UMGEBUNGSENTDECKER
TRAVEL IMPRESSIONS OF AN ART AND HISTORY LOVER
and my experiences as a teacher in China
PICTUREBOOK GERMANY
From Sylt in the north to Königssee in the south
Flensburg and Sylt
Probably as unknown to many like me:
Flensburg, the rum city with historical connections to the Caribbean through its former affiliation with Denmark - and the city is beautiful.
Sylt is always good for productive photo sessions. The north is full of atmosphere here.
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Lübeck and Baltic Sea resorts
Lübeck is beautiful and it is wonderful to walk through the city on the traces of history. In our search for authentic places, we found centuries-old traditions that are still alive, town charters, guilds, wine offices, etc.
Of course, the sea is always nearby, so we were able to switch back and forth between a cultural trip and a beach holiday.
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The Harz Mountains
Germany's northernmost low mountain range, the Harz, is the first elevation in the North German lowlands and is therefore exposed to the harsh climate that hits it unhindered from the sea. It has a mystical, original atmosphere that opens up on hikes. It is easy to understand why the Harz has inspired witchcraft stories.
The colored wooden houses look Scandinavian; lovingly carved details are reminiscent of Slavic influences.
Last but not least, the Harz was a cultural area in the Middle Ages, whose Romanesque testimonies can be found in Goslar and Quedlinburg.
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Berlin
So much has already been said about Berlin that I do not want to contribute any more with my own texts.
But I have a relationship with this city, which I would like to convey here through photos and fragments of literature.
Berlin, I love you.
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Southern Thuringia - Peasant Wars and Origins of the Reformation
I was interested in the Schmalkaldic League, a kind of prelude to the Thirty Years' War. In southwest Thuringia, Germany's religious divisions became a common thread, and here one senses that nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come. It is an area of the Reformation and the Renaissance. It is a little off the beaten track in Germany, where the Werra flows between the Rhön and the Thuringian Forest. People who do not come from the area often know little about this corner.
Reason enough to go there - and as always, I found something interesting.
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Bergisches Land and Wuppertal
Altenberg, Burg Castle, historic town centres, the Dukes of Berg, landscapes like the "Elfringhauser Schweiz" ... what I discovered in spring 2020 on my trips to the Bergisches Land can be seen here.
Wuppertal, the Bergische metropolis, is really underestimated. Wrongly so, in my opinion. I'll show you why with my photos and thoughts.
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Ruhrpott - Route of Industrial Culture
Heavy industry and coal mining have become history in the Ruhr area. The region is changing and many of the former industrial plants are now museums.
All of this is connected by the Industrial Heritage Route, which takes you to points of interest related to industrial history
The landscapes and places on the route have completely different moods. Sometimes you walk in woody, secluded valleys, sometimes you stand on heaps that are reminiscent of lunar landscapes.
The region is very varied and therefore escapes the clichés.
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Cologne's romanesque Churches
The most famous church in Cologne is the cathedral - without a doubt. But Cologne is also the only city in the world with twelve large Romanesque churches in its old town. Visiting is a special experience. Each has an interesting story to tell. You get to know Cologne well off the beaten tourist track. There are tips for beautiful Veedel full of cafés, pubs and breweries so that you can strengthen yourself and relax during the concentrated cultural trip.
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Hunsrueck -
in the footsteps of the "Heimat" series
The epic of the century "Heimat" by Edgar Reitz was the common thread on the journey through the Hunsrück. It was an intense journey into the past and in the process reality and fiction mixed in a strange way.
Not only the locations were on the program, but also the beautiful landscape. We just drifted along and discovered some things we didn't expect.
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Frankfurt - On Cider Tour and Traces of the Emperors
Frankfurt, with its reconstructed old town and apple wine bars, is cozier and more down-to-earth than you might think. Perhaps the culture of wine taverns is on the decline, but when you go to Sachsenhausen, you get the impression that it's all very much alive, even among young people from Frankfurt.
But cozy evenings in the inns are only the relaxation program, because when you think of Frankfurt, you actually think of the skyline, the money and the medieval size, Kaiserdom, Paulskirche, Goethe and much more.
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Franconia
In Northern Germany it is believed that Franconia is Bavaria. That may be true for today's federal state, but Franconia is an independent and culturally rich region with a lot of world heritage: The Würzburg Residence, the Bayreuth Opera House, the old town of Bamberg, the Belle Époque Bad Kissingen. There are also places along the Romantic Road.
You will find endless calendar and postcard motifs. The charm is perhaps too much for some. Overseas tourists love this.
Franconia also has its own culinary culture. Nowhere are there more breweries than in Upper Franconia. But there are also wine francs.
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The Allgäu in Winter
Snow and sunshine are just beautiful. So here are a few mood pictures of it.
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From Hallig Hooge to Eiderstedt
The Halligen lie off the coast of Schleswig like lost patches of land, where they hold the fort and offer coastal protection.
From there the journey went via pretty Friedrichstadt to places with postcard motifs on the North Sea, the Westerhever lighthouse and the stilt houses on the wide beach of St. Peter-Ording.
At the moment here are only pictures.
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Bremen
Bremen is underestimated. Just looking around the market square and that is all does not do the city justice.
There are many interesting things, for example the wine treasures in the Ratskeller, the upper hall in the town hall, the Schaffermahlzeit and more. You can look for coffee companies or simply take a break at the Schlachte or in the Ostertorviertel. You should not miss the beautiful residential areas with the traditional Bremen houses.
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Lüneburg Heath
A well-known destination, but somewhat forgotten by the younger generation.
We really wanted to get out of everyday life and during the Corona period it was perfect there. A remote cottage and few people in autumn, silence and nature. But Lüneburg and Celle are also nice destinations.
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Wendland and Altmark
Always on the river Elbe Along, the river was the border between Saxony and Wends, or between Christianized Germans and pagan Slavs.
The area east of the Elbe was conquered and Christianized in the Middle Ages.
Beautiful little medieval towns that grew up around monasteries and castles bear witness to this today
It was a trip along the border of the former East Franconian Empire and Mark Brandenburg.
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Thuringia -
Eisenach and Weimar
Dusseldorf - Baroque City of Art
Who built Benrath Castle, the courtyard garden and many other things? But even more exciting is the question of what a de' Medici was doing in Düsseldorf. There was also an art collection that was absolutely world class. Where have the paintings gone?
A search for traces of these things was like a treasure hunt and I found what I was looking for.
Incidentally, Düsseldorf also offers a lot of distraction these days.
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The Hellweg and the Ruhr area in the Middle Ages
The Ruhr area in the Middle Ages is almost unknown today and that's a shame, because in the early Middle Ages this was an important area in Old Saxony because of the Hellweg, an important axis of Christianization. Many traces of this remain, but they are easily overlooked.
Who suspects that Essen has one of the most important cathedral treasures of Ottonian times or that Dortmund was a free imperial city with well-fortified medieval fortifications?
I focused on that and drove along Hellweg. The trip went beyond the Ruhr area to the Weser to Corvey.
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Koenigswinter and ist surroundings
At the moment here are only pictures.
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Mainz
At the moment here are only pictures.
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In the Odenwald
At the moment here are only pictures.
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Baden-Wuerttemberg -
Land of Literature
To describe Baden-Württemberg as a literary state is not unreasonable. They even do that themselves in the southwest. But we didn't plan to go there because of that, we stumbled across it by accident, we found literary traces in every place. Of course, it started with the Heidelberg Romantic period, but later it continued in the footsteps of Hermann Hesse in Maulbronn, Calw and Tübingen. Wilhelm Hauff, Friedrich Hölderlin and Friedrich Schelling were also active in Tübingen, and in Schwäbisch Hall we found ourselves in the middle of a theater festival that put the whole town in a party mood - so the tour, originally planned as a short trip through cozy half-timbered towns, developed into a trip on the trail of literature.
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At the Schlei
The Schlei leads deep inland, but is not an estuary, but rather a kind of fjord.
At its end are the cities of Schleswig and the sunken and legendary Viking city of Haithabu. Sieseby is indisputably the most beautiful place on the Schlei with its thatched houses. Here you will find absolute peace.
At the moment here are only pictures.
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Worpswede
In 1889, three artists decided to settle in the village of the moor farmers, and others followed. They painted the landscape and the lives of the people, creating a monument to a bygone era and the simple life on the moor.
Today the tourists come. What sounds like commercialization is nevertheless beautiful, the landscape is quiet and wide, the atmosphere of the paintings is dense and the artists' houses radiate warmth and security.
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Brunswick and Wolfenbuttel
About the Guelphs, one of the oldest still existing high nobility families in Europe, the most expensive book in the world, a library that was called the eighth wonder of the world at the time and is now part of the national cultural heritage, the Guelph Treasure, which still causes heated emotions today, and the Dispute between Emperor Barbarossa and Henry the Lion.
Many superlatives and indeed a lot happened in the tribal duchy of Saxony.
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Brandenburg
Pine forests on lakes as in Leistikow's paintings, small towns with well-kept historic town centers, robinia avenues, Anger villages, churches in brick Gothic style, storks and cuckoos, Oderbruch, Schorfheie or Niederlausitz.
In Brandenburg you have the impression that time has stood still and you feel like you are in a novel by Theodor Fontane.
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At Rivers Saale and Unstrut
Munster and the Munsterland
The Münsterland is a cultural landscape that is shaped by the Westphalian nobility and their castles. There are around a hundred moated castles in Münsterland, most of which are privately owned. Some can be visited as museums and some owners open their doors on request. The flat landscape is suitable for bicycle tours, but the Münsterland is large, so that even by car you can only partially access it. In the center is Munster, the city of the Peace of Westphalia, which was signed there in the town hall, where you can see the hall where this important European event took place. There is a lot to discover in Westphalia when it comes to culinary delights.
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At the Lower Rhine
The sluggish, wide stream, the flat landscape and above it the wide sky, pastures, avenues and dikes.
In addition, there are beautiful little towns that flourished in the late Middle Ages and produced artists who worked in the region between Westphalia and the Netherlands, some of whom achieved national fame.
I discovered the Lower Rhine by bike.
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Rivers Rhine, Moselle and Nahe
The Rhine with its myth, the Moselle with its originality and the Nahe, which is the furthest away and least known from a North Rhine-Westphalian perspective.
Great destinations for a short trip
and if you stay another night or two, everyday life is far away.
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Brothers Grimm country
Northern Hesse and southern Lower Saxony were a total surprise for us and a highlight of the year. The area is full of history and beautiful places: Fritzlar, Hannoversch Münden and many more. At the same time there is quite a bit of undestroyed nature like the Reinhardswald.
We didn't expect that, only two hours away from our home.
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On the River Lahn
The Lahn is 246 km long, two thirds of which flows through Hesse.
Romantic places with lots of half-timbered houses, slate and old arched bridges lie on their banks. We visited Limburg, Weilburg and Wetzlar and not only saw beautiful old towns, but also discovered places of famous products such as Selters water and Leica cameras.
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Black Forest
The journey went from Baden-Baden via the Black Forest High Road to Schiltach.
In the Kinzig valley I found Black Forest farms like in picture books. They have been there for centuries and some of them are gigantic in size for their wooden construction.
In Schiltach with its beautiful old town, which is also on the Kinzig, I was fascinated by the history of the raftsmen, an old farming method that has disappeared today and that is known, among other things, from Hauff's fairy tale "The Cold Heart".
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