Discover places worth seeing — from historic sites to mountain trails.
Zoos
Berlin
Tierpark Berlin in the eastern district of Lichtenberg is Europe's largest landscape zoo, spread across 160 hectares of meadows, woodland and ponds around a baroque palace. Founded in 1955 as East Berlin's answer to the older zoo in the We…
Zoos
Hofgeismar
In the middle of the Reinhardswald forest, below Sababurg castle on its basalt knoll, lies a park that the Landgraves of Hesse had enclosed with a long stone wall back in the 16th century. Sababurg Wildlife Park was laid out as a game park…
Viewpoints
Duisburg
From a distance Tiger & Turtle looks like a roller coaster someone left on a hill in south Duisburg. There are no cars: you walk the curves, climbs and drops yourself, step by step. Only the loop is off-limits. The giant sculpture by Heike…
Viewpoints
Rottweil
You can see it from the A 81 motorway: a slender, spirally twisted tower rising high above Rottweil, the oldest town in Baden-Württemberg. The TK Elevator Test Tower is 246 m tall and is really a test facility for high-speed lifts. At the…
Waterfalls
Todtnau
Above Todtnau, the Stübenbächle stream tumbles from a high valley into the Schönenbach valley with real force: over five steps the water drops a total of 97 m. The second-to-last step alone measures about 60 m, by far the highest single dr…
Museums
Berlin
The Tränenpalast ("Palace of Tears") next to Friedrichstraße station in central Berlin was the departure hall of East Berlin's busiest border crossing during the Cold War. East Germans said goodbye here to relatives from the West, never su…
Waterfalls
Schmalkalden
A waterfall with an on/off switch: the Trusetal Waterfall in Brotterode-Trusetal is not purely natural but was created in 1865. Inspired by the rock scenery, the building officer Specht had the River Truse diverted along an artificial chan…
Museums
Bremen
The Universum Bremen is a hands-on science center in northern Bremen where visitors of all ages learn by touching, testing and experimenting. Its striking stainless-steel building, often compared to a whale or a giant mussel, sits beside a…
Waterfalls
Bad Urach
The Uracher Wasserfall (Urach Waterfall) near Bad Urach is one of the best-known waterfalls in the Swabian Jura, the limestone upland south of Stuttgart. In the quiet Maisental valley, the Brühlbach stream drops over a mossy ledge of calca…
Nature
Lohmen
Between moss-green sandstone walls the path narrows until you pass beneath huge boulders that once fell from above and jammed between the cliffs. The Rock Gate in the Uttewalder Grund is one of the oldest motifs of Saxon Switzerland: Caspa…
Museums
Dresden
The Dresden Transport Museum (Verkehrsmuseum Dresden) sits in the historic Johanneum on Neumarkt square, a few steps from the Frauenkirche. Across roughly 5,000 square meters it tells the story of road, rail, water and air travel, from an…
Castles
Coburg
Veste Coburg is a vast medieval fortress perched about 160 meters above the town of Coburg in northern Bavaria, close to the border with Thuringia. Often called the "Crown of Franconia," it is one of the largest and best-preserved castle c…
Castles
Passau
From Passau's old town you see it all the time: high above the left bank of the Danube stands Veste Oberhaus, its façade marked with a large 1499, written with the medieval "half eight" for the four. The castle sits 105 metres above the va…
Palaces
Essen
Villa Hügel is what you get when a steel magnate designs his home: 399 rooms, around 11,000 square metres of floor space, built to be as fireproof as possible and set high above the Ruhr valley. Alfred Krupp had it built in 1870–1873. Four…
Museums
München
From outside it looks like a small Greek temple on Prinzregentenstraße; inside opens a world of dark walls, gold, ornament and symbols. Villa Stuck was the home and studio of Munich's "prince of painters" Franz von Stuck (1863–1928), who d…
Lakes
Kochel am See
What surprises everyone is the colour: on a sunny day Lake Walchensee glows a turquoise you would expect in the Caribbean. Yet it lies at 801 metres in the Bavarian Prealps, about 75 km south of Munich, framed by the Herzogstand, the Jochb…
Industrial heritage
Kochel am See
The Walchensee Hydroelectric Power Station in Kochel am See is one of Germany's great industrial landmarks and still produces electricity a century after it opened. Six enormous steel pipes carry water from Lake Walchensee down roughly 200…
Monuments
Donaustauf
The Walhalla near Donaustauf, just east of Regensburg, is a hall of fame built in the form of a Greek temple, high above the Danube River. King Ludwig I of Bavaria created it to honor great figures of the German-speaking world, and today m…
Churches & monasteries
Uhldingen-Mühlhofen
Birnau Pilgrimage Basilica sits above the northern shore of Lake Constance like a stage set: a pink façade, a slender tower and vineyards sloping down to the water of the Überlinger See. Inside is one of the most complete Rococo interiors…
Churches & monasteries
Bad Schussenried
The pilgrimage church of Steinhausen near Bad Schussenried in Upper Swabia is often called the most beautiful village church in the world. Between 1728 and 1733 the architect Dominikus Zimmermann created an oval interior that his brother J…
Coast & islands
Rostock
Warnemünde is the seaside resort of the Hanseatic city of Rostock and one of the most popular beach towns on Germany's Baltic coast. It combines one of the widest sandy beaches in the country with a historic lighthouse, a striking 1960s se…
Palaces
Isselburg
Anholt Castle (Wasserburg Anholt) in Isselburg, near the Dutch border on the Lower Rhine, is one of the largest and most beautiful moated castles in the Münsterland region. The princes of Salm-Salm have owned it since 1647 and still live h…
Mountains & peaks
Gersfeld (Rhön)
The Wasserkuppe in the Rhön Mountains is the highest peak in Hesse at 950 meters and is known worldwide as the "cradle of gliding." Its broad, open summit plateau near Gersfeld, about 20 km east of Fulda, draws hikers, glider and paraglide…
Industrial heritage
Magdeburg
The Magdeburg Water Bridge, or Wasserstraßenkreuz Magdeburg, near Hohenwarthe is a rare piece of engineering: the Mittelland Canal crosses the Elbe river on an 918-meter steel trough bridge, so ships sail over the river instead of detourin…