Saxe-Weimar (German: Sachsen-Weimar) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine branch of the Wettin dynasty in present-day Thuringia. The chief town and capital was Weimar. The Weimar branch was the most genealogically senior extant branch of the House of Wettin.
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👉 Saxe-Weimar in the context of Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach (31 March [O.S. 21 March] 1685 – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety of instruments and forms, including the orchestral Brandenburg Concertos; solo instrumental works such as the cello suites and sonatas and partitas for solo violin; keyboard works such as the Goldberg Variations and The Well-Tempered Clavier; organ works such as the Schübler Chorales and the Toccata and Fugue in D minor; and choral works such as the St Matthew Passion and the Mass in B minor. Since the 19th-century Bach Revival, he has been widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music.
The Bach family had already produced several composers when Johann Sebastian was born as the last child of a city musician, Johann Ambrosius, in Eisenach. After being orphaned at age 10, he lived for five years with his eldest brother, Johann Christoph, then continued his musical education in Lüneburg. In 1703 he returned to Thuringia, working as a musician for Protestant churches in Arnstadt and Mühlhausen. Around that time he also visited for longer periods the courts in Weimar, where he expanded his organ repertory, and the reformed court at Köthen, where he was mostly engaged with chamber music. By 1723 he was hired as Thomaskantor (cantor with related duties at St Thomas School) in Leipzig. There he composed music for the principal Lutheran churches of the city and Leipzig University's student ensemble, Collegium Musicum. In 1726 he began publishing his organ and other keyboard music. In Leipzig, as had happened during some of his earlier positions, he had difficult relations with his employer. This situation was somewhat remedied when his sovereign, Augustus III of Poland, granted him the title of court composer of the Elector of Saxony in 1736. In the last decades of his life, Bach reworked and extended many of his earlier compositions. He died due to complications following eye surgery in 1750 at the age of 65. Four of his twenty children, Wilhelm Friedemann, Carl Philipp Emanuel, Johann Christoph Friedrich, and Johann Christian, became composers.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Saxe-Weimar
- 👉 Saxe-Weimar in the context of Johann Sebastian Bach
- Saxe-Weimar in the context of Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
- Saxe-Weimar in the context of Weimar Classicism
- Saxe-Weimar in the context of Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
- Saxe-Weimar in the context of Schloss Weimar
- Saxe-Weimar in the context of Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Saxe-Weimar in the context of Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel
Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (24 October 1739 – 10 April 1807), was a German princess and composer.
She became the duchess of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach by marriage, and was also regent of the states of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach from 1758 to 1775. She transformed her court and its surrounding into the most influential cultural center of Germany. Her invitation of Abel Seyler's theatre company in 1771 marked the start of Weimar Classicism, that would include such figures such as Wieland, Goethe, Herder and Schiller working under her protection.
Saxe-Weimar in the context of Weimar Classicism
Weimar Classicism (German: Weimarer Klassik) was a German literary and cultural movement, whose practitioners established a new humanism from the synthesis of ideas from Romanticism, Classicism, and the Age of Enlightenment. It was named after the city of Weimar in the Duchy of Saxe-Weimar because its leading authors lived there.
The Weimarer Klassik movement began in 1771 when Duchess Anna Amalia of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel invited the Seyler Theatre Company led by Abel Seyler, pioneers of the Sturm und Drang movement, to her court in Weimar. The Seyler company was soon thereafter followed by Christoph Martin Wieland, then Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Johann Gottfried Herder and finally Friedrich Schiller. The movement was eventually centred upon Goethe and Schiller, previously also exponents of the Sturm und Drang movement, during the period of 1786–1805.
Saxe-Weimar in the context of Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Karl August, sometimes anglicised as Charles Augustus (3 September 1757 – 14 June 1828), was the sovereign Duke of Saxe-Weimar and of Saxe-Eisenach (in personal union) from 1758, Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from its creation (as a political union) in 1809, and grand duke from 1815 until his death. He is noted for the intellectual brilliance of his court.
Saxe-Weimar in the context of Schloss Weimar
Schloss Weimar is a Schloss (palace) in Weimar, Thuringia, Germany. It is now called Stadtschloss to distinguish it from other palaces in and around Weimar. The building is located at the north end of the town's park along the Ilm river, Park an der Ilm. It forms part of the World Heritage Site "Classical Weimar", along with other sites associated with Weimar's importance as a cultural hub during the late 18th and 19th centuries.
From the middle of the 16th century it was the residence of the Dukes of Saxe-Weimar and, after they inherited the Duchy of Saxe-Eisenach in 1741, of Saxe-Weimar and Eisenach, which became the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach from 1809 until the German revolution of 1918–1919. Names in English include Palace at Weimar, Grand Ducal Palace, City Palace and City Castle.
Saxe-Weimar in the context of Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (German: Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach) was a German state, created as a duchy in 1809 by the merger of the Ernestine duchies of Saxe-Weimar and Saxe-Eisenach, which had been in personal union since 1741. It was raised to a grand duchy in 1815 by resolution of the Congress of Vienna. In 1903, it officially changed its name to the Grand Duchy of Saxony (German: Großherzogtum Sachsen), but this name was rarely used. The grand duchy came to an end in the German Revolution of 1918–19 with the other monarchies of the German Empire. It was succeeded by the Free State of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, which was merged into the new State of Thuringia two years later.
The full grand ducal style was Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Landgrave in Thuringia, Margrave of Meissen, Princely Count of Henneberg, Lord of Blankenhayn, Neustadt and Tautenburg.