Weimar, Germany, which is 177 mi/285 km southwest of Berlin and can be seen in a day, has a strong connection to Germany's most famous poets and philosophers (primarily Goethe and Schiller).
Though it was never the nation's capital, Weimar lent its name to Germany's government between the world wars (the Weimar Republic) after the new democracy's constitution was signed there in 1919.
Among the sights in Weimar are the Goethe National Museum and Private Residence, the tomb of Goethe and Goethe's Garden House. There's also the beautiful Park an der Ilm along the Ilm River, just south of the city center, which was partly designed by Goethe himself.
Places connected to Schiller include the Schiller House and his tomb in the Historischer Friedhof, where Goethe is also buried. There is also Liszt House (where Liszt wrote his Hungarian Rhapsody) and Tiefurt Palace northeast of the city.
Also nearby is the Buchenwald National Memorial, at the site of a Nazi concentration camp.