History
The history of Eisenach is linked with the Wartburg Castle, which was built according to legend in 1067. There were at least three settlements below the castle, that merged to a common city in the second half of the 12th century. This town, Eisenach, was first mentioned in 1180.
Several now legendary events took place on the Wartburg in the following decades, best known is the "Singers' Contest on the Wartburg" (Sängerkrieg, which is part of the Tannhäuser legend).
After the Thuringian War of Succession (1247–1264) Eisenach became subject to the Wettin dynasty of Meißen. Later several mini states were established in what is now Thuringia, and Eisenach became a principality on its own in 1521. In 1809 Eisenach became part of the duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
Eisenach is famous as the place where Martin Luther lived as a child, although he was not born there, and later was protected by Frederick the Wise after having been pursued for his religious views. It was while staying at Wartburg Castle that he translated the New Testament into German. It is also notable as the birthplace of Johann Sebastian Bach.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany was founded in 1869 in Eisenach.
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“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)
“It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)