Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Landmarks
Potsdam
A few minutes north of Potsdam's centre you suddenly come across dark timber houses with carved gables, balconies and gardens, as if a Russian village had been moved here. Alexandrowka is a Russian colony that King Frederick William III of…
Landmarks
München
The Allianz Arena in Munich is the home of FC Bayern and one of the most recognizable sports venues in the world. Its inflated, diamond-patterned skin glows red on match nights and can be seen for miles across the plains north of the city.…
Landmarks
Hamburg
The Alsterarkaden (Alster Arcades) in Hamburg are a row of white arches along the Kleine Alster canal, a few steps from the Rathausmarkt. The elegant ensemble in Italian style was built after the Great Fire of 1842 and is one of the most p…
Landmarks
Heidelberg
The Old Bridge in Heidelberg (Alte Brücke) is the red sandstone bridge that has defined the city's skyline since the 1780s. It spans the Neckar River between the Old Town and the Neuenheim district, and from its arches you get the classic…
Landmarks
Würzburg
The Old Main Bridge (Alte Mainbrücke) in Würzburg is the city's oldest crossing over the Main River and one of the most photographed spots in Franconia. Twelve Baroque statues of saints line the stone arches, with the old town and cathedra…
Landmarks
Frankfurt am Main
The Alte Oper (Old Opera) on Opernplatz is one of Frankfurt's most photographed buildings and one of Germany's leading concert halls. Its neo-Renaissance facade stands out among the skyscrapers of the banking district. You can see it in tw…
Landmarks
Trier
Where grass now grows over the terraces, up to 18,000 people once cheered in Roman Trier. The Trier Amphitheatre at the foot of the Petrisberg hill was built in the second half of the 2nd century AD and staged gladiator fights, animal hunt…
Landmarks
Augsburg
Augsburg Town Hall (Augsburger Rathaus) is the landmark of one of Germany's oldest cities and one of the finest Renaissance civic buildings north of the Alps. Designed by Elias Holl, the 187-foot building with its twin onion-domed towers a…
Landmarks
Berlin
The Berlin Philharmonie, in the Kulturforum district next to Potsdamer Platz, is one of the world's most famous concert halls and a landmark of postwar architecture. Designed by Hans Scharoun, the golden building is home to the Berlin Phil…
Landmarks
Bremen
Böttcherstraße in Bremen is a short lane of barely 100 yards that ranks among the most unusual streets in Germany. Rebuilt in the 1920s by a coffee magnate as a "city within the city," it is a rare piece of German Expressionist architectur…
Landmarks
Hamburg
The Chilehaus in Hamburg is one of Germany's most famous office buildings and a landmark of brick expressionism. Its dark clinker walls form a sharp point at the eastern corner that looks like the bow of a ship. It has been part of a UNESC…
Landmarks
Halle (Saale)
It all began with four thalers and 16 groschen found in a poor box. With that donation the pastor and theologian August Hermann Francke opened a school for poor children in 1695, and three years later he laid the foundation stone of an orp…
Landmarks
Baden-Baden
The Friedrichsbad in Baden-Baden is a grand 19th-century bathhouse and one of the most beautiful historic thermal baths in Europe. Behind its Renaissance Revival facade in the old spa quarter, you follow a fixed ritual – the Roman-Irish ba…
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…
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…
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…
Landmarks
Würzburg
The Juliusspital has been a hospital, care home and winery all at once for more than four centuries. Behind the long yellow façade on Juliuspromenade lies an arcaded courtyard with a Baroque fountain, then a park with a garden pavilion, an…
Landmarks
Bad Wimpfen
Look up from the Neckar bridge at Bad Wimpfen and you see a picture-book skyline: towers, gables and walls on a ridge above the river. What stands up there is what remains of the largest Hohenstaufen imperial palace in Germany, about 215 m…
Landmarks
Greifswald
A tall pointed arch without a roof, old trees all around, the sky over the lagoon behind: many people know this view from the museum. The painter Caspar David Friedrich, born in Greifswald in 1774, painted the Eldena Abbey ruins again and…
Landmarks
Düsseldorf
The Königsallee in Düsseldorf, known locally as the "Kö," is Germany's most famous luxury shopping boulevard and one of the most elegant city streets in the country. A tree-lined canal runs down the middle, framed by stone bridges and foun…
Landmarks
Baden-Baden
The Kurhaus of Baden-Baden is the grand neoclassical centerpiece of Germany's most famous spa town, on the edge of the Black Forest. Behind its white columned facade lies the legendary Casino Baden-Baden, which Marlene Dietrich called the…
Landmarks
Wiesbaden
The Kurhaus Wiesbaden is the grand spa house of Wiesbaden, the capital of Hesse, about 40 km west of Frankfurt. Opened in 1907 by Emperor Wilhelm II, the neoclassical building with its columned portico and the Latin inscription "Aquis Matt…
Landmarks
Leipzig
Leipzig Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) is the largest terminal station in Europe by covered floor area and one of Germany's most impressive railway buildings. A sandstone facade 298 meters wide, soaring halls and a three-level shopping mal…