Erfurt
About Erfurt
Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, lies twenty kilometres west of Weimar, and a direct train covers the distance in about fifteen minutes — close enough to see both cities on one trip. Boniface named it as a bishop's seat in 742, woad and the royal trade road made it one of the great cities of the medieval empire, and its largely intact old town is protected as a monument in its entirety: the cathedral and the Severikirche above the Domplatz, the Krämerbrücke lined with houses, the baroque citadel on the Petersberg, the Old Synagogue at the heart of a UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Augustinian monastery Martin Luther entered in 1505. Wieland taught at its university, Goethe belonged to the circle of its governor Dalberg, and in 1808 Napoleon met the Russian tsar here at the Congress of Erfurt.
Sights in Erfurt
- Old Synagogue, ErfurtSynagogue and museum
Waagegasse 8, 99084 Erfurt
The oldest synagogue in Central Europe standing up to its roof, and since 2023 the heart of Erfurt's UNESCO World Heritage.
- AngerSquare
Anger, 99084 Erfurt
Erfurt's main shopping street and former woad market, where the trams meet and the city's art museum stands.
- AugustinerklosterMonastery
Augustinerstraße 10, 99084 Erfurt
The Augustinian friary where Martin Luther lived as a monk from 1505 to 1511, a complete medieval monastery with church, three courtyards, exhibition and guest rooms.
- Dom St. MarienCathedral
Domstufen 1, 99084 Erfurt
The cathedral on the Domberg above the Domplatz, 81.26 metres high, with its Gothic choir windows and the Gloriosa, the largest freely swinging medieval bell in the world.
Domplatz, Erfurt
Erfurt's largest square, below the cathedral hill: the city's main market, its Christmas market and the stage of the DomStufen-Festspiele.
- FischmarktSquare
Fischmarkt, 99084 Erfurt
Erfurt's central square, with the neo-Gothic Rathaus, the Renaissance houses zum Roten Ochsen and zum Breiten Herd, and the Römer on his column.
- KrämerbrückeBridge
Krämerbrücke, between Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt, 99084 Erfurt
Erfurt's oldest secular building and the only bridge north of the Alps lived in along its length, lined with 32 half-timbered houses between the Benediktsplatz and the Wenigemarkt.
Pilse 30, 99084 Erfurt
One of Erfurt's oldest parish churches stands on the Anger, and the first ecumenical peace prayers of the GDR began in it in 1978.
- Zitadelle PetersbergCitadel
Petersberg 3, 99084 Erfurt
The baroque citadel on the hill above the old town, built from 1665 for the Elector of Mainz and restored since 1990, with the Romanesque Peterskirche and a view across the city.
- SeverikircheChurch
Severihof 2, 99084 Erfurt
One of the two churches on Erfurt's Domberg, a five-aisled Gothic hall church with the sarcophagus of St Severus and a font fifteen metres high.
Erfurt in depth
A bishop's seat named by Boniface, 742–805
Erfurt enters history in a letter of 742 in which the missionary archbishop Boniface asked Pope Zachary to confirm three bishoprics he had founded — the third in a place called Erphesfurt, a fortified settlement of pagan farmers since long before; the pope confirmed all three the following year. The bishopric was soon absorbed into the diocese of Mainz, yet Erfurt stayed the church centre of Thuringia, and in 805 Charlemagne named it one of the border trading posts on the eastern edge of the Frankish realm.[1] Erfurt became a bishop's see again in 1994, when Pope John Paul II raised the episcopal office of Erfurt-Meiningen to a diocese,[2] and the cathedral above the Domplatz is its cathedral church.[3]
Woad and the royal road, 1252–1351
Erfurt grew rich where its roads met. In 1252 the great east–west road through the city is first recorded as the strata regia, the royal road, and it crossed the old north–south route near the fords of the Gera, on the spot where the Fischmarkt lies today.[4] Woad, the plant that gave medieval cloth its blue, was traded on the Anger, and in 1351 the city ruled that woad could be bought and sold nowhere else; in 1325 the Krämerbrücke was rebuilt in stone after its wooden predecessor had burned several times.[5] With some 18,000 to 20,000 inhabitants in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Erfurt was a great city of the medieval empire, surpassed in size only by Cologne, Nuremberg and Magdeburg.[3]
A university before Heidelberg, 1379–1994
In 1379 Pope Clement VII in Avignon granted Erfurt's council and citizens the right to found a university. It opened in 1392 with all four faculties — theology, law, medicine and the arts — and in the fifteenth century it was, together with Vienna, the most attended German university.[5] On the strength of the 1379 charter, earlier than Heidelberg's of 1385 and Cologne's of 1388, Erfurt counts as the oldest university in present-day Germany. It closed in 1816 and was founded anew in 1994 with a ceremony in the Augustinian monastery.[6]
Luther's student and monastery years, 1501–1521
Martin Luther came to Erfurt in April 1501 to enrol at the university, and on 17 July 1505 he asked at the gate of the Augustinian monastery to be admitted.[7] In between he took his bachelor's degree in 1502 and his master's in 1505,[8] and in 1507 he was ordained a priest, probably in the Kilian chapel at the cathedral. A winter semester at Wittenberg in 1508/09 and a journey to Rome in 1510/11 interrupted his Erfurt years; in March 1511 he came back once more, and in the summer of that year he left the city for good, for Wittenberg.[9] On his way to the Diet of Worms in April 1521 the university and the townspeople welcomed him with enthusiasm, and on 7 April he preached to a crowded church in the Augustinian monastery.[8]
Under Mainz, and Weimar's poets as guests, 1664–1802
On 5 October 1664, after a siege by an army of 15,000 soldiers, the Archbishop of Mainz forced Erfurt into submission; the city lost its large territory, much of its self-government and the independence it had defended for centuries. The Mainz years brought Weimar's writers to Erfurt. Christoph Martin Wieland lectured on philosophy, aesthetics and history at the university from 1769 to 1772, and Carl Theodor von Dalberg, governor for Mainz from 1771 to 1802 and a patron of the city's cultural life, drew Goethe, Schiller, Wieland, Herder and Wilhelm von Humboldt into his circle.[10]
Prussia, Napoleon and the Congress of Erfurt, 1802–1815
By a Prussian–French treaty of 23 May 1802 Erfurt passed to Prussia, and on 21 August a Prussian corps of 3,500 men marched in.[11] French troops occupied the city in 1806, and from 1807 to 1814 it was a domaine réservé à l'Empereur, the emperor's own domain. From 27 September to 14 October 1808 Napoleon met Tsar Alexander I here, most of the German princes of the Confederation of the Rhine came too, and for two weeks Erfurt was a centre of European politics. On 2 October Napoleon received Goethe in the governor's palace for a conversation about literature and the French theatre, and Wieland too was invited to an audience with the emperor.[12] In 1815 the Congress of Vienna returned Erfurt to Prussia.[3]
Capital of Thuringia and the summit of 1970, 1948–1991
In 1948 Erfurt became the capital of Thuringia in place of Weimar, and when the East German state dissolved the Länder in 1952 it became the seat of a district.[13] On 19 March 1970 the West German Chancellor Willy Brandt met Willi Stoph, chairman of the East German Council of Ministers, at the Erfurter Hof hotel,[14] the first meeting of the two German heads of government since the division of Germany.[13] Crowds on the square in front of the station called for Brandt to come to the window, and a Willy Brandt room in the former hotel recalls the ovation.[3] On 10 January 1991 the Thuringian Landtag chose Erfurt as the state capital, by 49 of 88 votes.[2]
A federal garden show and World Heritage, 2021–2023
The egapark on the city's western edge grew out of the international horticultural exhibition first held there in 1961,[3] and in 2021 it shared the Bundesgartenschau, Germany's federal garden show, with the Petersberg; the show opened on 23 April.[15] On 17 September 2023 UNESCO inscribed the city's Jewish-medieval heritage on the World Heritage List — the Old Synagogue, the mikveh and the Stone House — the crown of an application Erfurt had pursued since 2009.[16]
The Domplatz, the Petersberg and the Krämerbrücke, 742–1325
The Domplatz, more than 14,000 square metres, is the city's largest square and still its market, where traders from the surrounding country set up their stalls every morning except Sunday.[17] Above it stand the late Gothic cathedral of St. Mary, with its high Gothic choir and Romanesque tower, on the site of the church built for Boniface in 742, and the Severikirche, a five-naved Gothic hall church; behind them the Petersberg Citadel is the only extensively preserved baroque town fortress in central Europe. And no bridge in Europe carries a longer unbroken row of lived-in houses than the Krämerbrücke.[18]
Fischmarkt, Anger and the Old Synagogue, 11th–19th century
The neo-Gothic Rathaus on the Fischmarkt, built in the 1870s, is painted inside with murals of Erfurt's legends and history,[18] and Renaissance houses such as the Haus zum Roten Ochsen of 1562 and the Haus zum Breiten Herd of 1584 face it.[8] The Anger, once the market for woad, wine, wool and wheat, is today the main shopping street, with trams running through it; St. Lorenz, the Kaufmannskirche and the Angermuseum stand on it, the museum in a baroque packing and weighing house of 1706–1712.[20] The Old Synagogue, its oldest parts from the eleventh century, is the oldest synagogue in central Europe preserved up to the roof, and since 2009 a museum of the medieval Jewish community, with the Erfurt Treasure in its cellar.[21]
From Weimar by train, about fifteen minutes
Erfurt lies about twenty kilometres from Weimar,[3] and the direct train takes about fifteen minutes. Erfurt's main station is in the centre, and the historic old town is just a few minutes' walk away; the tram stops are in the passage beneath the tracks.[22]
Questions visitors ask
- How do I get from Weimar to Erfurt?
- By train: Erfurt lies about twenty kilometres from Weimar, and the direct train takes about fifteen minutes. The main station is in the centre, a few minutes' walk from the old town.[22]
- What should I see on a day in Erfurt?
- The Domplatz with the cathedral and the Severikirche, the Petersberg Citadel above them and the Krämerbrücke with its houses;[18] then the Fischmarkt with the Rathaus, the Anger with the Angermuseum, the Old Synagogue and the Augustinian monastery.
- What is Erfurt's connection to Martin Luther?
- Luther came to study at the university in April 1501 and asked to be admitted to the Augustinian monastery on 17 July 1505;[7] he took his master's degree in 1505, was ordained a priest in 1507, stayed with interruptions until 1511 and preached in the monastery church on his way to Worms in 1521.[8]
- How is Erfurt connected to Goethe and Wieland?
- Wieland lectured at the university from 1769 to 1772, and the Mainz governor Dalberg drew Goethe, Schiller, Wieland and Herder into his circle.[10] During the Congress of Erfurt in 1808 Napoleon received Goethe on 2 October and invited Wieland to an audience as well.[12]
- Why is Erfurt on the UNESCO World Heritage List?
- For its Jewish-medieval heritage, inscribed on 17 September 2023: the Old Synagogue, the mikveh and the Stone House.[16]
- Is the University of Erfurt Germany's oldest?
- It counts as the oldest in present-day Germany on the strength of its charter of 1379, earlier than Heidelberg's of 1385 and Cologne's of 1388; it opened in 1392, closed in 1816 and was founded anew in 1994.[6]
Quick Information
Highlights & Attractions
Historical Significance
First recorded in 742 as the seat of a bishopric founded by Boniface, a great medieval trading city on woad and the royal road, ruled from Mainz from 1664 to 1802, host of the Congress of Erfurt in 1808, and Thuringia's capital since 1991.
Sources (23)
- 742 – 852 | Urkunden geben Auskunft – Anfänge auf historischem Boden — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- 1989 – 1999 | Aufbruch in eine neue Zeit — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Erfurt — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- 1252 – 1299 | 2. Hälfte des 13. Jahrhunderts — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- 1315 – 1472 | Auf dem Höhepunkt der Machtentfaltung — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Geschichte der Universität Erfurt — Universität Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Martin Luther in Erfurt — Stadt Erfurt, retrieved 30 August 2026
- 1473 – 1618 | Humanismus und Reformation, zweite Blüte um 1600 — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Martin Luther — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- 1664 – 1800 | Unter kurmainzischer Herrschaft — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- 1801 – 1806 | Erfurt wird preußisch — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- 1806 – 1814 | Erfurt unter französischer Besetzung — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Erfurt — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- 1949 – 1989 | Unter dem Symbol von Hammer, Zirkel und Ährenkranz — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Chronik des Jahres 2021 — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Chronik des Jahres 2023 — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Domplatz — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Places of interest — Erfurt Tourismus & Marketing GmbH, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Sehenswertes — Erfurt Tourismus & Marketing GmbH, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Anger (Erfurt) — Wikipedia, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Alte Synagoge — Landeshauptstadt Erfurt, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Train — Erfurt Tourismus & Marketing GmbH, retrieved 13 September 2026
- Bahn — Erfurt Tourismus & Marketing GmbH, retrieved 13 September 2026
In the history of Erfurt
Historical figures
1483–1546 • reformer • theologian • preacher
Luther studied at Erfurt's university from 1501, entered its Augustinian monastery in 1505 and was ordained a priest here in 1507.
1733–1813 • writer • poet • translator
Wieland lectured at the University of Erfurt from 1769 to 1772 and was invited to an audience with Napoleon here in 1808.
In Weimar's history
From 27 September to 14 October 1808 Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I met in Erfurt with the princes of the Rhine Confederation — and on 6 October the congress came to Weimar.
Erfurt, a French imperial domain since 1807, hosted the congress from 27 September to 14 October 1808 in the Statthalterei and the old university theatre now called the Kaisersaal.
Interesting reads
Historical figures
1749–1832 • writer • statesman • naturalist
1759–1805 • writer • poet • historian
1739–1807 • duchess • regent • patron • composer
1883–1969 • architect • founder and director of the Bauhaus • teacher
Historic sites
Frauenplan 1, 99423 Weimar
Platz der Demokratie 1, 99423 Weimar
Stéphane-Hessel-Platz 1, 99423 Weimar
Buchenwald, 99427 Weimar