Family day in Weimar, the city of German classical music

Twenty-eight participants gathered in the classical city of Weimar from 26 to 28 September 2025, when the chairman opened the 80th Family Day on Friday evening at the Hotel Leonardo. We are also encouraged by the two new members we welcomed in Weimar.

On Saturday, the cousins gathered in front of the Goethe House on Frauenplan for a group photo, before being given a guided tour of the Goethe National Museum of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar. This was linked to the current exhibition “Lebensfluten – Tatensturm” (Floods of Life – Storm of Deeds), which documents Goethe’s complexity beyond his literary work.

The Goethe National Museum is regarded worldwide as the most important museum for the presentation and study of the life and work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
After the guided tour, participants were able to explore Goethe’s residence with its original furnishings and collection items on their own.

There was plenty of time before the first city tour for 20 people in the panoramic convertible bus at 2 p.m. (second tour at 3.30 p.m.) to visit some of Weimar’s numerous sights in small groups or simply enjoy the flair of this unique city, where important figures in German intellectual and cultural history have left their mark.
These range from Weimar’s “four stars” Goethe, Schiller, Wieland and Herder to the composer Franz Liszt, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and the architect Walter Gropius, who founded the “Bauhaus” in Weimar in 1919, a school designed to unite art, craftsmanship and architecture and create a new form of art education.
As early as the 16th century, the painter and graphic artist Lukas Cranach the Elder spent most of his life in Weimar until his death in 1553.

The highlight of the festive evening was a lecture by Wolfram J. Huschte, a musicologist and music educator born in Weimar who teaches at the University of Music.
He read and commented on Goethe’s text “Obituary for Anna Malia in Goethe’s Words”.

Using the Schrader-Immenrode family tree as an example, association archivist Bernd Schrader spoke about the connection between “family research and local history”. (hs)