Weimar

In the beginning of March, the fifty of us with ASSE traveled to Weimar (a small gorgeous town in central/east Germany) for our mid-year seminar. It was very fun seeing everyone again and Weimar is an incredibly beautiful town with so much history. Unfortunately I don't know what happened to the majority of my photos! But I posted what I could find. Besides reuniting with the other exchanges students and sharing our experiences thus far, and exploring the town, we got to see a lot of incredible historical places. Both Schiller and Goethe (famous writers, the German equivalents to Shakespeare, Goethe wrote Faust and The Theory of Colors, among others, Schiller wrote Love and Intrigue, William Tell, The Robbers, among others) resided in Weimar, and we got to tour both of their houses. Weimar is also the birthplace of the Bauhaus movement of the 1920's, the art and technical movement that popularized simplicity and 'form follows function.' We got to tour the bauhaus museum and walk around the bauhaus-style neighborhoods. The last very important thing we got to do was tour Buchenwald Concentration Camp, located just outside of Weimar. So far that is the only concentration camp I've seen, and it was very emotional. The best word I heard to describe our time there was 'reflective'. It really made you think and consider, I don't really know, everything. It was tough, and an experience I am thankful for but something I wish I never needed to experience. I remembered reading Night, by Elie Wiesel, in Honors English, and it was crazy relating his experiences in Buchenwald to the actual place. 

With that somber thought, here is (the pictures that I was able to find of) Weimar

 In the house of Schiller, I believe

A small jewish cemetery. Rocks are placed over the graves in lieu of flowers (I didnt know that before!)



I did not take any pictures of Buchenwald. While you can take pictures, I didn't feel like that was the point of my visit. However, here is a picture (from the website) of the gate, which reads 'jedem das seine' meant to be readable also to the prisoners in the camp. It translates literally 'to each his own' but means 'to each what he deserves' or 'to each his due'. Food for thought.