A historic university city, Münster is the capital of Westphalia and has a skyline shaped by the Romanesque and Gothic towers of its medieval churches. For hundreds of years up to 1801 the city was ruled by a Catholic Prince-Bishopric. This dominion was only briefly interrupted by an Anabaptist rebellion, which was crushed in brutal …
The capital of the state of Hesse, Wiesbaden is a spa town on mineral springs that have been harnessed since the Romans. The city has all the regal architecture and rarefied air of a 19th-century resort. There are stately monuments like the glass-domed Kurhaus (Spa House), dainty gardens and old-world infrastructure like a funicular train …
Wreathed in vineyards in Baden-Württemberg, Freiburg is a Medieval university city on the edge of the Black Forest. The minster has to be the first thing you see in Freiburg, and you’ll want to view this Gothic marvel and its marvellous tower from every angle. The city is one of Germany’s most liveable, and the …
An industrial giant in the Ruhr, Duisburg is still Germany’s largest steel-producing city when a lot of the other heavy industry in the region has powered down. Helping to transport Duisburg’s tonnage is the largest river port in the world, situated at the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr. The inner harbour, which cuts …
In Medieval times the Weser River brought Europe to Bremen’s door, and the city grew in stature as a Free Hanseatic City from the 12th Century. Sea trade has always been in Bremen’s blood, and from the 17th century exotic products like coffee started arriving. Germany’s first ever coffee house opened in Bremen in the …
Once powered by heavy industry, Dortmund, the largest city in the Ruhr area, is now a high-tech manufacturing city. The old mines, steelworks and breweries are now kept as colossal monuments to the booming post-war period, and sites like the Zeche Zollern colliery still have their enormous steam turbines and fine Art Nouveau architecture. In …
In the vine-decked Neckar Valley, Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg. For hundreds of years until the 19th century the city was the seat of the Counts and then the Kings of Württemberg, and they left behind royal palaces for that have become government buildings and museums. Stuttgart was also the city …
As an international financial giant, Düsseldorf has a well-to-do reputation underpinned by its chic shopping street Königsallee and the revitalised harbour where the big names in architecture have contributed buildings. The city has an earthier side too, and residents and tourists let their hair down and quaff the local Altbier in the historic Altstadt which …
In Lower Saxony, Braunschweig (also known as Brunswick) is the largest city between Berlin and Hanover. The city was founded by the Duke of Saxony, Henry the Lion, a member of the Welf Dynasty that would be present in Braunschweig right up to 1918. In the Middle Ages the city was a major trading hub …
The great Charlemagne chose Aachen as his imperial residence at the start of the 9th century. As the first Holy Roman Emperor his dream was to the turn the city into a new Rome. For the next 600 years or so, every Holy Roman Emperor was crowned in the city. And today, five hundred years …