Died in childbirth
“If there are real Russians in the world, they are the Baltic Germans,” admitted a certain baron, who was very successful in the “land of bears.” Another German - a writer from Thuringia, and part-time Russian consul in Königsberg - also did not complain about his fate.
He was very prolific in every way. He has 211 plays, 10 novels, 5 historical works - a total of 40 volumes. And although this literature was low-grade “kotsebyat”, it did not go out of fashion for a long time. The public adored Kotzebue, what can you do.
Even when Catherine II , In 1781, a 20-year-old lawyer from Weimar, August Kotzebue, arrived in St. Petersburg “to catch fame and ranks.” Serves in the government service, marries the general's daughter Frederike Essen and confides his wild fantasies to paper.
Frederica died in childbirth, leaving her husband four children, and the inconsolable widower left for Europe, where he got into history. He published a scandalous pamphlet under a false name, was exposed and fled back to Russia. However, he soon consoled himself by marrying Kristina Krusenstern , sister of a famous navigator.
Tyrant's Delight
The suspicious German aroused the interest of the tsarist intelligence services. In 1800, suffering from spy mania Paul I exiled the scribbler to Siberia - as a “Jacobin”. But the prisoner figured out how to butter up the Russian tyrant. His play was placed on the emperor's table “Life coachman of Peter III” and a note with the names of possible foreign agents.
The tyrant was delighted. The prisoner was pardoned, showered with royal favors and appointed court advisor. On the night of March 12, 1801, Paul I was killed.
Rumors spread around St. Petersburg that he Alexander implicated in the murder of his father. But the savvy Augustus was at hand - it was he who revealed the “most important” criminals. According to the “Kotzebue list”, influential people were expelled from the capital. Now Mr. writer serves the new emperor - already in the rank of state councilor and becomes a newspaper agent in the Russian service in Berlin.
Everything would be fine, but Augustus was widowed again. Christina died, leaving her husband five children. They whispered at court: was Kotzebue killing his wives, like Bluebeard?
In East Prussia
The widowed writer works abroad to propagate the autocracy and publishes reactionary newspapers. But the state councilor could not remain a familyless man, and his sister-in-law became Augustus’s third wife. Wilhelmina Krusenstern . The children went like mushrooms, one after another.
When it hit Europe Napoleon , Kotzebue hastily left for Russia. At first, the sovereign kept his favorite at hand, but after 1812 he sent him back to Europe - as an official of the Russian Foreign Ministry, “sent to Germany.” For his diligence, August receives the post of Consul General of Russia in Königsberg.
Whether Kotzebue was a deeply hidden “mole”, an infiltrated agent like Stirlitz, history is silent. Nevertheless, he travels a lot around the country, collecting information about the state of affairs in the German lands and regularly sending it to St. Petersburg.
Stabbed with a dagger
August felt uncomfortable in East Prussia. Being timid and, like many Germans, prone to mysticism, he felt that Koenigsberg was fraught with danger for him, which he could not explain. Because of bad thoughts, the consul plows in the sweat of his brow in the field of Russian diplomacy.
In the spring of 1815, a son was born into the Kotzebue family, named Alexander in honor of the Russian emperor. And a happy parent would sit by the fireplace, surrounded by his offspring, writing “soapy” melodramas as needed, but it was alarming.
Every evening, with German punctuality, the Russian consul exercises around Königsberg. However, everywhere - in the park, where he thought about new plays; in a coffee shop where he went with the younger children; and even near the house - suspicious shadows flashed. And in one of his plays an episode appeared, as if dictated by someone: the main character is stabbed with a dagger by another hero, a young student.
Serves as a pen as a sword
Having thrown off the oppression of Napoleon, fragmented Germany burned with the ideals of freedom and patriotism and strived for unification. Student unions and secret societies were born everywhere. But Alexander I, in order to nip the revolution in the bud, established the Holy Alliance with the European monarchs and meddled in internal German affairs.
Having temporarily replaced the ominous Königsberg with Weimar, August Kotzebue serves the Russian throne with a pen like a sword - he writes caustically, bitingly. He poisons with slander venerable professors and romantic students who have already suffered from the bloodhounds of the Holy Alliance. Many people believe the fashionable writer. Protests broke out at universities. Kotzebue was suspected of spying for Russia, and he lay low in Mannheim.
And suddenly the Russian Foreign Ministry leaked a “Note on the current situation in Germany” to the press. And it contains a call to the rulers of Europe to limit the role of Germany in the new world and to suppress universities as breeding grounds for freethinking.
An unheard of scandal broke out. The Germans immediately remembered the old story with the pamphlet written by Kotzebue under someone else's name. The escaped spy was declared a traitor to the Fatherland, and “under the sky of Schiller and Goethe” a noble avenger appeared - .
To bribe informers
Student Sand was a young man with an exalted mind and ardent heart. He excelled in philosophy, studied theology and wanted to become a pastor. They said about him: “Exalted, kind, simple-minded and always examines his conscience.” Considering Napoleon a fiend from hell, Charles was ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of his beloved Fatherland.
On June 18, 1815, 19-year-old volunteer Sand fought on the Field of Waterloo, and on July 14, the Prussian army entered Paris. Returning home, the warrior became fired up with liberal ideas. He joins the Burschenschaft union and the secret society Teutonia, which caused fear among European monarchs. And the Russian Tsar spared no expense in bribing informers...
One day, on the Market Square, Karl heard Kotzebue's new poisonous slander being read, and he was burned with fire: the hired scoundrel must be defeated!
The Avenger did not want to waste time - he was sure that the villain would again flee to Russia. On March 23, 1819, Karl arrived in Mannheim, found Kotzebue’s house, waited for the owner and said “You are a traitor to the fatherland!” hit him three times with a dagger in the chest.
The Russian Tsar is out for blood
At the scream of the dying man, his little daughter ran into the room. Unable to see the girl sobbing on her father’s corpse and calling for him, Karl, without moving from his spot, plunged a dagger into his chest up to the hilt, still covered in Kotzebue’s blood. Then he ran out into the street, struck himself a second time and fell unconscious.
The killer was placed in the prison hospital. For three months, despite treatment and care, Karl was between life and death, and for another six months he could not move.
Alexander I took the murder of Kotzebue as a sign that the European revolution was approaching the borders of Russia. In Prussia, Sand was pitied, and many openly justified him. But the king insistently demanded punishment, and it was no longer possible to delay the matter. On May 5, 1820, a Mannheim court sentenced Karl Ludwig Sand to death by beheading. The convict listened to the verdict with a smile.
On the eve of the execution, Karl, still weak from his wounds, rehearsed with the executioner all the details of cutting off his head and thanked him in advance, saying that later he would no longer be able to do this. Then he went to bed, and the pale executioner left the cell, barely able to stand on his feet.
Death Row Curls
On the morning of May 20, Karl was asked about his last wish. He decided to take a bath, as the ancients did before the battle. Lying in the bath, the suicide bomber began to work on his magnificent long curls with the greatest care.
The authorities feared unrest at universities and took action. The security of the prison was tripled, 1,200 infantry, 350 cavalry and an artillery battery arrived to help. All of Mannheim took to the streets leading to the execution site. Bouquets of flowers were thrown from the windows.
“I die without regrets” , said 24-year-old Karl Sand. The executioner pulled out his sword and struck. Under the monstrous scream of the crowd, the head did not fall, it only bowed on its chest, holding on to its uncut throat. The executioner swung his sword again and this time cut off part of the shoulder along with the head.
Having broken the chain of soldiers, the crowd rushed to the scaffold. Every last drop of blood was wiped away with handkerchiefs, and the pieces of the broken scaffold were snatched up to the last sliver. At midnight, Sand's corpse was secretly transported to the cemetery where Kotzebue was buried. From now on they rest at a distance of twenty steps from each other.
Pushkin's dagger
The news of the political murder and savage execution spread across Europe and Russia. Pushkin immortalized Karl Sand in the freedom-loving ode “Dagger,” calling him “the young righteous man” and “the chosen one.” According to Pushkin's idea, for every tyrant there will definitely be a dagger.
The cult of the martyr and national hero has taken root in Germany. In Mannheim, a monument to Karl Sand was erected at the execution site. And a boycott was declared against Kotzebue's works. The name of the enemy of freedom is almost forgotten; his books have gone into library storage.
But the snapper gave birth to a whole nest of agents of the Russian Tsar - 12 sons and 5 daughters. The sons served the throne well. Born in Königsberg, Alexander became a battle painter and the Tsar's favorite. By order Nicholas I he painted a series of pathetic paintings in praise of Russian weapons - about the Seven Years' War, Suvorov's campaigns and the Poltava victory.
The artist did not like Königsberg. It was there, in early childhood, that he learned about the murder of his father, and the family immediately left for Russia, and he never visited his hometown again. But today's patriots are unhappy that the memory of Alexander Kotzebue is not immortalized in Kaliningrad.
N. Chetverikova
“It is not without reason that all Germans have great sympathy for Weimar; this city occupies its unique place in history,” wrote young Robert Schumann in his diary in 1828. And Goethe, who had lived in Weimar for half a century, invited his literary secretary Eckermann and did not hide his enthusiastic attitude towards the city: “Where else can you find so much beauty in one place!”
Even now it seems surprising that a small and outwardly rather modest city at the beginning of the 19th century became the center of not only German, but also all European culture. Therefore, when talking about Weimar, we will not ignore the lives of famous writers, whose names brought glory to the German land, and their crowned patrons.
The history of Weimar differed from the very beginning from the traditional path of development of ancient cities. Maybe the residents of Weimar have a genetically embedded extraordinary desire for spiritual rather than material culture? Typically, settlements were located at the crossroads of trade routes. Weimar stood at a sufficient distance from the public roads. A few years ago, archaeologists caused a stir in historical circles by discovering the skulls of prehistoric people that are more than 150 thousand years old! But even without this find, scientists knew that people had lived in the Ilm River valley for thousands of years, and the main source of their prosperity was not trade and the development of crafts, but the fertile river valley.
According to new historical data, the first written mention of the city should be considered the year 899. Different sources contain different names for the castle and the settlement attached to it - Wimares, Wimare, and even Wymar. They say that from Old German this word is translated as “holy lake”. It is possible that the current Swan Lake in the city center is what remains of the Holy Lake, apparently located within the city limits in the Ilm floodplain.
And if the Saxon Elector Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous had not “fallen into history,” then Weimar would hardly have found itself in it soon. The Protestant leader lost both his possessions and his title when he lost the battle to the Catholics at Mulbert in 1546. Having avoided the death penalty, thanks to the mercy of Emperor Charles V and preserving the remnants of the principality, he made Weimar its capital.
Together with Duke Johann Friedrich the Magnanimous, Lucas Cranach the Elder came to Weimar - he became the first among a series of brilliant masters whose life was connected with Weimar. The eighty-year-old artist remained faithful to his covenants and began work on the altar of the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. His father's last work was completed by his son, Lucas Cranach the Younger. Cranach lived on the Market Square, in the house of his father-in-law. For five years he shared the loneliness of the disgraced Duke. Let's go there to look at this house, and at the same time at the entire ensemble of the square.
The modern square was not formed on the site of the old market, but on the site for knightly tournaments, so its shape is not rectangular, as usual, but square. The Christian Brück House and the Stadthaus are the most striking buildings on the relatively small Market Square. The first floor of the house where Lucas Cranach lived looks very impressive. Both portals of the house are almost lost between the huge arched windows. Stone carvings fill the field of platbands and echo the arc of each arch. The Renaissance decoration is complemented by polychrome coloring of the details. Among them, mermaids and the coat of arms of the Cranach family with a winged snake stand out.
The neighboring building is also noticeable - the Stadthaus with a very high Gothic pediment with a statue of a warrior. White stone pointed arches fill the entire space of the gable and are in harmony with the green trim. The 16th-century house at one time served as the city hall, but was badly damaged during the war; only its external decoration was restored. 
On the south side of the square stood the old Elephant Hotel. Although only one name remains from the historical building, it was rebuilt during the Third Reich, in 1937. Nearby is the house where Johann Sebastian Bach lived, as evidenced by the memorial plaque. Now on the balcony of the “Elephant”, facing the square, small figures of Weimar celebrities are exhibited. On the same side, the old inn “Zum schwarzen bären” (Under the Black Bear) from 1540 has also been preserved.
Hotel “Elephant” We move to the western side. The neo-Gothic town hall from 1841 reigns here. In 1987, a glockenspiel, or chimes in Russian, was installed on the town hall. It consists of 35 bells made of Meissen porcelain. You can play it manually, but usually the mechanism is controlled by an electric motor. The spacious hall on the first floor now houses the registry office. 
The northern side of the square suffered greatly during the war and reconstruction began here only at the end of the twentieth century. The facades of four houses were restored according to old photographs, and the oldest pharmacy in Weimar, Hofapoteke, is a monument to respect for old architecture - the bay window of a 16th-century house, which was found during the clearing of ruins, was built into the facade of a modern building. 
The original sculpture of Neptune decorating the square is now in the museum, because it was made by Martin Gottlieb Klauer in 1774 from not very durable sandstone. The copy reproduced the same inscription in Latin Quos ego (“Fear me!”) - this is a quote from Virgil’s “Aeneid”, with this exclamation Neptune rises to meet the waves. 
Although the cultural and musical life of the Weimar court was very active, after the death of Lucas Cranach in 1553, Weimar had to wait 150 years for the appearance of a new celebrity. 
In Weimar, however, they don’t really like to remember that the city did not understand and appreciate the genius of Johann Sebastian Bach. From 1708 he served as court organist and here he wrote his best organ works. For his 10-year service, the Duke repaid the composer... with arrest because a subject dared to express dissatisfaction with his highest will. I.S. Bach was passed over for promotion, and the place of conductor went to the mediocre son of the deceased conductor. The composer hastened to leave inhospitable Weimar for Kötten. But the city became the birthplace of his sons - Carl Philipp Emmanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann.
The beginning of the 18th century in Weimar was sad not only for Bach. The city was ruled by Ernst August, a typical sovereign of the era of absolutism. He tried to imitate the “Sun King” Louis XIV in everything and, in pursuit of the luxury of Versailles, almost completely ruined Weimar. The affairs of the city were corrected by Anna Amalia, the Duchess, without whom Weimar would never have become what it is now. The brilliantly educated Anna Amalia of Brunswick became the wife of Weimar Duke Ernst August Constantin in 1756, and two years later, when she was barely 18, her 21-year-old husband died. But the young duchess turned out to be stronger than one might think. For 16 years, from 1759 to 1775, Anna Amalia ruled the politically insignificant and poor duchy, managing to make it a cultural capital. 
As an absolute ruler, she had to take care of everything herself, from paving the streets to school education, from the fire service to finance, from the theater to the delivery of grain, from the health of her subjects to trade and new construction. When she handed over the reins to her eldest son, Karl August, the 36-year-old Duchess's energy was freed up for culture and the arts. She devoted a lot of effort to the library, which is now named after her - the Library of Duchess Anna Amalia.
She rebuilt the Green Castle, an ancient building of the 16th century, into a library. Its central part is an oval hall with a high ceiling, decorated in the late Rococo style, framed by galleries with bookshelves. Busts and portraits of those with whom this place was associated were placed in the niches and on the walls of the white and gold hall. There are book galleries on both walls. The harmonious combination of books, busts and paintings turned the Rococo Hall into a pantheon of German classics; the spirit of the time seemed to freeze in it. Anna Amalia's decree on open access to the library for everyone caused respectful amazement in the cultural world. Goethe himself looked after the library from 1797 to 1832 and when he died, about 130,000 thousand volumes were stored there. This was one of the best book collections in all of Europe. The library currently houses about a million publications, ranging from medieval manuscripts to volumes from the early 20th century. 
For a story about the merits of Anna Amalia, we approached Democracy Square. Here is an equestrian statue of the Duchess's son, Charles August, standing against the backdrop of the Ducal Palace. (In the photo - in the surroundings of Christmas decorations). 
The sculpture of the wise Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius on the Capitoline Hill in Rome was taken as a model for the monument. Karl August is undoubtedly worthy of such a monument, because his reign from 1775 to 1828 cannot be overestimated. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, his small state received the status of a Grand Duchy; during his reign, Weimar became famous throughout Europe, and the modern appearance of the city also took shape under him. But we got too ahead of ourselves.
To educate her son, Anna Amalia invited the forty-year-old poet Christoph Martin Wieland, professor of philosophy at the University of Erfurt, to Weimar. This step turned out to be very important for the future reputation of the city. Wieland had already gained fame as the most famous German writer. In his arsenal were not only numerous poems and poems, but also brilliant translations of Shakespeare's plays into German. He was the first literary luminary to permanently settle in Weimar, and others followed him.
Let's take a look at the Red Castle in the eastern part of Democracy Square. Despite the name, its walls are painted pistachio green. 
and let's go get acquainted with the poet, whose name constituted the true world fame of Weimar.
Eighteen-year-old Karl-August, the son of Anna Amalia, invited Goethe to come to Weimar in 1775. The poet gladly accepted the invitation: he liked the idea of gathering prominent people at court and turning Weimar into the center of German culture. Goethe has two addresses in Weimar. At first, the writer settled in a park on the banks of the Ilm River. He bought this house with money given to him by his patron. He remodeled it and lived in it permanently until 1782, and later came for work and leisure. Goethe independently laid out a beautiful park in the Ilm Valley. 
Goethe began renting an apartment in the house on Frauenplan in 1782, and a little later Karl August bought a house from the early 18th century and in 1794 gave it to his poet friend. The story about the Goethe House Museum is a topic for a separate conversation; let’s just say that the museum closes quite early in the winter, at 16:00 European time. The museum is divided into two parts, in the second there is a modern exhibition of some original things, one way or another connected with the time of the poet. 
The third of the “Weimar giants” was Herder; he, not without the help of Goethe, became the Supreme Superintendent and the main court preacher at the Weimar court. His philosophical works brought him well-deserved fame as a writer. A monument to Herder was erected near the Church of Peter and Paul, where he found his final resting place. Let's stop for a moment at Goncharnaya Square; it was renamed Herder Square in 1850. It is located north of the Market Square and until 1300 it was the Main Market of Weimar. Along the perimeter of the square, old houses of the 16th-17th centuries have been preserved. One of them is especially interesting - three-story, with a stepped pediment, called “knightly” after the statue on the facade. 
The city church of Peter and Paul stands solemnly in the center of the square. Sometimes it is called Herder's Church. The writer lived nearby and was buried in this temple. 
Duchess Anna Amalia also found rest in the city cathedral. The temple is famous for its altar painted by father and son Cranach. Let's take another look at the square and move on. 
The youngest of the “four Weimar giants” was Johann Christopher Friedrich Schiller. He, attracted by events in the new literary center of Germany, came to Weimar in 1787. At that time he was 29 years old. Since 1794, Goethe and Schiller became friends and this friendship continued until the death of the playwright. In Weimar he finished “The Maid of Orleans”, wrote “Mary Stuart”, “Wallenstein” and more. Schiller was in a hurry, as if sensing that fate had given him only 46 years of life. The road from Frauenplan to the esplanade, where the Schiller family lived for 3 years, keeps traces of the great masters who visited each other dozens of times.
It is not surprising that a monument to two literary giants was erected on the square in front of the Weimar Theater. For Weimar, this square is relatively small; it was laid out through the efforts of Karl August only at the end of the 18th century. He entrusted the management of the theater to Goethe. Since 1857, bronze Goethe and Schiller have represented the literary glory of Weimar. 
The theater became famous not only for its performances, but once on this stage the fate of Germany was decided. In 1919, representatives of the National Assembly voted for the constitution of the first democratic republic on German soil. Berlin was still shaken by storms of street unrest and calm Weimar was considered more suitable for this role. This is how the city entered the history of the “Weimar Republic”.
Here, on Theater Square, is the Weimar Bauhaus Museum. The art school arose in the city back in 1860. The permanent art exhibition, opened back in 1880, became a world-famous museum. 
Another bright page of Weimar is connected with the daughter of the Russian Emperor Paul I, sister of Alexander I, Maria Pavlovna.
After difficult two-year negotiations with the Russian court, in the summer of 1804 the wedding of Crown Duke Charles Friedrich of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach and Crown Princess Maria Pavlovna took place in St. Petersburg. Of course, the small German duchy was far from Russia and the brilliant St. Petersburg court, but the glory of the “new Athens” helped Weimar.
Russian Emperor Alexander I was concerned about strengthening the country’s position on the European stage, so the sister’s marriage looked very promising. Special hopes were placed on Maria Pavlovna. The eighteen-year-old girl was destined to become an envoy of the Fatherland and a conductor of Russian culture in Europe. She coped with this task brilliantly.
Another circumstance was also important for the Romanovs. Catherine II bequeathed the preservation of Orthodoxy to all members of the royal family. Marriages with representatives of the Catholic dynasties of Europe were excluded, because this required a renunciation of Orthodoxy. The crown princes could count on grooms of the Lutheran faith; it allowed the bride to maintain her faith. Therefore, there were no religious obstacles to the wedding of the Crown Prince of Weimar and Maria Pavlovna. After the wedding, the newlyweds came to Weimar.
The population of the duchy enthusiastically received young Maria Pavlovna. Schiller wrote a play in honor of the Duke's wife. Its grand premiere took place in the famous Weimar theater in the presence of the entire ducal court. 
Contemporaries recalled that Maria Pavlovna was pretty, very educated, intelligent, and insightful. Thanks to this, the young duchess was very much loved in her new homeland. Having received an excellent education in Russia, fluent in French and Italian, she continued to study, realizing that being among the great, you need to know a lot in order to become equal. Maria Pavlovna studied with the best professors at Jena University.
Her personal qualities, kindness, compassion, diplomatic talent, coupled with a huge dowry and the influence of the Russian Empire on world politics, allowed the small duchy to survive the devastation of the Napoleonic wars, economic difficulties and natural disasters. Duchess Maria Pavlovna became a worthy successor to the work of Anna Amalia, and the list of her merits goes far beyond the scope of the story about Weimar. To get a little insight into the life of the Russian princess, you need to visit Weimar Castle.
A little north of Democracy Square is the city castle “Wilhelmsburg”. By some fatal coincidence, the castle burned to the ground in 1424, 1618, 1774, but each time it was rebuilt in the same place where it was first built in the 10th century. (In the last fire, caused by a lightning strike, paintings by Titian, Durer, Veronese, Cranach, Tintoretto, Rubens and other masters were destroyed in the fire). The Library Tower remains in the palace complex - part of Weimar's well-thought-out defensive system, which did not have to play a noticeable role in its history. Anna Amalia decided to finally demolish the walls that were hindering the development of the city. 
Let's look at the castle from the Sternbrücke bridge (Stern - star) 
and then let's go inside. Since 1923, the castle has housed an art museum. On the ground floor there is a collection of works by German masters of the 16th century, including Lucas Cranach.
Lucas Cranach. Portrait of Martin Luther's parents, Hans and Margaret Luther and a rather rare collection of Russian icons in Germany, many of which Maria Pavlovna ordered from Russia at Goethe’s request; the writer became very interested in Russian art. Pieces of furniture deserve attention.
On the second and third floors there is a collection of paintings from different eras and schools, including works by the Small Dutch and French Impressionists. It is interesting to look at the ducal chambers - executive and personal. 
The bed that Maria Pavlovna brought from Russia along with other dowry has been preserved. 
Icons, tapestries, fur coats, dresses, shoes were packed into 144 boxes and 12 chests of drawers and delivered on 79 carts. She brought several million gold rubles in money.
During the time of Maria Pavlovna, Weimar became the center of musical events. She invited the disgraced composer Franz Liszt here. The composer lived for some time in Weimar, and later stayed here for a long time. There is a monument to Liszt in Ilm Park, and the house in which he lived has also been preserved.
Maria Pavlovna, using her personal funds, restored the Weimar theater after the fire, and premieres of Wagner's operas took place there. She never forgot to help her compatriots: during the Napoleonic wars she supplied Russian hospitals with medicines.
Maria Pavlovna, a truly amazing woman, along with the great thinkers of Weimar, became one of the symbols of the city. She really wanted to be buried on Russian soil, and her request was fulfilled. Land was brought from Russia and a memorial chapel was erected on it in honor of the patron saint of the Russian crown princess, St. Mary Magdalene. The temple was connected to the mausoleum-tomb of the ducal dynasty of Weimar. Goethe and Schiller are also buried here. The duchess's sarcophagus was placed in such a way that it stands on half of the Orthodox church and next to the coffin of her husband. 
This concludes the story about the German cultural capital. It did not include many attractions, but we did not set out to cover every single historical and cultural monument. We offer you a clip, it is accompanied by a musical composition by Franz Liszt.
The story about Weimar turned out to be not entirely logical from the point of view of the geographical location of the monuments. We decided to stick to the time sequence of events. We advise road travelers to use the underground parking, which is located on the square in front of the Goethe Archive building on Beethoven Square. We strongly recommend staying overnight in Weimar to leisurely visit all the places associated with the history of this German cultural capital.
In conclusion, we would like to add that it is completely natural that in Weimar they treat world-famous poets with respect. One of the streets of the city is called Pushkinstrasse. There is a bust of the genius of Russian poetry installed on it. 
Literature:
Weimar. Center for European Culture. Schoning GmbH & Co. KG
Siegfried Seifert. Weimar. Guide to the European cultural center. Edition Leipzig
Y.P.Markin Wartburg - Eisenach - Erfurt - Weimar M., Art, 1995
Already quite an old man, Somerset Maugham, locked himself in Villa Moresque, spent his evenings burning his correspondence in the stove. He turned to his friends with the same request - to destroy his letters. Maugham did not want anyone to delve into his personal life, even if this “someone” was collecting data for the biography of the prose writer. In addition, the writer liked to say that his life was very ordinary and boring, and, therefore, could not be of interest. But here, of course, Maugham was lying. As an agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service, he was sent to Russia in 1917 on an extremely ambitious mission - to prevent the country from withdrawing from the First World War. However, nothing came of it, and here's why.
In 1915, at the height of the First World War, Maugham's autobiographical novel The Burden of Human Passions was published. The writer made the last edits in between shifts - Somerset went to war as a volunteer, where he was entrusted with driving an ambulance. At the same time, his love story with the beautiful and married lady Siri Welcome, who later became Mrs. Maugham, was actively developing. It was Siri who introduced Somerset to a man who intrigued him with the offer to try himself as a secret agent and, in fact, a spy. This man's name was John Wallinger. As an officer in the British Secret Intelligence Service, he recruited new agents to work in Switzerland.
The writer accepted the offer and left for Switzerland to carry out a secret mission. One of Maugham's main missions was to coordinate other agents. At the same time, he invented a character named Ashenden, a spy whose adventures, as the prose writer himself admitted, were much more entertaining than his own.
In 1916, Maugham, whose personal life had then attracted too much attention (Siri's divorce and the expulsion of his homosexual lover Gerald Haxton), decided to leave the Secret Service. He believed that he would probably never repeat his experience as a spy again. But fate decreed otherwise.
In May 1917, he married Siri, and a month later he was summoned for a conversation at the New York Secret Service office by officer William Wiseman. He was entrusted with the most difficult task - to go to revolutionary Russia and try to prevent the state from leaving the war. The British feared that if peace was concluded between the Russians and the Germans, the latter would transfer all their forces from the Eastern Front to the Western Front. “I had to go to Russia and make sure that the Russians continued to fight,” Maugham later wrote. The USA and Great Britain allocated a total of 150 thousand dollars - this money was supposed to go to support Kerensky and the Provisional Government.
Maugham had a very modest understanding of the structure of political life in Russia and of Russians in general, and therefore, when he arrived in Petrograd in August 1917, he was greeted very coolly by the British Ambassador George Buchanan. He believed that the writer was completely unsuitable for such a mission. According to other sources, the ambassador was not aware of the real purpose of Maugham's visit. The official cover was collecting materials for a future book.
It was necessary to make an acquaintance with Kerensky and gain his trust. Maugham was helped by his old friend and former lover Alexandra Kropotkin, the daughter of the revolutionary Peter Kropotkin. She was well acquainted with Kerensky and introduced him to the writer. In addition, Alexandra acted as translator during their weekly lunches.
Maugham’s portrait of Kerensky does not look very attractive: “He looks sickly. Everyone knows he is unwell; he himself, not without some bravado, says that he does not have long to live. He has a large face, skin of a strange yellowish tint, when he is nervous it turns green; the facial features are not bad, the eyes are large and very lively; but at the same time he is not good-looking. He is dressed quite unusually - he is wearing a khaki suit, not quite military, and not civilian, inconspicuous and dull... I still don’t understand, thanks to what properties he ascended to such an incredible height with lightning speed. His conversation did not indicate not only great enlightenment, but also ordinary education. I didn't feel much charm in him. There was no feeling of special intellectual or physical power coming from him.”
Maugham gets the impression that before him is a rather indecisive person, avoiding responsibility in every possible way, unable and unwilling to take on difficult issues, burdened by the burden of power. Nevertheless, once a week the writer throws sumptuous dinners at the Medved restaurant in Petrograd, where vodka flows like a river and the best black caviar is served as an appetizer. Kerensky (who, by the way, is practically not allowed to drink) and his ministers are guests of honor. Maugham assures Kerensky of the support of the West: they are ready to sponsor his government and even provide military forces, as long as Russia does not leave the war. Kerensky does not give any definite answer, but instead launches into lengthy discussions. He, as Maugham noted, was an outstanding demagogue.
In addition to working with Kerensky, Somerset had to provide support to numerous Czech military organizations in Russia. They actively collaborated with British intelligence and were ready, if necessary, to take the side of the Provisional Government. Maugham also intended to hire professional speakers, essentially provocateurs, who were supposed to strike back at pacifist propaganda. All these enterprises cost a lot of money. According to Maugham's calculations, it was necessary to allocate about half a million dollars a year. He notified Wiseman that additional and very large funds were needed to support the mission, and began to wait for an answer.
On October 31, 1917, Kerensky handed Maugham a secret note that needed to be handed over to British Prime Minister Lloyd George. The Chairman of the Provisional Government begged to send weapons and ammunition that the army desperately needed. All this, according to Kerensky, was necessary to continue the war with Germany and repel the Bolshevik attack, which was expected any day.
Maugham did not trust the transfer of information to the British ambassador, and therefore he immediately left Russia. He went to Norway, from there to Scotland, and then by train straight to London. The meeting with Lloyd George was short. The minister read the message and returned the note to Maugham with the words “I cannot do this.” “But what should I tell Kerensky?” - asked Maugham. “Just tell me I can’t do this,” he politely said goodbye to the writer and left.
It soon became known that Kerensky's government was defeated, and he himself fled abroad. Maugham's mission was a failure. However, he once remarked that if he had been sent to Russia six months earlier, everything might have worked out. Sometimes one person can radically change the course of history.
