Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Museums
Nürnberg
The Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg is the largest museum of cultural history in the German-speaking world and one of the top things to do in Nuremberg. Spread across a medieval Carthusian monastery and striking modern wings, it t…
Nature
Bad Doberan
Tall, bare trunks leaning away from the sea, topped by a canopy the wind seems to have trimmed with shears: the Gespensterwald ("ghost forest") in the Baltic resort of Nienhagen, between Rostock-Warnemünde and Heiligendamm, is one of the m…
Landmarks
Leipzig
The Gewandhaus in Leipzig is the city's great concert hall on Augustusplatz and home of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, one of the oldest and most celebrated orchestras in the world. The striking 1981 building, with its huge glass front and the…
Nature
Andernach
First it bubbles, then it hisses, and suddenly a white column of water stands above the trees on the riverbank. The Andernach Geyser on the Namedyer Werth peninsula shoots its water 50 to 60 m into the air, making it the highest cold-water…
Museums
Frauenau
The Frauenau Glass Museum in the Bavarian Forest tells the story of glass from its beginnings in Mesopotamia to the art of today. Frauenau looks back on some 500 years of glassmaking and became a European centre of the studio glass movemen…
Churches & monasteries
Altötting
The Chapel of Grace on Kapellplatz in Altötting is regarded as Bavaria's national shrine and is one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Germany. Inside stands the Black Madonna, a small carved figure of Mary, and in wall niches around…
Museums
Weimar
Goethe's House in Weimar (Goethes Wohnhaus) is Germany's most famous writer's home. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the towering figure of German literature, lived here on the Frauenplan square for most of five decades, worked on "Faust" in it…
Palaces
Leipzig
Gohlis Palace (Gohliser Schlösschen) in the Leipzig district of Gohlis is a small Baroque summer palace from the 1750s. It is described as the last surviving Baroque palace and estate complex around Leipzig. If you are looking for things t…
Industrial heritage
Netzschkau
The Göltzsch Viaduct (Göltzschtalbrücke) near Netzschkau in the Vogtland region of Saxony is the largest brick bridge in the world, 574 meters long and 78 meters high, with 98 arches. Built in the 1840s and 1850s, it still carries trains o…
Museums
Kassel
Most people know the Brothers Grimm as collectors of fairy tales. In Kassel you also meet them as linguists who launched a vast project, the German Dictionary. Grimmwelt Kassel tells both stories in a playful way: the exhibition is divided…
Mountains & peaks
Bayerisch Eisenstein
The Großer Arber is the highest mountain in the Bavarian Forest, rising to 4,775 feet (1,455.5 m) on the border region between Bavaria and the Czech Republic. Locals call it the "King of the Bavarian Forest." A gondola lifts you almost to…
Gardens & parks
Berlin
Großer Tiergarten is a 210-hectare (about 520-acre) park in the heart of Berlin and one of the largest urban parks in Germany. Lakes, a rose garden, memorials, and open meadows lie between the Brandenburg Gate, the zoo, and the government…
Historic sites & memorials
Messel
The Messel Pit (Grube Messel) near Darmstadt is Germany's oldest UNESCO natural World Heritage Site and one of the richest fossil sites on Earth. A former oil-shale mine, it preserves animals and plants from the Eocene, including early hor…
Industrial heritage
Sankt Andreasberg
The Samson Mine (Grube Samson) in Sankt Andreasberg is a visitor mine in the Upper Harz mountains of Lower Saxony and home to what is described as the last working man-engine in the world. The former silver mine is part of the UNESCO World…
Landmarks
Magdeburg
The Green Citadel of Magdeburg (Grüne Zitadelle) is the last building designed by the Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser: a pink apartment and shopping complex with golden domes, wavy window lines, and trees growing from its roofs…
Museums
Mainz
The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz is one of the oldest printing museums in the world, dedicated to Johannes Gutenberg, the Mainz-born inventor of printing with movable metal type. While a new museum is being built on its historic site, the col…
Landmarks
Berlin
The Hackesche Höfe are a set of eight connected courtyards in Berlin's Mitte district, a short walk from Hackescher Markt station. Built in the early 1900s, the complex mixes Art Nouveau architecture with shops, cafes, a cinema, a variety…
Landmarks
Hamburg
HafenCity in Hamburg is Europe's largest inner-city urban development project, a brand-new waterfront district built on former port land along the Elbe River. Since 2000, old docks and warehouses have given way to striking modern architect…
Historic sites & memorials
Busdorf
Hedeby (Haithabu in German), near Schleswig in northern Germany, was one of the great trading towns of the Viking Age and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. On the shore of the Haddeby Noor, a quiet inlet of the Schlei, merchants from ac…
Coast & islands
Hooge
On Hallig Hooge, people live on mounds. Because this flat marsh island in the Wadden Sea has no high sea wall, its houses stand on ten artificial dwelling mounds called Warften. Several times a year a storm tide floods the meadows, leaving…
Castles
Neustadt an der Weinstraße
Hambach Castle (Hambacher Schloss) near Neustadt an der Weinstraße is called the cradle of German democracy. In May 1832 about 25,000 people gathered here for the Hambach Festival, calling for freedom, a free press and German unity under b…
Museums
Berlin
The Hamburger Bahnhof is Berlin's national museum of contemporary art, set inside a grand 1840s railway terminus just a few minutes' walk from Berlin Central Station. Part of the Nationalgalerie, it shows Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol along…
Gardens & parks
Hamburg
The Hamburg Stadtpark is a 148-hectare (366-acre) city park in the Winterhude district, north of the city center. It is Hamburg's big green escape, with a lake, a huge central meadow and a brick water tower that now houses a planetarium. I…
Viewpoints
Mörsdorf
The Geierlay suspension bridge near Mörsdorf in the Hunsrück hills of Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the longest rope suspension bridges in Germany and one of the region's most popular outdoor attractions. Stretching 360 meters (about 1,18…