Stadtgeschichten: Rumor, Gossip, and the Making of Classical Weimar

This essay considers rumor and gossip in the making of Weimar Classicism (1786-1805). By linking rumor and gossip to Weimar's built environment around 1800, I demonstrate how the ideal of cultural capital arose from Weimar's urban limitations: they aided the circulation of gossip and gave rise to persistent rumors that helped negotiate differences between court and town, Weimar and the outside world. As rumor and gossip helped elevate Weimar above material restrictions and into the realm of national significance, they proved to be instrumental, not adversarial, to the emergence of Classical Weimar's iconic status in German cultural history.