Most important multi-discipline theaters in the country are the German National Theater in Weimar, Theater Altenburg-Gera and the Staatstheater Meiningen. Traditional theaters are still operated today in Arnstadt, Nordhausen, Rudolstadt and Eisenach. New buildings from recent times include the Theater Erfurt and the Vogtlandhalle Greiz. The largest open-air stage is the Steinbach-Langenbach Nature Theater in the Thuringian Forest
The literary history of Thuringia is inextricably determined by the Weimar Classic. She led German-language literature in the 18th century with the circle of poets around Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller. Johann Gottfried Herder, Karl Ludwig von Knebel and Christoph Martin Wieland can also be classified in this era. They concentrated at the Weimar court around Duke Karl August and his mother Anna Amalia. The Bach family with their most famous son, Johann Sebastian Bach, comes from Wechmar near Gotha.
In the field of fine arts, the Bauhaus in Weimar was particularly important in Thuringia. It shaped the style of the world in the 1920s and attracted painters such as Lyonel Feininger, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Johannes Itten and Oskar Schlemmer as well as architects such as Walter Gropius, Henry van de Velde and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe to the Free State. But painters such as Lucas Cranach the Elder or Otto Dix and the sculptor Tilman Riemenschneider also worked in Thuringia.
The most famous castle in the country is the Wartburg above Eisenach, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It was once the seat of the Landgraves of Thuringia and later the place where Martin Luther was hidden from the imperial authorities and translated parts of the Bible into German.
The UNESCO World Heritage includes the "Classic Weimar", the Bauhaus in Weimar, the Wartburg near Eisenach and the Hainich National Park as part of the European beech forests. The state capital Erfurt has important cultural and historical sites with the cathedral, the Krämerbrücke and the oldest preserved synagogue in Central Europe. The largest city is Erfurt, other important centers are Jena, Gera and Weimar.
Rudolstadt is situated in the valley of the river Saale, which runs from the south to the east passing the "Saaleknie". The city was first documented in 776 and since 1326 has got the city law.
Our host, the campground "Unter den Jenzig" had mentioned some places of interest in the area, which we also wanted to visit together with our friend Detlef, who arrived to visit us from Halle.
After an eventful day of hiking in Dornburg, we were on our way back and since it was still pleasantly sunny, we decided to drive to the town of Camburg, which forms a unit with Dornburg as a municipal association in the Saale-Holzland district.
The scenically beautiful village of Dornburg is located in the middle of the Saale valley between the cities of Jena and Naumburg (Saale), a region that is always good for a discovery hike.
Although it is wet and cold on these days in December, the urge to exercise prevails, especially since there are other destinations to be hiked.
The origins of the Weimar onion market probably go back to the Middle Ages; it was first mentioned on October 4, 1653 as the "cattle and Zippel market".
Weimar had once again inspired us to a visit: Weimar in summer: Moving, pulsating and extremely lively. The glory of the past flirts with fresh culture.
In the meantime we had completed our tour of the imposing, roofed and ancient wooden bridge across the White Elster, climbed up to the church and then walked along the river back to the camp of the bicycle camping trailers, who had now gathered around the campfire with grilled sausage and cool drinks.
Our friend Jörg invited us to a caravan or trailer meeting for bicycles (we will report later) in Gera for the first time in Germany and probably also around the world, a region that we had hardly explored so far.
The Wartburg, located high above the city of Eisenach in Thuringia, is connected to the history of Germany like hardly any other castle in Germany.
176 meters long, just 85 centimeters wide and 25 meters above the Bärental: the still "young" suspension rope bridge across the Bärental is a real attraction in the Hohe Schrecke Mountain Range.
Once again for reasons of direct regional exploration in Sangerhausen on the way, we liked to go to the Rosarium in Sangerhausen, the well-known and worldwide unique rose garden complex (as we had already reported on this).
Several times we had already noticed street signs to the moated castle in the Thuringian town of Heldrungen, which we had not yet followed.
In difficult times when contact with other people should be completely avoided, a hike through the forest is one of the few ways to escape the confinement of the city, the home and the conflicts within the family cramped in the house.
Slowly it gets wintry, even though it sometimes seems that the trees getting bare so quick, how nice was the slow browning of the leaves, especially when the sun brought the variety of colors into the trees.
Again and again we come across some ancient trade routes as part of our project work, which today can be traced back to the plans and systems of our forefathers in the form of highways, railway routes or bridge systems.
It is already a monumental impression that opens up before your eyes when you walk across the Krämerbrücke through the shopping street towards the cathedral and the huge market square then surprisingly opens up, in the background the imposing cathedral building and the Severi Church.
Large parts of the historical city center were destroyed by American air raids at the end of the Second World War, especially from February to April 1945, later the city fell victim to the socialist reconstruction plans, so that - especially around the new Eichplatz - very few historic buildings are to be found in the city center.
After crossing the wooden covered bridge in Kunitz, we had taken the path into the village center, then walked up the path to the Gleißberg, which first leads us along some wine fields.
In our article about the porcelain centre of Kahla, we had already mentioned the many hiking trails and cycle paths that connect different destinations in beautiful surroundings, so we had chosen the way up to the Leuchtenburg with a visit to the local museum as our destination of that day.