site of the factory of the company which constructed crematoria for Auschwitz and other concentration camps. It has exhibitions about the operations of the company and the holocaust. Gedenk- und Bildungsstätte Andreasstraße Erfurt, (Stasi Museum) occupies the site of the former Erfurt Stasi headquarters and prison, where over 5000 people were held. On 4 December 1989, the building was occupied by local residents. It was the first of many such takeovers of Stasi buildings in the former East Germany. Today it has exhibitions on the history of East Germany and the activities of its regime.

Erfurt Catholic Cathedral

The Catholic Erfurt Cathedral, also known as St Mary's Cathedral, is a 1200-year-old church located in the city of Erfurt, in Thuringia, Germany. It is of an International Gothic style and is located on a hillside overlooking the main town square, known as Domplatz (Cathedral Square).

The site of the present Cathedral has been the location of many other Christian buildings, for example a Romanesque basilica and a church hall. Saint Boniface erected a church in the year 742 on the mound which the Erfurt Cathedral now sits. The foundations of the original church were used for a Romanesque basilica in the mid 12th century. The mound was then enlarged in the early 14th century to make room for St. Mary's cathedral.[ Martin Luther was ordained in the cathedral on 3 April 1507. The cathedral houses many rare and rich furnishings and sculptures, including the tomb of the bigamous Count von Gleichen, accompanied by both of his wives, a stucco altar, a bronze candelebra of Romanesque antiquity called Wolfram, the oldest free standing cast work in Germany, and, out on the porch, several statues of the Wise and Foolish Virgins.

Erfurt has many other Catholic churches, monasteries and synagogues of interest. The Allerheiligenkirche (All Saints' Church) is a 14th-century Gothic parish church in Market Street, which hosts a columbarium. The Lorenzkirche (St Laurence's Church) is a small 14th-century Gothic parish church at Anger Square. The Martinikirche (St Martin's Church) was built in the 15th century in Gothic style and later converted to Baroque style. It was both a Cistercian monastery and a parish church of Brühl, a medieval suburban zone.

The Neuwerkskirche St. Crucis (church of the new work/Holy Cross Church) is a 15th-century Gothic parish church at Neuwerk Street, that was later converted to Baroque style. Until 1285, it was used as an Augustinian monastery. The Schottenkirche St. Nikolai und St. Jakobi (Scots Monks' Church of St Nicholas and St James) is an 11th-century Romanesque monastery church with a Baroque façade, which was later used as a parish church. The Severikirche (St Severus' Church) is the second-largest parish church after the cathedral and stands next to it on the Domberg hill. It is a Gothic church and was built around 1300.

The Ursulinenkirche, St. Ursula's Church, is a Gothic church at Anger Square. It is attached to the Ursulinenkloster, St. Ursula's Nunnery, founded in 1136. It is the only medieval monastery or nunnery in Erfurt which has been in continuous operation since it opened. The Wigbertikirche (St Wigbert's Church) is a 15th-century Gothic parish church at Anger Square.

Protestant churches and monasteries

Ägidienkirche (St Giles' Church) is a 14th-century Gothic parish church at Wenigenmarkt Square. It is the surviving one of formerly two bridge-head churches of the Krämerbrücke located on both ends of the bridge. As a result, the nave is on the 1st floor, while on ground level is a passage to the bridge. The steeple is open to the public and offers a good view over the city centre. Today, St Giles' Church is a Methodist parish church.

Andreaskirche (St Andrew's Church) is a 14th-century Gothic parish church at Andrew's Street. The old craftsmen's quarter around it is named Andreasviertel after the church.

St. Augustine's Monastery dates from 1277. Martin Luther lived there as a monk between 1505 and 1511. The site has had a varied history and the restored complex has both modern and medieval buildings. Today it belongs to the Evangelical Church in Germany and as well as being a place of worship it is also a meeting and conference centre, and provides simple guest accommodation. In 2016 an application was made for it to be included in the already existing UNESCO World Heritage Site "Luther sites in Central Germany".

The Kaufmannskirche St. Gregor (Merchant's Church St Gregory) is a 14th-century Gothic parish church at Anger Square. It is one of the largest and most important original parish churches in Erfurt. The parents of Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Ambrosius Bach and Maria Elisabeth Lämmerhirt married here in 1668.

Michaeliskirche (St Michael's Church) is a 13th-century Gothic parish church in Michaelisstrasse. It became the church of the university in 1392.

The Predigerkirche (Dominican Church) is a Gothic monastery church of the Dominicans at Prediger-straße. The baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was organist at the church from 1678 until 1690. Since the Reformation in the 16th century, it is the main Protestant church of Erfurt and furthermore one of the largest former churches of the mendicant orders in Germany. The theologian and mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260 - 1328) entered Prediger Monastery around 1275. He was Prior from 1294 until 1298, and Vicar of Thuringia from 1298 to 1302. After a year in Paris, he returned to the monastery in 1303 and administered his duties as Provincial of Saxony from there until 1311. The baroque composer Johann Pachelbel (1653-1706) was organist at the church from 1678 until 1690.

The Reglerkirche St. Augustinus (Regulated St Augustine's Church) is a 12th-century Romanesque-Gothic monastery church of the Augustinians at Station Street. After the Reformation, it became a Protestant parish church.

Weimar

24 km east of Erfurt, the city of Weimar is known as the birthplace of Weimar Classicism, a humanistic cultural movement. Weimar is an essential stop for anyone with a passion for German history and culture. The Goethe and Schiller Monument in front of the German National Theatre celebrates the 2 writers, who lived in the city. Goethe's baroque residence is now the Goethe National Museum.

Weimar played a decisive role at several points in German history. The city was a focal point of the German Enlightenment and home of the leading characters of the literary genre of Weimar Classicism, the writers Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. In the 19th century, famous composers like Franz Liszt made a music centre of Weimar and later, artists and architects like Henry van de Velde, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Lyonel Feininger and Walter Gropius came to the city and founded the Bauhaus movement, the most important German design school of the interwar period.

Goethe Schiller Monument

Weimar’s connection to Martin Luther and the Reformation is more significant than is generally known. The small town belonged to the territory of the Ernestine princes and was a favourite destination of Frederick III (the Wise), who served as Luther's protector. The parish church, St. Peter and Paul contains a pulpit that was used by Luther between 1518 and 1540; it also features an altarpiece triptych by Lucas Cranach the Elder and his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger. What remains of the Franciscan monastery, on the rear side of the Wittumspalais, is now used by the Liszt School of Music of Weimar.

After German Reunification in 1990, Weimar experienced significant economic hardship, but funding restored much that had deteriorated, and it was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1996 (Bauhaus) and 1998 (Classical Weimar). The European Council of Ministers selected the city as European Capital of Culture for 1999. Tourism has become an important economic factor over the decades. Weimar is now a popular residence of people working in Erfurt and Jena, both less than 20 minutes away.

Park an der Ilm (Park on the Ilm, short Ilmpark) is a large Landschaftspark (landscaped park) in Weimar, Thuringia. It was created in the 18th century, influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and has not been changed much, preserving a park of the period. It was established between 1778 and 1833 and is an English landscape garden today, part of UNESCO world heritage. Sights inside the park are Goethe's garden house (1690s) and Römisches Haus (in the style of a Roman temple, 1790s).

Due to its function as a ducal residence, Weimar is rich in early-modern castles and palaces. The biggest one is the Stadtschloss at Burgplatz in the city centre. Today's four-wing building was started after a great fire in 1774. The tower and the Bastille building at its south-western edge are relics of older castles in this place.

The Fürstenhaus at Platz der Demokratie was the first parliament building in Weimar, established in the 1770s. Today it is in use by the Weimar School of Music. The Green Castle next to the Fürstenhaus was built in the 1560s in Renaissance style and hosts today the Duchess Anna Amalia Library. The Yellow Castle at Grüner Markt was built in 1703 and is the municipal library today. The neighbouring Red Castle is also part of the library and was built in the 1570s. The Wittumspalais is a smaller widow mansion near Theaterplatz, established in 1768. Outbildings of the ducal residence are the Husarenstall (1770), the later residence of Charlotte von Stein at Ackerwand street, the Marstall (1870s) at Kegelplatz, today used as Thuringian State Archive and the Reithaus (1710s) within the Park an der Ilm.

The Baroque Schloss Belvedere, on the outskirts of Weimar, is a pleasure-house (Lustschloss) built for house-parties in 1724-1732 to designs of Johann August Richter and Gottfried Heinrich Krohne. A wing of the Orangery in the Schlosspark contains a collection of historical carriages. North-east of Weimar, at Ettersburg lies another ducal hunting lodge next to the Ettersberg mountain and its forest. It was established between 1706 and 1711 also in Baroque style. The third summer residence, Schloss Tiefurt, is located in Tiefurt, north-east of Weimar. The small lodge in a wide park in Ilm valley was rebuilt in 1775 in late-Baroque forms.

Opfermoor Vogtei

The Opfermoor Vogtei is an open-air museum at the location of a prehistoric and protohistoric sacrificial bog (German: Opfermoor) in the municipality of Vogtei near Muhlhausen (59 km north west). The site, which includes a shallow lake, was a supra-regional cult site from the Hallstatt Period (6th century BCE) to the Migration Age (5th century CE) developed by people whose descendants became, in Friedrich Maurer's nomenclature, the Rhine-Weser Group of Teutons. It is the largest known Iron Age cult site in Central Europe and has yielded important information about pre-Germanic and Germanic religious practices. Excavations took place there between 1957 and 1964, and recovered artifacts and reconstructions of shrines are presented in an open-air museum on the site, which includes a reconstructed village, and an associated museum in Niederdorla.

Some of the discoveries from the excavation are on display at the Opfermoor Museum on the northern edge of Oberdorla, including the skeletal remains of a woman with her skull on a stake, reproducing the way she was found. In the open-air museum itself are ten reconstructions of shrines from various periods and also a reconstruction of a 3rd-century Germanic village, consisting of a longhouse (housing for humans and their livestock), three Grubenhauser (pit-houses) and a barn. The museum offers periodic presentations and classes in ancient Germanic clothing, weaponry, cookery and baking, spinning and weaving, and games. A Germanic festival and a Roman market take place on-site in alternating years, with costumed living history reenactors seeking to recreate everyday life in one or the other context. Neo-pagans have also held rituals at the site. In addition, the district museum in Muhlhausen, the Museum am Lindenbuhl, has an exhibit about the site.

Schloss Reinhardsbrunn

Schloss Reinhardsbrunn in Friedrichroda (49 km west) near Gotha, is the site of a formerly prominent Bendictine abbey, the house monastery of the Ludovingian Landgraves of Thuringia abbey extant between 1085 and 1525. Later used as an administrative seat by the Ernestine dukes of Saxony, the premises were turned into a castle and park erected by the Dukes of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 1827. The Saxe-Coburg and Gotha family kept possession until the end of World War II, when, after some time in the hands of the state, the house and estate were used for a short time by Soviet Red Army forces as a military hospital and then for various functions by the government of the East Germany, who opened it as a showpiece hotel in 1961. After 1991 the castle with its facilities and park passed from the Treuhandanstalt into private ownership, only to be closed in 2001.

Vessra Abbey

Dating back to the 12th Century, the Vessra Abbey of Hildburghausen (96 km south) is an important historical landmark of the region and a popular tourist attraction as well. Founded by by Gotebold II, it served as the family monastery of the Henneberg house for 400 years until it was turned into a private property in 1543. After being used as an agricultural estate and a collective farm, it was turned into an open-air museum named Hennebergische in 1990. Since 1990 the site has been the home of the Hennebergische Museum, an open-air museum specialising in the display of re-located local buildings. Today, it comprises of the local abbey church, restored Romanesque buildings, an old watermill among other attractions. Open the whole year round, it also hosts special exhibitions and provides guided tours as well. Location: Schleusinger Street 35, Kloster Vessra.

Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp

Mittelbau-Dora was a German Nazi concentration camp located near Nordhausen (74 km north). It was established in late summer 1943 as a subcamp of Buchenwald concentration camp, supplying slave labour from many countries occupied by Germany (including Italian POWs and evacuated survivors of eastern extermination camps), for extending the nearby tunnels in the Kohnstein and for manufacturing the V-2 rocket and the V-1 flying bomb. In the summer of 1944, Mittelbau became an independent concentration camp with numerous subcamps of its own. In 1945, most of the surviving inmates were evacuated by the SS. On 11 April 1945, US troops freed the remaining prisoners. Around one in three of the roughly 60,000 prisoners who were sent to Mittelbau did not survive. Today, the site hosts a memorial and museum.

Suhl

Suhl (68 km south) is an town of 45 000 located at in the south-west side of the Thuringian Forest, situated on the Lauter River. Suhl is close to the so called Rennsteig, one of the best known hiking trails of Germany. Motorcycles, machinery, sporting guns, precision instruments, electrical appliances, tools, porcelain, and toys are among the goods manufactured in Suhl. In 1952, Suhl became one of East Germany's 14 district capitals, which led to a government-directed period of urban growth and conversion. Its results - typical 1960s Communist-era concrete architecture - define the new city centre today. With the loss of its administrative and industrial functions, Suhl saw a lasting period of urban decline since 1990.

The town has two museums, the Waffenmuseum (weapon museum) and the Verkehrsmuseum (vehicle museum). The Waffenmuseum is dedicated to the weapon industry of Suhl which was and is famous for small guns. Suhl was a major producer of cannons throughout the seventeenth and subsequent centuries, and Suhl cannons were used by many European powers. Many prominent firearms manufacturers have been based here. During the Cold War, the East German national shooting arena was located at Suhl, and hosted many top-level competitions, including the 1986 ISSF World Championships. Although surpassed in this respect in the unified Germany by the Olympic shooting centre at Munich, Suhl remains an important place to the sport. It hosts Germany's only school for armorers.



The town's motor museum focuses on the town's motorcycle and car industry, particulary during the years of the former DDR (Communist East Germany). Suhl has more than a hundred years of tradition in vehicle construction, which is closely associated with the name Simson. Simson & Co. began with with bicycle production in 1896. The Waffenmuseum tells the story of the town's vehicle manuafcturing industry. On display are 220 exhibits from all areas of vehicle construction: bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles and cars. The extremely successful Suhler Motorsport occupies a special place , as do Simson motorcycles of the European and world champions and the legendary Greifzu racing cars. Open daily daily 10 am to 6 pm. Location: Vehicle Museum Suhl Friedrich-Konig-Strasse 7 98527 Suhl. Ph (03681) 70 50 04.