Northern Germany
Gothic and Renaissance turrets, Slavic onion domes, Ottoman features and terracotta Hanseatic step gables are among the mishmash of architectural styles…
Must-see attractions in Northern Germany
Altstadt
St Nikolai church was the world’s tallest building from 1874 to 1876, and it remains Hamburg’s second-tallest structure (after the TV tower). Mostly…
St Pauli & Reeperbahn
Here's the perfect excuse to stay up all Saturday night. Every Sunday in the wee hours, some 70,000 locals and visitors descend upon the famous Fischmarkt…
Rostock
Central Rostock’s pride and joy is the 13th-century Marienkirche, the only main Rostock church to survive WWII unscathed (although restorations are…
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…
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…
Altstadt
A treasure trove of art from the Renaissance to the present day, the Kunsthalle spans two buildings linked by an underground passage. The main building…
Coastal Mecklenburg – Western Pomerania
This masterpiece of medieval architecture dates to 1270 and is modelled on Lübeck's Marienkirche. Its interior is awash with colour and is filled with art…
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…
Lübeck
This museum quarter includes an old synagogue, church and medieval buildings along its uneven streets. The namesake St Annen Museum details the diverse…
Schleswig-Holstein
With its steeple towering above the Altstadt (old town), the Dom St Petri provides an excellent point of orientation. It’s also home to the intricate…
Altstadt
With its spectacular coffered ceiling, Hamburg’s baroque Rathaus is one of Europe’s most opulent, and is renowned for its Emperor’s Hall and Great Hall…
Northern Germany
Revel in the Flemish masterpieces collected by the Mecklenburg dukes during the 17th and 18th centuries at this impressive museum with wide-ranging…
Coastal Mecklenburg – Western Pomerania
You'll need divine inspiration to guess the number of bricks used to build the massive 14th-century Marienkirche, a superb example of north German red…
Coastal Mecklenburg – Western Pomerania
In an arctic-white wave-like building that leaps out from the surrounding red-brick warehouses, the state-of-the-art Ozeaneum takes you into an underwater…
Northern Germany
Such was the allure of this palace that when the ducal seat moved 36km north to Schwerin in 1837, some family members continued living here until 1945…
Northern Germany
The medieval Rathaus has a spectacular baroque facade, added in 1720 and decorated with coats of arms and three tiers of statues. The top row represents …
Coastal Mecklenburg – Western Pomerania
Of the three great red-brick churches that once rose above the rooftops of Wismar before WWII, only the sober St-Nikolai-Kirche, the largest of its kind…
Hamburg
‘Der Michel’, as it is affectionately called, is one of Hamburg’s most recognisable landmarks and northern Germany’s largest Protestant baroque church…
Schleswig-Holstein
Some of the prettiest Kaufmannshöfe (merchants' courtyards) can be found off the very picturesque Rote Strasse, which is up from the harbour by the…
Northern Germany
The cobbled, slightly wobbly street and square Am Sande is full of red-brick buildings with typically Hanseatic stepped gables. Even among these striking…
Schleswig-Holstein
Dedicated to the North Sea, this state-of-the-art ecological museum has multimedia exhibits that keep both kids and adults entertained (especially on…
Northern Germany
Güstrow's fabulous Renaissance 16th-century Schloss is home to a historical museum as well as a cultural centre, period art exhibitions and occasional…
Schleswig-Holstein
Once a notorious thoroughfare known by sailors for its brothels, cobblestoned Oluf-Samson-Gang has been transformed into one of the prettiest streets in…
Schleswig-Holstein
Stunning Uwe Dune, at 52.5m, is Sylt’s highest natural elevation. You can climb the wooden steps to the top for a 360-degree view over Sylt and, on a good…
Rügen Island
Northwest of Binz, in a lovely Rügen forest, the extraordinary spiral Aussichtsturm Adlerhorst rises 30m above the forest floor – the spiral ramp goes…
St Pauli & Reeperbahn
Wednesday late afternoon and evening is a terrific time to be in St Pauli when the weekly night market takes over Spielbudenplatz with food stalls, live…
Hamburg
Even the worst cynics are quickly transformed into fans of this vast miniature world that goes on and on. The model trains wending their way through the…
Altstadt
One of Hamburg's most beautiful buildings is the crowning gem of the new Unesco-anointed Kontorhaus District. The brown-brick 1924 Chilehaus is shaped…
Hamburg
Sort of a bookend for New York's Ellis Island, Hamburg's excellent emigration museum looks at the conditions that drove about 5 million people to leave…
Hamburg
Thrill to some of Hamburg's best harbour views from this accurately named and quite pretty park.
Schleswig-Holstein
Vikings ruled from their base here at Haithabu, across the Schlei from Schleswig, some 1000 to 1200 years ago. Located just outside the historic…
Rügen Island
Macht Urlaub (Power Vacation) is a well-done exhibition on the Nazis and the role the workers' resort Prora played in their 'strength through joy' schemes…
Northern Germany
In the 1938, the Nazis converted an old brick factory 25km southeast of Hamburg into a concentration camp. Over the next seven years, countless numbers of…
Schleswig-Holstein Landesmuseum
Schleswig-Holstein
The Schleswig-Holstein Landesmuseum, in Schloss Gottorf, is filled with art treasures. A roomful of paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder and a wood…
Northern Germany
Besides the Rathaus, notable buildings around the large Markt include the Court of Justice, the little gated-in, grotto-like area with paintings depicting…
Lübeck
Thomas Mann, winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Lübeck in 1875, and his family’s former home is now the Buddenbrookhaus. Named…
Lübeck
Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), Poland, Günter Grass had been living just outside Lübeck for 13 years when he collected his Nobel Prize in 1999. But this…
Coastal Mecklenburg – Western Pomerania
The centrepiece of Old Wismar, the Markt is an attractive square, dominated by the 1602-built Wasserkunst (waterworks), an ornate, 12-sided well that…
Coastal Mecklenburg – Western Pomerania
The richly ornamented buildings ringing the Markt hint at Greifswald’s stature in the Middle Ages. The Rathaus, at the western end, started life as some…
