The double statue in front of the Deutsches Nationaltheater is the most photographed thing in Weimar, and with good reason. Ernst Rietschel's 1857 bronze shows the two poets standing side by side, both gripping a laurel wreath, their heights equalized in a diplomatic piece of artistic license — in reality, Schiller was significantly taller. The monument has become shorthand for Weimar Classicism itself.
The square around it, the Theaterplatz, is one of the centres of civic life. The theatre behind the monument is where the Weimar Constitution was drafted in 1919, giving birth to the Weimar Republic. Stand here long enough and you will see every tour group in the city pass through.