Weimar. Seldom has such a sleepy, provincial town had such a big effect on history. Remote from the bustling German cities, many (good and bad) ideas were hatched in this nest and its environs. Its remoteness and freedom from interference, coupled with a benign financial support of the local nobility (a sort of early genius grant), helped incubate ideas that would transform the world from Luther, Bach, Goethe and Schiller to the Weimar Bauhaus.

Once developed, the ideas met the opposition of the provincial citizenry which pushed its geniuses, which had outgrown the town, away - only to embrace them again in a sterilized way after their death. One little highlight among many in this book is the tale of the crazy quest to find Schiller's skull (which Geheimrat Goethe used to keep in his bureau for contemplation). The cosmopolitan free spirit Goethe (and his "fatter half" Lotte) were later adapted into nationalistic Germans and Friedrich Nietzsche's oeuvre shamelessly reworked and exploited by his antisemitic sister.. Weimar's remoteness helped both found Germany's eponymous fledgling democracy and prepare the National-Socialist takeover by co-opting the Nazis in local politics. The Nazis in their special deranged perversity built the KZ Buchenwald, which is forever chained to Weimar, just on the spot where Goethe exclaimed: "Here, one feels great and free." While they played Lehar's operetta "The Land of Smiles" in Weimar, the writer of its libretto was incarcerated in Buchenwald, as was Imre Kertesz, linking involuntarily Weimar to another literary celebrity.

Liberated by Patton's Third Army, the Soviets repurposed Buchenwald to imprison both former Nazis and those that in some way became a target of Soviet ire. The new East German government busily looked away, while reinventing Goethe and Schiller as proponents of the working people. Unfortunately, the book is missing the final chapter of Weimar's history: After the collapse of East Germany, Weimar re-invented itself as a sleepy but beautiful tourist town, peddling in Goethe and Schiller merchandise. The tragic fire in the Anna Amalia library in 2004 which destroyed 50.000 volumes is a symbolic testament to its literary irrelevance. Does the end of German turbulences mean the end of German drama?

Peter Merseburger's tour de force weaves a complex portrait of the city of Weimar out of biographical accounts of its famous visitors and the strands of local, national and cultural history. Highly recommended. ( )