Feininger Church, Gelmeroda
About This Site
A village church a Bauhaus master drew and painted over and over, until the village started calling it by his name.
A thirteenth-century tower
The oldest parts of the choir-tower church at Gelmeroda were built at the beginning of the thirteenth century[1] — a plain village church of a kind Thuringia has hundreds of, and the city counts it among Weimar's churches.[2] Nothing about it was ever meant to be famous.
The shape that would not let a painter alone
Its form, as the parish puts it, moved Lyonel Feininger to draw and paint the church again and again.[1] He was the master of the Bauhaus's printing workshop and the man whose cathedral woodcut is on the title page of the 1919 manifesto; the tower he kept returning to stands a short way outside the town whose school he taught in. It is the rare case of a subject taking the painter's name in the place itself.
Open to the motorway, 1994
In 1994 it became the first Autobahnkirche in the eastern states[1] — a church kept open for people coming off a motorway rather than for a parish walking to it. Sunday services are at eleven, and it stays open through the day: in summer from eight in the morning to eight in the evening, in winter until four.[1]
Questions visitors ask
- Why is it called the Feininger Church?
- Lyonel Feininger, master of the Bauhaus's printing workshop, drew and painted it again and again — its shape, as the parish puts it, would not let him alone — until the place took his name.[1]
- How old is the building?
- The oldest parts of the choir-tower church date from the beginning of the thirteenth century — a plain village church of a kind Thuringia has hundreds of, never meant to be famous.[1]
- What is an Autobahnkirche?
- A church kept open for people coming off a motorway rather than for a parish walking to it. This one became the first Autobahnkirche in the eastern states in 1994.[1]
- When is it open?
- Through the day — summer 08:00–20:00, winter 08:00–16:00 — with Sunday services at 11:00.[1]
Sources
- Kirche Gelmeroda (Autobahnkirche, Feiningerkirche) — Evangelischer Kirchenkreis Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
- Kirchen und Friedhöfe — Stadt Weimar, retrieved 29 August 2026
Connected Historical Figures
painter • printmaker • Bauhaus master
The church he drew and painted over and over — the parish says its shape is what kept bringing him back.
Visit Information
Summer 08:00–20:00, winter 08:00–16:00; service Sundays at 11:00
Petersgasse 33, 99428 Gelmeroda
In Weimar's history
Historical periods
The subject a Bauhaus master returned to while he taught in Weimar.
The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar in 1919 and voted out by 1925 — time enough to change what a design school is, and not enough for the town that made it to keep it.
The choir-tower church's oldest parts date from the beginning of the thirteenth century.
For six centuries Weimar is a small Thuringian town with a castle, a market and a church, overshadowed by its bigger neighbours. What the Middle Ages leave here is not a monument but a ground plan — and, after the town burns in 1424, the two buildings everything later happens around.