Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt, Lucas Cranach and the Weimar School have all made their mark on the town. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Weimar played an important role as an intellectual centre. The town's awareness of its history, both recent and more distant, has enabled it to realise its vision of a state-of-the-art cultural centre. As Goethe once asked, "Where else do you find so many good things in such a small place?"

The artistic and cultural importance of Weimar's historical architecture and landscape parks, as well as the town's role as an intellectual centre in the late 18th century, were the reasons for its designation as the "Classical Weimar" UNESCO World Heritage site. A second UNESCO World Heritage site, " Bauhaus sites in Dessau und Weimar", was designated because of the foundation here of the Bauhaus School by Professor Walter Gropius, who had a profound influence on 20th century architecture.

Weimar has an amazing selection of museums with about 40 different sites covering everything from the Stone Age to classicism to the modern art.