Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, Johann Sebastian Bach and Franz Liszt, Lucas Cranach and the Weimar School have all made their mark on the town. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Weimar played an important role as an intellectual centre. The town's awareness of its history, both recent and more distant, has enabled it to realise its vision of a state-of-the-art cultural centre. As Goethe once asked, "Where else do you find so many good things in such a small place?"
