Nation of poets, musicians, philosophers and engineers
Thuringia's cities breathe an atmosphere of more than thousand years of history and boast medieval fortresses, royal palaces and parks, impressive houses dating from the Renaissance, Baroque period or the era of Art Nouveau. Capital town of Thuringia is Erfurt with the best preserved medieval city centre in Germany.Some of Thurinigias beautiful cities deserve a special mention. Weimar, a Cultural Capital of Europe 1999, the 1.000 year-old town in the centre of Germany knows many great names such as Goethe, Schiller, Herder, Wieland, Lucas, Granach, Johann Sebastian Bach, Franz Liszt, the artists of the Weimar School of Fine-Arts-Painting, Henry van de Velde or Walter Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus. A haunting symbol from the darkest hours of Germany is located just a few kilometres from the city of Weimar: Buchenwald. The Buchenwald (beech forest) concentration camp was established on the Ettersberg (the Etter Mountain) near the Etterburg (the Etter Keep July 1937. The prisoners were used as slave labour in local armament factories such as Mittelwerk or Ohrdruf.
Arnstadt was first mentioned in the deeds in 704, which renders it the oldest town of Thuringia. Several generations of the family Bach lived in Arnstadt, and during his youth Johann Sebastian Bach worked as organist in the church which today bears his name.
Nordhausen is situated in the geographical centre of Germany, in northern Thuringia and in the southern part of the Harz mountains. It is surrounded by the romantic hills of the Hainleite range, the legendary hills of the Kyffhäuser and the lowlands of the fertile "Goldenen Aue". Nordhausen is also the start of the narrow-gauge steam train, winding its way through the Harz mountains up to the highest summit, the Brocken of 1142 m. The history of over 1000 years of the town, founded in 927, is just as intriguing and interesting as the history of central Germany.
Historical Background
By 7 March 1945, the U.S. 3rd Armoured division occupied Cologne (Köln), Germany. Bonn, some 40 kilometres south remained under German control for another two days and at the University there, the destruction of paper relating to scientific research on weapons was ordered. Secret papers were burned or shredded and flushed down the toilet. In a toilet that had not flushed properly, a Polish laboratory technician found shredded pieces of paper which turned out to be a list with the names and responsibilities of personnel engaged in rocket development.When the Allies entered Germany in 1945 their scientific intelligence experts were astounded by the sheer scope of the German technical and scientific accomplishments. Of particular interest were scientists specialising in aerodynamics and rocketry (such as those involved in the V-1 and V-2 projects), chemical weapons, chemical reaction technology and medicine. These scientists and their families were secretly brought to the United States, without State Department review and approval; their service for Hitler's Third Reich, NSDAP and SS memberships as well as the classification of many as war criminals or security threats would have disqualified them from officially obtaining visas. An aim of the operation was capturing equipment before the Soviets came in. The US Army destroyed some of the German equipment to prevent it from being captured by the advancing Soviet Army.
But they were stunned to realize how far advanced the German weapon high technology actually was. This trip will show just some of the places where weapons were designed and manufactured that changed the art of war for ever.