The tripto catalogue lists 28 industrial heritage sites: collieries and ironworks, mines, bridges, tunnels and power stations. Almost all are family-friendly, and three are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
Zollverein in Essen was once the world's highest-output coal mine; the site with its double-trestle headframe is free, while tours and the Ruhr Museum cost extra. The Völklingen Ironworks in Saarland is the only fully preserved ironworks from the industrial age, with blast furnaces and a viewing platform – under-18s and students go free. At the Rammelsberg Mine in Goslar, more than 1,000 years old, you ride a mine train underground. Hamburg's Old Elbe Tunnel from 1911 runs 24 metres below the Elbe through tiled tubes, free for pedestrians. The Gasometer Oberhausen hosts large exhibitions, and Dresden's Blue Wonder is a steel bridge over the Elbe from 1893, with two historic funiculars nearby.
Most sites in the catalogue are in North Rhine-Westphalia (8, mainly in the Ruhr), followed by Lower Saxony and Saxony.
In practice: allow two to three hours, and half a day for Zollverein or Völklingen. Tickets usually cost €10–17, with tours extra; at Rammelsberg there are combined tickets with up to three tours. It is cool underground, so bring a jacket. Many sites are open all year and work well in the rain.
Industrial heritage
Essen
The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (Zeche Zollverein) in Essen is the icon of Germany's Ruhr region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. Its red double-trestle winding tower is one of the most recognizable industrial struc…
Industrial heritage
Völklingen
The Völklingen Ironworks (Völklinger Hütte) in Völklingen, Saarland, is a vast former ironworks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. It was the first industrial monument from the age of industrialization to receive that status, and…
Industrial heritage
Goslar
The Rammelsberg Mine in Goslar is one of the most remarkable industrial sites in Germany: a mountain that was mined for more than a thousand years and is now a UNESCO World Heritage museum and show mine. You can ride a mine train into the…
Industrial heritage
Hamburg
The Old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel, officially St. Pauli Elbtunnel) in Hamburg has carried people beneath the Elbe River since 1911. You ride vintage elevators down a domed shaft, walk through two tiled tubes about 24 meters (80 feet) be…
Industrial heritage
Oberhausen
The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former gas holder turned into Europe's tallest exhibition hall, and one of the top things to do in Germany's Ruhr region. Standing 383 feet (117.5 m) high beside the Rhine-Herne Canal, it hosts large-scale nat…
Industrial heritage
Dresden
The Blue Wonder (Blaues Wunder), officially the Loschwitz Bridge, is a steel bridge across the Elbe River in eastern Dresden, opened in 1893 and now one of the city's best-loved landmarks. It links the elegant villa districts of Blasewitz…
Industrial heritage
Essen
The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex (Zeche Zollverein) in Essen is the icon of Germany's Ruhr region and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. Its red double-trestle winding tower is one of the most recognizable industrial struc…
Industrial heritage
Goslar
The Rammelsberg Mine in Goslar is one of the most remarkable industrial sites in Germany: a mountain that was mined for more than a thousand years and is now a UNESCO World Heritage museum and show mine. You can ride a mine train into the…
Industrial heritage
Völklingen
The Völklingen Ironworks (Völklinger Hütte) in Völklingen, Saarland, is a vast former ironworks and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. It was the first industrial monument from the age of industrialization to receive that status, and…
Industrial heritage
Hamburg
The Old Elbe Tunnel (Alter Elbtunnel, officially St. Pauli Elbtunnel) in Hamburg has carried people beneath the Elbe River since 1911. You ride vintage elevators down a domed shaft, walk through two tiled tubes about 24 meters (80 feet) be…
Industrial heritage
Dresden
The Blue Wonder (Blaues Wunder), officially the Loschwitz Bridge, is a steel bridge across the Elbe River in eastern Dresden, opened in 1893 and now one of the city's best-loved landmarks. It links the elegant villa districts of Blasewitz…
Industrial heritage
Köln
The Hohenzollern Bridge in Cologne is the steel arch railroad bridge that frames the city's most famous view: the twin spires of Cologne Cathedral rising above the Rhine. It is one of the busiest railroad bridges in Germany, and its walkwa…
Industrial heritage
Lichterfeld-Schacksdorf
It is longer than the Eiffel Tower is tall, and it was built for a life in the mine that lasted barely eighteen months. The F60 conveyor bridge near Lichterfeld in southern Brandenburg is 502 metres long, up to 80 metres high and 240 metre…
Industrial heritage
Fehmarn
The Fehmarn Sound Bridge (Fehmarnsundbrücke) links the Baltic island of Fehmarn with the mainland near Großenbrode and is nicknamed the "coat hanger" for its steel arch. Opened in 1963 and protected as a monument, the combined road and rai…
Industrial heritage
Oberhausen
The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former gas holder turned into Europe's tallest exhibition hall, and one of the top things to do in Germany's Ruhr region. Standing 383 feet (117.5 m) high beside the Rhine-Herne Canal, it hosts large-scale nat…
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…
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…
Industrial heritage
Köln
The Cologne Cable Car (Kölner Seilbahn) has been carrying passengers across the Rhine in small four-seat gondolas since 1957, linking a station next to Cologne Zoo with the Rheinpark on the opposite bank. The six-minute ride is one of the…
Industrial heritage
Duisburg
Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord is a former steelworks in Duisburg that has been transformed into a public park, one of the most striking examples of industrial heritage in Europe. Across some 445 acres (180 ha), rusting blast furnaces stand…
Industrial heritage
Leipzig
The Leipzig Cotton Mill (Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei) in the Plagwitz district is an industrial monument that now thrives as an art district. On about ten hectares of red-brick halls, artists work in studios while galleries and workshops o…
Industrial heritage
Westerhever
The Westerheversand Lighthouse near the village of Westerhever is the icon of the Eiderstedt peninsula on Germany's North Sea coast and one of the country's most photographed lighthouses. Its red-and-white striped tower rises from a man-ma…
Industrial heritage
Dortmund
Zollern Colliery (Zeche Zollern) in Dortmund is often called the "Palace of Work," and with good reason. Its brick buildings with gables and turrets, two winding towers and an Art Nouveau machine hall make it one of the most beautiful form…
Industrial heritage
Solingen
The Müngsten Bridge between Solingen and Remscheid is the tallest railway bridge in Germany, rising 107 meters above the Wupper valley. The delicate steel arch, finished in 1897, is a landmark of the Bergisches Land and a popular day trip…
Industrial heritage
Rüdersdorf bei Berlin
Museumspark Rüdersdorf is an open-air museum of industrial heritage just beyond Berlin's eastern city limits. Across 17 hectares, historic lime kilns, canals and a striking row of shaft kilns tell how limestone was quarried and burned here…
Industrial heritage
Thale
The wall of the Rappbode Dam measures 106 metres from foundation to crest, higher than any other in Germany. Behind it lies the largest reservoir in the Harz and the country's largest drinking-water reservoir, whose water flows as far as H…
Industrial heritage
Binz
The name is a joke: the Rasender Roland, "Racing Roland", takes over an hour for the 24-odd kilometres between Putbus and Göhren. That is exactly the point. Since 1895 the steam trains of this narrow-gauge railway have rolled through woods…
Industrial heritage
Berchtesgaden
The Berchtesgaden Salt Mine (Salzbergwerk Berchtesgaden) is Germany's oldest working salt mine and one of the top things to do in the Berchtesgaden Alps, close to the Austrian border near Salzburg. Miners have extracted salt here continuou…
Industrial heritage
Blumberg
The Sauschwänzlebahn near Blumberg is a historic heritage railway in the southern Black Forest that runs about 25 kilometers (15 miles) through the Wutach valley. The nickname, roughly "piglet's tail railway," comes from the curly route an…
Industrial heritage
Waltrop
Ships rising 14 metres into the air together with a basin of water: the Henrichenburg Boat Lift near Waltrop, inaugurated on 11 August 1899 in the presence of Emperor Wilhelm II, was the world's first multi-float boat lift ever built and t…
Industrial heritage
Niederfinow
The Niederfinow Boat Lifts, about 60 km northeast of Berlin, are one of the most impressive things to see for anyone fascinated by engineering. Two giant elevators raise and lower entire ships, together with the water they float in, by 36…
Zollverein in Essen, the Völklingen Ironworks and the Rammelsberg Mine in Goslar.
The site is free. A one-hour colliery tour costs €12.50 (reduced €9.50), and the Ruhr Museum's permanent exhibition €10.
In North Rhine-Westphalia – 8 sites in the catalogue, mainly in the Ruhr. Lower Saxony and Saxony follow.
Updated: · Opening hours and prices can change — check the attraction page before you go.