Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium

The Wilhelm-Ernst-Gymnasium was founded in 1712 at the behest of William Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Weimar, to replace the Stadt- und Landschule (school of the town and the region) of 1561.

Growing numbers of students led to a move to a larger school building on 10 October 1887, called Goethe Gymnasium Weimar since 1991.

From 1953, the building housed a Museum of Natural History and a Polytechnisches Zentrum, classrooms and production areas for technical teaching.

The school building, in the Baroque style, was built from 1712 to 1716 next to the church St. Peter und Paul on the Herderplatz and inaugurated by state architect Christian II Richter.

One idea is to set up a Herder museum", to commemorate the work of the poet, translator, philosopher and theologian at the site of his former workplace.