Say the name Weimar and people think: "Yes, the German city where Marlene Dietrich studied violin before becoming a sultry film star." Or maybe William Shakespeare springs to mind. An elegant statue framed by mock ruins in a park signals the bard's importance to Weimar, home of his German translator Christoph Martin Wieland.

Hardly. For non-Germans at least, the only word associated with Weimar is "republic". Somehow a dim awareness persists of the troubled Weimar Republic that lurched from the end of the first world war to the Hitler years.

Actually, Weimar is a frontier town of the old East Germany, with elegant squares and faded grandeur, hidden far from the Instamatic crowds. Until 20 years ago, Weimar was locked behind the former Soviet bloc gathering dust. Today there might be more Mercedes bouncing along its cobbled streets than Trabants, but Weimar has kept the atmosphere of an old-fashioned provincial capital, carrying its history and its rich artistic legacy with an engaging lack of self-consciousness.

Weimar's political fame dates from 1919, when the German National Assembly met here to hammer out a constitution for a republic to replace the Kaiser's fallen empire. Seeking a site away from turbulent Berlin, delegates chose Weimar, hoping the "spirit of Weimar" would inspire the new republic. The Court theatre where they sat was renamed the National theatre on the occasion.

But it went downhill from there. The seat of the Weimar Republic was in Berlin, but its namesake town became a magnet for anti-republic extremists. Hitler spoke at rallies here, and its province, Thuringia, was the first to elect Nazis. The Buchenwald concentration camp lies on the outskirts of town. Darkness and light. The uneasy mixture of cultural creativity and Nazi horror is still to be found in Weimar. You can stroll in the pretty park where Goethe wrote his hymns to freedom, then drive up the hill to the grim barracks.

Before facing that challenge, it is worth spending time in Goethe's delightful town. Crammed with memorial plaques to men of genius, Weimar probably has the richest density of cultural history of any small city in Europe, thanks to its former ducal rulers who were eager patrons of the arts.

Above all, Goethe spent much of his life here. Inside a rambling, green-shuttered 18th-century townhouse, with creaking floorboards and comfortable corners, Goethe wrote his masterpiece Faust. It is a pleasant, sunny house, kept in the style the writer would have known and staffed by curators, who volunteer information about whatever room you are in. You can see his library, his beloved garden where he tried to grow grapes for wine (not a success), and walk to his toy-like summerhouse by the river, where he dallied with his loves.

Despite its palaces and great paintings, its wealth of baroque and rococo, Weimar wears its cultural splendour lightly – a human-scale town of small cobbled squares and poetic vistas. Many of the homes of the great are now museums.

You can visit the Bauhaus museum, in the house where this radical design movement was founded by Walter Gropius in 1919, but then rejected by Weimar's stuffy citizenry and transferred to Dessau.

The Bauhaus group was just one component of a wave of artistic experimentation in Weimar Germany: expressionist painters, cabaret singers, novelists and radical politics all contributed to the bohemian reputation of the town. But in contrast to this liberality, the period also saw the relentless rise in extremism, concluding with the rise to power of the Nazis.

There are still remnants of the architectural style of the Nazis. The ancient Hotel Elephant in the medieval market square was a favourite of visiting Nazi dignitaries, so much so that they had the hotel reconstructed in a style they preferred. It still has a strong 1930s look, with the rather militaristic feel that the Nazis brought to their buildings. It's thought that Hitler drank here, but if so, it is not advertised.

Weimar is how Germany would like to see itself today, a united country brought back from the divisions of war, surrounded by a reassuring sense of history, civilised and cultured, yet at the same time provincial and unpretentious – metaphorically speaking, with a copy of Faust in one hand and a big fat Thuringian sausage in the other.

I should rococo Weimar essentials

* Eating and drinking

Thuringian cooking is meat-based (stews and pot roasts) and often accompanied by dumplings flavoured with onions or parsley. At Zum Zwiebel (Teichgasse 6; +49 3643 50 23 75), traditional Thuringian cooking is the main attraction, washed down with local beers and wines.

* Where to stay

Weimar's oldest and most famous hotel (Hotel Elephant, Markt 19; + 49 3643 80 20) was established in the 17th century. Many historical figures have stayed here, from the infamous (Adolf Hitler) to the celebrated (Leo Tolstoy and Johann Sebastian Bach).

Built as a private villa in 1826, the Hotel Amalienhof (Amalienstrasse 2; +49 3643 54 90) is a good, inexpensive option near the Goethe National Museum. It's run by the Lutheran Church Association, but don't worry, church attendance is not enforced.

* What to see

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's home from 1782 to 1832 (located at Frauenplan 1) is Weimar's premier tourist attraction. It's a fine, ochre-painted Baroque mansion filled with antiquities and books. A 15-minute walk away in the Park an der Ilm is Goethe's Gartenhaus. This small cottage was Goethe's first residence in Weimar. For a grander take on domestic interiors, head for Wittumspalais (Am Palais 3), home of the Duchess Anna Amalia. From 1802 to 1805, the writer Friedrich von Schiller spent his last years at a house on Schillerstrasse 9. His last works, including Wilhelm Tell, were written here, and his books remain on the shelves. The second-floor rooms look much like they did during his time.

* Getting There

Dresden-Klotsche receives regular connections from Dublin and is serviced by Lufthansa (www.lufthansa.de ) as well as Aer Lingus (www.aerlingus.com) and Ryanair (www.ryanair.com). The site (www.skyscanner.net) allows you to compare airlines' offers.

From Dresden, the Weimar Hauptbahnhof branch of the major Deutsche Bundesbahn rail lines connects Erfurt with Dresden. For information and schedules, ring +49 1805 996633 or see www.bahn.de.