In the late 18th and early 19th century the small Thuringian town of Weimar witnessed a remarkable cultural flowering, led by the Duchess Anna Amalia and her son Duke Carl August.  As patrons of art and literature, they invited many eminent writers and scholars to Weimar, notably Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Christoph Martin Wieland, Johann Gottfried Herder and Friedrich Schiller.

The high point of the town’s cultural influence resulted from the creative relationship between Goethe and Schiller that began in 1794 and was intensified when Schiller moved to Weimar in 1799. This period became known as Weimar’s Classical period (Weimarer Klassik) or Classical Weimar (Klassisches Weimar). During this time, literary works of extraordinary importance were created, characterized by open-mindedness and humanistic aspirations. The high artistic quality of many buildings from this period and the parks in the surrounding area testify to the cultural flowering of Weimar’s Classical period. (Description adapted from https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/846 under license CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0).