Dresden
Dresden's extraordinary Renaissance city palace, home to its Saxon rulers from 1485 to 1918, now shelters multiple precious collections – including the…
Must-see attractions in Germany
The Black Forest
The Schwarzwälder Freilichtmuseum spirals around the Vogtsbauernhof, a self-contained early-17th-century farmstead. Farmhouses shifted from their original…
Rostock
Central Rostock’s pride and joy is the 13th-century Marienkirche, the only main Rostock church to survive WWII unscathed (although restorations are…
Berchtesgaden
At 1834m above sea level, the Eagle's Nest was built as a mountaintop retreat for Hitler, and gifted to him on his 50th birthday. It took around 3000…
Frankfurt am Main
Frankfurt’s red-sandstone cathedral is dominated by a 95m-high Gothic tower, which can be climbed via 328 steps. Construction began in the 13th century;…
Munich
Next to the Olympiapark, the glass-and-steel, double-cone tornado spiralling down from a dark cloud the size of an aircraft carrier holds BMW Welt, truly…
Stuttgart
The neoclassical-meets-contemporary Staatsgalerie bears British architect James Stirling’s curvy, colourful imprint. Alongside big-name exhibitions, the…
Nuremberg
Forget Dürer and wartime rallies, Nuremberg is a railway town at heart. Germany's first passenger trains ran between here and Fürth, a fact reflected in…
Hamburg
Welcome to one of the most Europe's most exciting recent architectural creations. A squat brown-brick former warehouse at the far west of HafenCity was…
Harz Mountains
Originally built in the 12th century to protect German Kaisers on hunting expeditions, Schloss Wernigerode was enlarged over the years to reflect late…
Lübeck
Built in 1464 and looking so settled-in that it appears to sag, Lübeck’s charming red-brick city gate is a national icon. Its twin pointed cylindrical…
Saxony
Next to the historic porcelain factory south of the Altstadt, this museum is the place to witness the astonishing artistry and artisanship that makes…
Berlin
Victims of Stasi persecution often ended up in this grim remand prison, now a memorial site officially called Gedenkstätte Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. Tours …
Erfurt
Situated on the Petersberg hill northwest of Domplatz, this 36-hectare citadel ranks among Europe’s largest and best-preserved baroque fortresses. While…
The Black Forest
From the baroque-meets-neoclassical Schloss, Karlsruhe’s 32 streets radiate like the spokes of a wheel. Karl Wilhelm, margrave of Baden-Durlach, named his…
KZ-Gedenkstätte Mittelbau Dora
Harz Mountains
A deeply sobering place: at least 20,000 people were worked to death here building the tunnels beneath Mittelbau Dora, and the rockets now decaying within…
Baden-Baden
A Joan Miró sculpture guards the front of this architecturally innovative gallery, designed by Richard Meier. The star-studded collection of modern and…
Bremen City
In 1943, the Nazis started construction of a massive concrete bunker to build submarines in. At a planned production rate of 12 subs per month it was…
The Black Forest
Embracing the global craft gin craze, Monkey 47 has scooped awards for its batch-distilled, handcrafted dry gin, with piney, peppery notes. Distillery…
Berlin
The rebirth of the historic Potsdamer Platz was Europe's biggest building project of the 1990s, a showcase of urban renewal masterminded by such top…
Central Germany
Even those with no previous interest in the Reformation will likely be fascinated by the state-of-the-art exhibits in the Lutherhaus, the former monastery…
Kreuzberg
In a landmark building by American-Polish architect Daniel Libeskind, Berlin’s Jewish Museum offers a chronicle of the trials and triumphs in 2000 years…
Prenzlauer Berg
For an insightful primer on the Berlin Wall, visit this outdoor memorial, which extends for 1.4km along Bernauer Strasse and integrates an original…
Berlin
Berlin’s rulers used to hunt boar and pheasants in the rambling Tiergarten until garden architect Peter Lenné landscaped the grounds in the 19th century…
The Black Forest
Sticking out above Rottweil like a sore thumb, the futuristic, environmentally progressive Testturm is the brainchild of steel-engineering giant…
Frankfurt am Main
Life-size dinosaur mock-ups guard the front of Frankfurt’s natural history museum. Inside the early 1900s neo-baroque building, exhibits cover…
Lübeck
Opened in 2015, this brilliant museum tells the remarkable story of the Hanseatic League, Lübeck and the region. For 600 years, city states in northern…
Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart
Berlin
Berlin's contemporary art showcase opened in 1996 in an old railway station, whose grandeur is a great backdrop for this Aladdin's cave of paintings,…
Berlin
Designed by Helmut Jahn, the visually dramatic Sony Center is fronted by a 26-floor, glass-and-steel tower and integrates rare relics from the prewar era…
Fairy-Tale Road
A living kernel of Fulda's long history, this early-9th-century church was once the cemetery chapel for the Benedictine monastery around which the town…
Frankfurt am Main
The Römerberg is Frankfurt’s old central square. Ornately gabled half-timbered buildings, reconstructed after WWII, give an idea of how beautiful the city…
The Black Forest
Niagara they ain’t but Germany’s highest waterfalls do exude their own wild romanticism. The Gutach River feeds the seven-tiered falls, which drop a total…
Berlin
This Nazi-era bunker presents one of Berlin's finest private contemporary art collections, amassed by advertising guru Christian Boros who acquired the…
Central Germany
This large medieval castle on the hill above town is one of Freyburg’s highlights. It houses an excellent museum that illuminates various aspects of…
Fairy-Tale Road
Situated 6.5km west of Kassel Hauptbahnhof, and 3km west of Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe station, in the enchanting Habichtswald nature park, this spectacular 560…
Bavaria
The crown jewel of Schleissheim's palatial trio is the Neues Schloss Schleissheim. This pompous pile was dreamed up by Prince-Elector Max Emanuel in 1701…
Munich
A big, bold and aptly abstract building, clad entirely in vividly multihued ceramic tubes, the Brandhorst jostled its way into the Munich Kunstareal in a…
Fairy-Tale Road
Erstwhile home to Kaiser Wilhelm II, Wilhelmshöhe Palace (1786–98) at the foot of Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, today houses one of Germany’s greatest art…
Cologne & Northern Rhineland
The Roman Colonia Ulpia Traiana has been reborn as an archaeological park, an open-air museum that features faithfully reconstructed buildings to help…
Central Germany
It’s almost impossible to overstate the significance of this building, erected in 1925–26, as a school of Bauhaus art, design and architecture. Today a…
