Cultural heritage

Ever since the Nebra Himmelsscheibe disc, the world's oldest concrete depiction of the heavens, was created here 3000 years ago this area of Germany has been a region with great cultural traditions. Over the centuries it has accordingly had a major influence on the development of culture and thought in Europe.

Birthplace of European ideas

Again and again the region has been the breeding ground for major developments in religion, architecture and art. This is where from 1517 onwards the Reformation began its worldwide course with the writings and preaching of Martin Luther. Weimar Classicism as represented in the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Friedrich Schiller, Johann Gottfried von Herder and Christoph Martin Wieland influenced an entire cultural epoch. The region also has a special relationship with music. In Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg-Friedrich Handel, Georg Philip Telemann, Heinrich Schütz, Richard Wagner and Kurt Weill a number of major composers lived and created great works here. Even before the First World War the Dresden-Hellerau Festival Theatre (Festspielhaus) was already attracting the artistic avant garde of Europe, including famous names such as Rilke, Kafka, Kokoschka and Le Corbusier, and from here the region's Bauhaus movement and its protagonists such as Walter Gropius, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Lyonel Feininger revolutionised architecture, design and art throughout the world between 1919 and 1933.

Home for innovation in art and culture

Today, with more than 30 theatres and over 800 museums and collections, the Central German Metropolitan Region is home to a lively and creative cultural scene, represented for example by the new German literature which is making a name for itself at home and abroad with writers such as Clemens Meyer and Julie Zeh. The art of the New Leipzig School fronted by Neo Rauch and Arno Rink has also become world famous, while the musical creativity of the region makes an impact well beyond its borders, ranging from world-famous classical music institutions such as Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra, the choir of St Thomas Church and Dresden's Choir of the Church of the Holy Cross (Kreuzchor) to innovative labels for electronic music and an exciting DJ scene.