It would be unforgivable to forget Cranach. Posterity owes its image of Luther to him. The latter, while still Junker Jörg, translated the New Testament in the Wartburg. His portrait is hanging in Weimar. He looks so handsome you could even fall for him, were it not for Katharina von Bora, whose severe expression would scare off anyone who came too close to her husband. The Bach family is a much less troublesome matter. Priding itself on being the birthplace of that clan, a small village called Wechmar, near Gotha, has opened a museum and organizes festivals, one more opulent than the next. Some people still express doubts about this place of origin, but these vanish to the strains of the organ.
Bach’s first post as choirmaster was in Arnstadt. Not far from there, in Dornheim’s wonderful village church, he got married. As far as first jobs and getting married in Thuringia are concerned, things are a bit more difficult these days. Many young talented people are leaving the state to find work elsewhere. But all hope is not lost.
Thuringia’s universities, of which the one in Erfurt was founded after 1990, all have a good reputation and attract young people to the state. And some of these are so good that large companies headhunt whole classes from the lecture halls. This is nothing new for the Technical University in Ilmenau. Electrical engineering, computer science and mechanical engineering may not be very sexy subjects, and not every student in Ilmenau will know the town’s most important figurehead, but what of it.
Goethe will certainly be able to live with that, after all, throughout his life he set great store by bulging purses. And so, to allude to the great poet, peace reigns above the mountain tops, whether the students know this or not. Perhaps they will find out later sometime, in the United States, Japan, Russia or Frankfurt, where business managers like to cite the Privy Councillor, in particular the poem Wanderers Nachtlied with its recommendation to wait, because soon you too will be at peace (Warte nur, bald / Ruhest auch du).
