Amazing Germany

Germany is the seventh most visited country in the world, with a total of 407.26 million overnights during 2012. This number includes 68.83 million nights by foreign visitors, the majority of foreign tourists in 2009 coming from the Netherlands, the United States and Switzerland. Additionally, more than 30% of Germans spend their holiday in their own country. According to Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Reports, Germany is rated as one of the safest travel destinations worldwide.

Germany is well known for its diverse tourist routes, such as the Romantic Road, the Wine Route, the Castle Road, and the Avenue Road. The German Timber-Frame Road connects towns with examples of these structures. There are 40 UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Germany, including the old town cores of Regensburg, Bamberg, Lübeck, Quedlinburg, Weimar, Stralsund and Wismar. Germany's most-visited landmarks include i. e. Neuschwanstein Castle, Cologne Cathedral, Berlin Bundestag, Hofbräuhaus Munich, Heidelberg Castle, Dresden Zwinger, Fernsehturm Berlin and Aachen Cathedral. The Europa-Park near Freiburg is Europe's second most popular theme park resort.

Main Attractions

Berlin

Berlin is the capital of Germany and one of its 16 states. With a population of approximately 3.5 million people, Berlin is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union. Located in northeastern Germany on the banks of Rivers Spree and Havel, it is the centre of the Berlin-Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, which has about six million residents from over 180 nations. Due to its location in the European Plain, Berlin is influenced by a temperate seasonal climate. Around one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers and lakes.

Berlin is a world city of culture, politics, media and science. Its economy is based on high-tech firms and the service sector, encompassing a diverse range of creative industries, research facilities, media corporations and convention venues. Berlin serves as a continental hub for air and rail traffic and has a highly complex public transportation network. The metropolis is a popular tourist destination. Significant industries also include IT, pharmaceuticals, biomedical engineering, clean tech, biotechnology, construction and electronics.

Modern Berlin is home to world renowned universities, orchestras, museums, entertainment venues and is host to many sporting events. Its urban setting has made it a sought-after location for international film productions. The city is well known for its festivals, diverse architecture, nightlife, contemporary arts and a high quality of living. Over the last decade Berlin has seen the emergence of a cosmopolitan entrepreneurial scene.

Brandenburg Gate

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument in Berlin, and one of the best-known landmarks of Germany. It is built on the site of a former city gate that marked the start of the road from Berlin to the town of Brandenburg an der Havel.


It is located in the western part of the city centre of Berlin within Mitte, at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building that houses the German parliament (Bundestag). The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees, which led directly to the royal City Palace of the Prussian monarchs.

Throughout its existence, the Brandenburg Gate was often a site for major historical events and is today considered a symbol of the tumultuous history of Europe and Germany, but also of European unity and peace.

Düsseldorf

Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the seventh most populous city in Germany. Düsseldorf is an international business and financial centre, renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. The city is headquarters to five Fortune Global 500 and several DAX companies. Messe Düsseldorf organises nearly one fifth of premier trade shows.


Düsseldorf is known for its academy of fine arts (Joseph Beuys, Emanuel Leutze, August Macke, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke and Andreas Gursky), its pioneering influence on electronic/experimental music (Kraftwerk) and its Japanese community. On the river Rhine, Düsseldorf holds Rhenish Carnival celebrations every year in February / March. Mercer's 2012 Quality of Living survey ranked Düsseldorf sixth city in the world.


Semperoper

The Semperoper is the opera house of the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (Saxon State Opera) and the concert hall of the Staatskapelle Dresden (Saxon State Orchestra). It is also home to the Semperoper ballet. The building is located near the Elbe River in the historic centre of Dresden, Germany.


The opera house was originally built by the architect Gottfried Semper in 1841. After a devastating fire in 1869, the opera house was rebuilt, partly again by Semper, and completed in 1878. The opera house has a long history of premieres, including major works by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss.

Today, the orchestra for most operas is the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. The Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) of the Semperoper is normally a different person from that of the Staatskapelle when it presents concerts. Exceptions have been Karl Böhm, Hans Vonk, and Fabio Luisi who have held both positions. Whilst the Semperoper does not have a GMD as of 2015, the current chief conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden is Christian Thielemann, as of the 2012/13 season. The current Intendant (General Manager) of the company is Wolfgang Rothe.


Dresden Frauenkirche

The Dresden Frauenkirche is a Lutheran church in Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony. An earlier church building was Roman Catholic until it became Protestant during the Reformation, and was replaced in the 18th century by a larger Baroque Lutheran building. It is considered an outstanding example of Protestant sacred architecture, featuring one of the largest domes in Europe. It now also serves as a symbol of reconciliation between former warring enemies.

The Frauenkirche is often called a cathedral, but it is not the seat of a bishop; the church of the Landesbischof of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Saxony is the Church of the Cross. Once a month, an Anglican Evensong is held in English, by clergy from St. George's Anglican Church, Berlin.


Mercedes-Benz Museum

The Mercedes-Benz Museum is an automobile museum in Stuttgart, Germany. It covers the history of the Mercedes-Benz brand and the brands associated with it. Stuttgart is home to the Mercedes-Benz brand and the international headquarters of Daimler AG.

The current building, which stands directly outside the main gate of the Daimler factory in Stuttgart, was designed by UN Studio. It is based on a unique cloverleaf concept using three overlapping circles with the center removed to form a triangular atrium recalling the shape of a Wankel engine.


Nuremberg Castle

Nuremberg Castle is a historical building on a sandstone rock in the north of the historical city of Nuremberg in Bavaria, Germany. It comprises three sections: the Imperial castle, some buildings of the Burgraves of Nuremberg, and the municipal buildings of the Imperial City at the eastern site. The castle, together with the city walls, is considered to be one of Europe's most formidable medieval fortifications.

New Town Hall (Hanover)

The New Town Hall or New City Hall in Hanover, Germany, is a city hall and was opened on July 20, 1913, after having been under construction for 12 years. It is a magnificent, castle-like building of the era of Wilhelm II in eclectic style at the southern edge of the inner city. The building is embedded in the 10 hectare Maschpark. The Old Town Hall is no longer used as the main seat of administration, but houses businesses and the registry office.

Nördlingen

Nördlingen is a town in the Donau-Ries district, in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, with a population of approximately 24,000. It was first mentioned in recorded history in 898, and in 1998 the town celebrated its 1100th anniversary. The town was the location of two battles during the Thirty Years' War, which took place between 1618–1648. Today it is one of only three towns in Germany that still has a completely established city wall, the other two being Rothenburg ob der Tauber and Dinkelsbühl.

Another attraction in the town is the Saint Georg's Church's 90 m steeple, called "Daniel", which is made of a suevite impact breccia that contains shocked quartz. Other notable buildings are the town hall, St. Salvator church and the Spital, a former medieval hospital. The Ries crater museum is located in the well-preserved medieval tanner's quarter.

The city is home to several other museums, such as the Bavarian Railway Museum, the Nördlingen city museum, the city wall museum and Augenblick museum with panoramas, magic lanterns, silent films, barrel organs, pianolas, music boxes and gramophones.

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a town in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany,situated on the river Elbe.

The importance of Wittenberg historically was due to its seat of the Elector of Saxony, a dignity held by the dukes of Saxe-Wittenberg and also to its close connection with Martin Luther and the dawn of the Protestant Reformation; several of its buildings are associated with the events of this time. Part of the Augustinian monastery in which Luther dwelt, first as a monk and later as owner with his wife and family, is preserved and considered to be the world's premier museum dedicated to Luther. Various Luther and Melanchthon memorial sites were added to the UNESCO world heritage list in 1996.

Stone Bridge (Regensburg)

The Stone Bridge in Regensburg, Germany, is a 12th-century bridge across the Danube linking the Old Town with Stadtamhof. For more than 800 years, until the 1930s, it was the city's only bridge across the river. It is a masterwork of medieval construction and an emblem of the city.

Belchen (Black Forest)

The Belchen, 1,414 metres (4,639 ft), or Black Forest Belchen  is the fourth highest summit of the Black Forest after the Feldberg, Seebuck and the Herzogenhorn. The municipalities of Münstertal, Schönenberg and Kleines Wiesental meet on the summit dome of the Belchen which is located in the southwest German state of Baden-Württemberg.

The Belchen lies on the West Way, a long distance path maintained by the Black Forest Club, which runs from Pforzheim to Basle. Other marked footpaths run from Untermünstertal, Schönau and Neuenweg up the mountain.The Belchen lies on the West Way, a long distance path maintained by the Black Forest Club, which runs from Pforzheim to Basle. Other marked footpaths run from Untermünstertal, Schönau and Neuenweg up the mountain.

Because of its rare flora and fauna, Belchen was declared a nature reserve in 1949. The area was extended to 1600 ha in 1993. and is now one of the largest nature reserves in Baden-Württemberg.

Many species of rare butterfly, beetle and bird are found in the highland areas of the Belchen. Typical birds include the raven, song thrush, citril finch and water pipit, but peregrine, capercaillie and hazel grouse are also found on the Belchen.

Among the plants are relicts from the last ice age that are otherwise only found in the Alps. These include the Swiss bellflower, Alpine rose, Swiss hawkbit and lichens.

Rostock

Rostock is the largest city in the north German state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Rostock is on the Warnow river; the district of Warnemünde 12 kilometres (7 miles) north of the city centre is directly on the Baltic Sea coast.

Rostock is home to one of the oldest universities in the world, the University of Rostock, founded in 1419.


The city territory of Rostock stretches for about 20 km (12 mi) along the Warnow to the Baltic Sea. The largest built-up area of Rostock is on the western side of the river. The eastern part of its territory is dominated by industrial estates and the forested Rostock Heath. Rostock is considered as the only regiopolis in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.


Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is a town in the district of Ansbach of Mittelfranken, the Franconia region of Bavaria, Germany. It is well known for its well-preserved medieval old town, a destination for tourists from around the world. It is part of the popular Romantic Road through southern Germany.







Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is the sixth largest German state by area, and the least densely populated. The coastline of the Baltic Sea, including islands such as Rügen and Usedom, as well as the Mecklenburg Lake District, features many holiday resorts and unspoilt nature, making Mecklenburg-Vorpommern one of Germany's leading tourist destinations. Three of Germany's fourteen national parks are in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, in addition to several hundred nature conservation areas.


Major cities include Rostock, Schwerin, Neubrandenburg, Stralsund, Greifswald, Wismar and Güstrow. The University of Rostock (est. 1419) and the University of Greifswald (est. 1456) are among the oldest in Europe. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern was the site of the 33rd G8 summit in 2007.

See also

• Transport in Germany
• Public holidays in Germany
• List of museums in Germany
• List of world's largest cuckoo clocks
• Economy of Germany
• Cuisine of Germany
• Tourism in East Germany
• German tourism industry
• List of World Heritage Sites in Germany