Possendorf: Village Square, Feininger and Festivals

Possendorf combines an early documentary mention with a village character that has been preserved to this day and a direct connection to the Feininger Cycle Route. The town was first mentioned in a document in 1194 under the name “Busendorf.” Possendorf has preserved its original layout as a square village to this day. Its written history and surviving settlement form therefore offer two distinct perspectives.

Village Character and History

The village square is a specific place where several features of the town come together: it has four lime trees and a village pond. The square is also home to the only monument to German reunification in the Weimarer Land district. It thus brings together features of village life and a monument to German reunification. The designation “only monument” refers to the Weimarer Land district.

Church, Events and Cycle Route

The town’s cultural history includes its church, which the Weimar Bauhaus artist Lyonel Feininger used several times as a subject in the early 1920s. The connection is specific: it concerns Possendorf’s church and its role in Feininger’s artistic work during that period. This art-historical perspective adds a clearly identified subject to the town’s early history.

Local events are another key feature. The Possendorf Heritage Association (Traditionsverein Possendorf e.V.), the local council, the parish, the Possendorf Singers’ Circle and others organize more than 15 community events and festivals each year. The specific program may vary from year to year. If you would like to plan your trip around a particular festival, check the dates for your chosen year.

Cyclists also have a direct connection to the town: the Feininger Cycle Route passes through Possendorf. Alongside the town’s history, church and events, it offers another way to experience the area. The cycle route and the town’s cultural features appeal to different travel interests.

Weimar as a Distinct Cultural Focus

Within the wider destination of Weimar, the 48-hectare Park on the Ilm lies at the edge of Weimar’s old town. It is a unique landscape garden that continues to serve as a place for recreation, education and the aesthetic enjoyment of nature. Goethe’s Garden House stands in the park; in 1776, it became Goethe’s first home of his own in Weimar. Goethe wrote the ballad “The Erlking” and the poem “To the Moon” there. The garden is also home to the “Stone of Good Fortune,” installed in 1777 and designed by Goethe and his drawing teacher Adam Friedrich Oeser. It is considered one of Germany’s first non-figurative monuments.

The Bauhaus Museum Weimar offers a different cultural focus. It presents one of the country’s most important Bauhaus collections and the world’s oldest Bauhaus collection. The Klassik Stiftung Weimar collection now comprises 13,000 objects and documents. Outstanding exhibits include the Wagenfeld lamp, Marcel Breuer’s slatted chair and Marianne Brandt’s teapot. Thus, within the wider destination of Weimar, literary sites and Bauhaus design stand side by side as distinct cultural themes.

Discover more destinations: Gaberndorf, Berlstedt, Ettersburg, Auerstedt, Lehnstedt, Apolda, Bad Berka, Weimar

Return to the wider travel overview: Weimarer Land.