Die Inszenierung eines „Goldenen Zeitalters" am Portal der Bastille in Weimar.

Among the changes brought about by the Reformation was a new interpretation of the role of the ruler as a person who bore responsibility for his subjects. In the administration of the state, this led to the establishment of councils responsible for particular fields, whose members were now mostly drawn from university backgrounds, and it also led to the building of chancelleries to administer everyday affairs. In Weimar, through good fortune, the chancellery of a model Protestant state has survived in the form of the 'Bastille', and the highly instructive pictorial programme of the gatehouse bears witness to the humanist-inspired attitude towards government adopted by John Frederick I, Elector of Saxony (ruled 1532-1547), known as John the Magnanimous. Metaphorical images inspired by the Roman poet Virgil propagate his reign as a new 'Golden Age', modelled on that of the Roman Emperor Augustus. The iconographic programme devised by Nicolaus Gromann (c. 1500-1566) for the ornamental gatehouse, which is charged with political significance, was realised shortly before the fateful battle at Mühlberg in 1547, as a result of which Elector John Frederick forfeited both his freedom and his status as an elector, while the Reformation lost its political leader. In subsequent centuries, the gatehouse in Weimar stood as a memorial to the legitimate claim of the House of Saxony-Weimar to the electorship of Saxony and the leading role to which Protestant-ruled states within the Empire aspired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]