Christoph Martin Wieland in Weimar

Exhibition marking the 250 anniversary of Christoph Martin Wieland’s appointment to Weimar in cooperation with the Freundeskreis Goethe-Nationalmuseum e. V.

In 1772, Duchess Anna Amalia appointed the already highly acclaimed “national poet” Christoph Martin Wieland (1733-1813) to serve as her son’s mentor at the Weimar court. By no means were Wieland’s pursuits limited to offering intellectual conversation to the young Carl August; he primarily devoted himself to cementing his reputation as a literary pioneer. He started Germany’s first literary-political journal, entitled Teutscher Merkur, much of which he wrote himself. The publication directed Europe’s attention to the small Thuringian duchy. By the time Goethe arrived in Weimar in 1775, Wieland had already paved the way for a new German literary movement. Wieland and Goethe offered guidance to the Duke on personnel policies, and in 1776, convinced Duke Carl August to appoint Johann Gottfried Herder (1744-1803) as the General Superintendent, the highest-ranking member of the Weimar clergy. Herder inspired the “Sturm und Drang” literary movement and devoted himself intensively to “Volkspoesie” (folk-poetry). Finally, Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), the preeminent playwright of his time, joined this illustrious circle of poets. In 1789, he was appointed to an extraordinary professorship of history in Jena, and in 1799, settled permanently in Weimar.

In exactly sixty years between 1772 and Goethe’s death in 1832, Weimar established its place in history as the city of “Classicism”. This cultural-historic singularity all began with Christoph Martin Wieland’s appointment. His “journey to Weimar” and “path in Weimar” are now the focus of a special exhibition at the Stadtmuseum. This is also the venue of a parallel exhibition commemorating the 275^th anniversary of the birth and 200^th anniversary of the death of Friedrich Justin Bertuch, entitled “Friedrich Justin Bertuch – Educator and Entrepreneur in Classical Weimar”.

The special exhibition in the Stadtmuseum opens on 13 May 2022 at 5 pm.

For more information, visit the website of the Stadtmuseum Weimar.