A 20-minute drive south of Braunschweig (Brunswick) in Lower Saxony, Salzgitter is an industrial city with a reputation for its steel production. A new city, Salzgitter was only founded in the 20th century when its steelworks and VW manufacturing plant drew thousands of workers. Before then, this was a patchwork of former noble estates, and …
In the early days of industrialisation Iserlohn was the largest city in Westphalia. Iserlohn’s growth spurt happened early because of a burgeoning metalworking industry. This had been around since the city was founded in the Middle Ages, when armourers used wire-drawing techniques to make suits of chainmail. But it gained real momentum in the 1700s, …
A few short kilometres upriver from Frankfurt, on the left bank of the Main sits the city of Offenbach. In times past, two of the big industries in Offenbach were leather-making and typography, and today there are high profile museums about both trades. The city took a lot of damage in the Second World War, …
Resting in the north-western foothills of the Swabian Jura, Reutlingen is a likeable historic city and a jumping off point for people exploring the mountains. The main sights are in the compact pedestrian zone, where you’ll pass old gate towers, a half-timbered Medieval hospital from the 1300s and the Gothic Marienkirche, which is capped with …
In rural and hilly south Westphalia, Siegen is a university city that was once a residence for the Counts of Nassau. That noble family had a difficult period in the 17th century when it broke into a Catholic and a Protestant line. The Catholics lived in the Oberes Schloss (Upper Palace), on the Seigberg, which …
In Thuringia, Gera is a former textile city sitting in the Weiße Elster River valley. For hundreds of years the city was ruled by the House of Reuß-Gera. And for about a century up to 1919 Gera was even the capital of a sovereign state. The old monuments belonging to the Reuß family like their …
In the UNESCO-listed Upper Middle Rhine Valley, Koblenz is a 2,000-year-old city where the Moselle joins the Rhine. Right at the confluence of those rivers the Teutonic Order founded one of its first commanderies in the 13th century and where the immense Frankish Empire was divided up in the 800s. To honour that history, a …
In the Lower Rhine Valley, a short way west of the river is Moers, an understated former mining city with a sweet old centre. Moers’ historic core is still walled by zigzagging ramparts behind a moat. That water defence was an effective way of keeping enemies out hundreds of years ago due to a system …
The city of Bergisch Gladbach was born in 1975 when the namesake town and Bensberg merged during a territorial reform in North Rhine-Westphalia. Now it’s a rural, low-key kind of place, just across the Rhine from Cologne. Historically one of the big employers in Bergisch Gladbach was papermaking. There’s still a functioning paper mill in …
The enchanting Medieval city of Esslingen is an arm of the Neckar River upstream from Stuttgart. Esslingen is blessed with centuries old architecture and has more than 200 half-timbered houses protected by once impregnable fortifications. When you’re in Esslingen have to be sure to battle your way up the steep, vine-decked slopes to the north …