961 Best Sights in Germany

This fortress, one of the largest and most impressive in the country, is Coburg's main attraction. The brooding bulk of the castle guards the town atop a 1,484-foot hill. Construction began around 1055, but with progressive rebuilding and remodeling today's predominantly late Gothic–early Renaissance edifice bears little resemblance to the original crude fortress. One part of the castle harbors the Kunstsammlungen, a grand set of collections including art, with works by Dürer, Cranach, and Hans Holbein, among others; sculpture from the school of the great Tilman Riemenschneider (1460–1531); furniture and textiles; magnificent weapons, armor, and tournament garb spanning four centuries (in the so-called Herzoginbau, or Duchess's Building); carriages and ornate sleighs; and more. The room where Martin Luther lived for six months in 1530 while he observed the goings-on of the Augsburg Diet has an especially dignified atmosphere. The Jagdintarsien-Zimmer (Hunting Marquetry Room), an elaborately decorated room that dates back to the early 17th century, has some of the finest woodwork in southern Germany. Finally, there's the Carl-Eduard-Bau (Carl-Eduard Building), which contains a valuable antique glass collection, mostly from the baroque age.

In Bad Staffelstein, on the east side of the Main north of Bamberg, is a tall, elegant, yellow-sandstone edifice whose interior represents one of the great examples of rococo decoration. The church was built by Balthasar Neumann (architect of the Residenz at Würzburg) between 1743 and 1772 to commemorate a vision of Christ and 14 saints—vierzehn Heiligen—that appeared to a shepherd in 1445. The interior, known as "God's Ballroom," is supported by 14 columns. In the middle of the church is the Gnadenaltar (Mercy Altar) featuring the 14 saints. Thanks to clever play with light, light colors, and fanciful gold-and-blue trimmings, the dizzying interior seems to be in perpetual motion. Guided tours of the church are given on request; a donation is expected. On Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday the road leading to the church is closed and you have to walk the last half mile.

The city's open-air market really is the beating heart of downtown Munich. Around 140 stalls and shops sell everything from produce to meat to coffee to baked goods, as well as German and international specialties. All kinds of people come here for a quick bite, from well-heeled businesspeople and casual tourists to local workers. It's also the realm of the garrulous, sturdy market women who run the stalls with dictatorial authority; do not try to select your pickings by hand: ask, and let it be served to you. There's a great beer garden (open pretty much whenever the sun is shining), where you can enjoy your snacks with cold local beer. A sign above the counter tells you what's on tap. The choice rotates throughout the year among the six major Munich breweries, which are displayed on the maypole. These are also the only six breweries officially allowed to serve their wares at the Oktoberfest.

Begun in 1067 (and expanded through the centuries), this mighty castle has hosted a parade of German celebrities. Hermann I (1156–1217), count of Thuringia and count palatine of Saxony, was a patron of the wandering poets Walther von der Vogelweide (1170–1230) and Wolfram von Eschenbach (1170–1220). Legend has it that this is where Walther von der Vogelweide, the greatest lyric poet of medieval Germany, prevailed in the celebrated Minnesängerstreit (minnesinger contest), which is featured in Richard Wagner's Tannhäuser.

Within the castle's stout walls, Frederick the Wise (1463–1525) shielded Martin Luther from papal proscription from May 1521 until March 1522, even though Frederick did not share the reformer's beliefs. Luther completed the first translation of the New Testament from Greek into German while in hiding, an act that paved the way for the Protestant Reformation. You can peek into the simple study in which Luther worked. Be sure to check out the place where Luther supposedly saw the devil and threw an inkwell at him. Pilgrims have picked away at the spot for centuries, forcing the curators to "reapply" the ink.

Frederick was also a patron of the arts. Lucas Cranach the Elder's portraits of Luther and his wife are on view in the castle, as is a very moving sculpture, the Leuchterengelpaar (Candlestick Angel Group), by the great 15th-century artist Tilman Riemenschneider. The 13th-century great hall is breathtaking; it's here that the minstrels sang for courtly favors. Don't leave without climbing the belvedere for a panoramic view of the Harz Mountains and the Thuringian Forest. You can wander the grounds of the Wartburg for free, but the only way into the interior of the castle is to take a guided tour. The English tour takes place every day at 1:30.

This section of the Georgenpalais, near Herrenhausen, is devoted to the works of cartoonists and caricaturists with an emphasis on Wilhelm Busch, the "godfather of the comic strip," whose original drawings and effects are on display. More than a century ago, Busch (1832–1908) wrote and illustrated a popular children's book, Max und Moritz, which tells the story of two boys who mixed gunpowder into the village tailor's pipe tobacco and, with fishing lines down the chimney, filched roasting chickens off the fire. The first American comic strip, The Katzenjammer Kids (1897), drew not only on Busch's naughty boys (they even spoke with a German accent) but also on his loose cartoon style.

In contrast to Speyer's Romanesque cathedral, the Worms Cathedral of St. Peter is much more Gothic. In part this is simply a matter of chronology, since Speyer Cathedral was finished in 1061, nearly 70 years before the one in Worms was even begun—and long before the lighter, more vertical lines of the Gothic style evolved. In addition, Speyer Cathedral was left largely untouched, but the Worms Cathedral underwent frequent remodeling. The Gothic influence here can be seen both inside and out, from the elaborate tympanum with biblical scenes over the southern portal (today's entrance) to the great rose window in the west choir and the five sculptures in the north aisle recounting the life of Christ. The cathedral was gutted by fire in 1689 in the War of the Palatinate Succession. For this reason, many of the furnishings are baroque, including the magnificent gilt high altar from 1742, designed by the master architect Balthasar Neumann (1687–1753). The choir stalls are no less decorative. They were built between 1755 and 1759 in rococo style. Walk around the building to see the artistic detail of the exterior.

The highest mountain (9,718 feet) in Germany is also the number-one attraction in the area. You can't see this world-famous peak from Garmisch-Partenkirchen until you've made your way up the mountain—it's hidden from view on the ground and is often mistaken for the nearby Alpsspitze—so it's worth braving the glass-bottom cable car for the view both on the way up and for the Alpine panoramas once you've reached the peak. Opened in 2017, the record-setting cable car ascends 6,381 feet over a distance of 10,451 feet in around 10 minutes. It's an engineering marvel on its own. Combined with the view from one of three restaurants' sunny terraces at the summit, the Zugspitze is awe-inspiring. To use the cable car, start in Grainau, 10 km (6 miles) outside town on the road to Austria. An unlimited one-day round-trip ticket is also valid for unlimited rides on the Gletscher Bahn, a gondola for skiers and hikers that covers the skiable "Zugspitzplatt," or flats. You can also combine a cable car ride with a leisurely 75-minute ride on a cog railroad, the Zahnradbahn. There are also a number of other peaks in the area with gondolas for both skiers in winter and hikers in summer, including the Hausberg Seilbahn, which takes you to a kid-friendly ski area. A four-seat cable car likewise will take you to the top of one of the lesser peaks, the 5,840-foot Wank, for €26. From there, you can tackle both mountains on foot, provided you're properly shod and physically fit. Or stop over at the Alpspitze, from where you can hike as well.

Dresden's magnificent Baroque showpiece is entered by way of the mighty Kronentor (Crown Gate), underneath the crown of Poland, off Ostra-Allee. It contains three different museums.

Augustus the Strong hired a small army of artists and artisans to create a "pleasure ground" worthy of the Saxon court on the site of the former bailey, part of the city fortifications. The artisans worked under the direction of the architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, who came reluctantly out of retirement to design what would be his greatest work, begun in 1707 and completed in 1728. Completely enclosing a central courtyard filled with lawns, pools, and fountains, the complex is made up of six linked pavilions, one of which boasts a carillon of Meissen bells, hence its name: Glockenspielpavillon.

The Zwinger is quite a scene—a riot of garlands, nymphs, and other elaborate ornamentation and sculpture. Wide staircases beckon to galleried walks and to the romantic Nymphenbad, a coyly hidden courtyard where statues of nude women perch in alcoves to protect themselves from a fountain that spits unexpectedly. The Zwinger once had an open view of the riverbank, but the Semper Opera House now occupies that side. Stand in the center of this quiet oasis, where the city's roar is kept at bay by the outer wings of the structure. Normal people were allowed onto the balcony and could watch all of the raucous festivities

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, in the northwestern corner of the complex, was built to house portions of the royal art collections. Among the priceless paintings are works by Dürer, Holbein, Jan Van Eyck, Rembrandt, Rubens, van Dyck, Hals, Vermeer, Raphael, Titian, Giorgione, Veronese, Velázquez, Murillo, Canaletto, and Watteau. On the wall of the entrance archway you'll see an inscription in Russian, one of the few amusing reminders of World War II in Dresden. It rhymes in Russian: "Museum checked. No mines. Chanutin did the checking." Chanutin, presumably, was the Russian soldier responsible for checking one of Germany's greatest art galleries for anything more explosive than a Rubens nude. The highlight of the collection is Raphael's Sistine Madonna, whose mournful look is slightly less famous than the two cherubs who were added by Raphael after the painting was completed, in order to fill an empty space at the bottom.

Stretching from the curved gallery that adjoins the Glockenspielpavillon to the long gallery on the east side, this collection of the Porzellansammlung is considered one of the best of its kind in the world. The focus, naturally, is on Dresden and Meissen china, but there are also outstanding examples of Japanese, Chinese, and Korean porcelain.

Holding medieval and Renaissance suits of armor and weapons, the Rüstkammer also has a branch in the Residenzschloss.

On the road between Überlingen and Salem, the Affenberg (Monkey Mountain) is a 50-plus-acre park that serves as home to more than 200 free-roaming Barbary apes, as well as deer, aquatic birds, gray herons, ducks, coots, and—during nesting time—a colony of white storks.

The island's main town is also one of its best resorts. The tidy and elegant resort is one of the three Kaiserbäder (imperial baths)—the two others are Heringsdorf and Bansin—where Emperor Wilhelm II liked to spend his summers in the early 20th century. Noble families and rich citizens followed the emperor, turning Ahlbeck into one of the prettiest summer retreats on the Baltic Coast. Ahlbeck's landmark is the 19th-century wooden pier with four towers. Stroll the beach to the right of the pier and you'll arrive at the Polish border.

Named after Saxony's King Albert, who between 1884 and 1887 converted a royal arsenal into a suitable setting for the treasures he and his forebears had collected, this massive, imperial-style building houses one of the world's great galleries featuring works from the romantic period to the modern. The Galerie Neue Meister (New Masters Gallery) has an extensive collection ranging from Caspar David Friedrich and Gauguin to Ernst Kirchner and Georg Baselitz.

The great painter Albrecht Dürer lived here from 1509 until his death in 1528. His beautifully preserved late-medieval house is typical of the prosperous merchants' homes that once filled Nuremberg. Dürer, who enriched German art with Renaissance elements, was more than a painter. He raised the woodcut, a notoriously difficult medium, to new heights of technical sophistication, combining great skill with a haunting, immensely detailed drawing style and complex, allegorical subject matter. A number of original prints adorn the walls, and printing techniques using the old press are demonstrated in the studio. An excellent opportunity to find out about life in the house of Dürer is the tour with a guide role-playing Agnes Dürer, the artist's wife.

The story of Meissen porcelain actually began high above Old Meissen. Towering over the Elbe River, this 15th-century castle is Germany's first truly residential one, a complete break with the earlier style of fortified bastions. In the central Schutzhof, a typical Gothic courtyard protected on three sides by high rough-stone walls, is an exterior spiral staircase, the Wendelstein, a masterpiece of early masonry hewn in 1525 from a single massive stone block. The ceilings of the castle halls are richly decorated, although many date only from a restoration in 1870. Adjacent to the castle is an early Gothic cathedral. It's a bit of a climb up Burgstrasse and Amtsstrasse to the castle, but a bus runs regularly up the hill from the Marktplatz.

If you want to learn about early Germans—residents from the 6th, 7th, and 8th centuries whose graves are just outside town—visit the Alemannenmuseum in the Kornhaus, which was once a granary. Archaeologists discovered the hundreds of Alemannic graves in the 1950s.

This bleak square, bordered by the train station, the Galeria Kaufhof department store, and the 37-story Park Inn by Radisson Berlin Alexanderplatz hotel, once formed the hub of East Berlin and was originally named in 1805 for Czar Alexander I. German writer Alfred Döblin dubbed it the "heart of a world metropolis" (a quote from his 1929 novel Berlin Alexanderplatz is written on a building at the northeastern end of the square). Today it's a basic center of commerce and the occasional festival. The unattractive modern buildings are a reminder not just of the results of Allied bombing but also of the ruthlessness practiced by East Germans when they demolished what remained. A famous meeting point in the south corner is the World Time Clock (1969), which even keeps tabs on Tijuana.

One of the oldest buildings in Tübingen, erected in 1547, the half-timber university building was significantly altered in 1777, when it acquired an Italian roof, a symmetrical facade, and a balcony decorated with two crossed scepters, symbolizing the town's center of learning. In earlier times grain was stored under the roof as part of the professors' salaries.

Framed by two Spitzhelm towers (so called for their resemblance to old German helmets), this bridge was part of Heidelberg's medieval fortifications. In the west tower are three dank dungeons that once held common criminals. Above the portcullis you'll see a memorial plaque that pays warm tribute to the Austrian forces that helped Heidelberg beat back a French attempt to capture the bridge in 1799. The bridge itself is one of many to be built on this spot; ice floes and floods destroyed its predecessors. The elector Carl Theodor, who built it in 1786–88, must have been confident this one would last: he had a statue of himself erected on it, upon a plinth decorated with river gods and goddesses (symbolic of the Neckar, Rhine, Danube, and Mosel rivers). As you enter the bridge from the Old Town, you'll also notice a statue of an animal that appears somewhat catlike. It's actually a monkey holding a mirror. Legend has it the statue was erected to symbolize the need for both city-dwellers and those who lived on the other side of the bridge to take a look over their shoulders as they crossed—reminding them that neither group was more elite than the other. The pedestrian-only bridge is at the end of Steingasse, not far from the Marktplatz.

Dating from the 11th century, the oldest building complex in the city, the Castrum Babenberg, was once the seat of the ruling prince-bishops of Bamberg. The Hofhaltung was like a royal estate, with storage, workshops and anything else essential to supplying the court. When the prince-bishop moved into the baroque New Residence, the Hofhaltung served as a library, offices, and council chambers. The original buildings were renovated in the 16^th century. The interior courtyard is like stepping back into the Middle Ages, with large half-timber houses covered in boxed geraniums. Inside the main sandstone building is the Katharinenkapelle, a small 12th-century gothic chapel.  Today, the complex houses the Bamberg Historical Museum and the courtyard hosts festivals and concerts.

Erected by the Carolingian order in the 9th century, the Old Chapel's sober exterior hides joyous rococo treasures within—extravagant concoctions of sinuous gilt stucco, rich marble, and giddy frescoes, the whole illuminated by light pouring in from the upper windows.

A stone bridge—Germany's first—built in 1120 once stood on this site, over the Main River, but that ancient structure was replaced beginning in 1476. Twin rows of graceful statues of saints now line the bridge, placed here in 1730, at the height of Würzburg's baroque period. They were largely destroyed in 1945, but have been lovingly restored since then. Note the Patronna Franconiae (commonly known as the Weeping Madonna). There's a beautiful view of the Marienberg Fortress from the bridge.

Kaiser Wilhelm I traveled from Berlin for the gala opening of this opera house in 1880. Gutted in World War II, it remained a hollow shell for 40 years while controversy raged over its reconstruction. The exterior and lobby are faithful to the original, though the remainder of the building is more like a modern multipurpose hall. Although classical music and ballet performances are held here, most operas these days are staged at the Frankfurt Opera. Ninety-minute tours are offered on selected dates.

In the early 19th century King Ludwig I built this elaborate saltworks and spa house, in vaulted, pseudomedieval style. The pump installations, which still run, are astonishing examples of 19th-century engineering. A "saline" chapel is part of the spa's facilities, and was built in exotic Byzantine style. A museum in the same complex looks at the history of the salt trade. As the salt deposits beneath the building are no longer top quality, parts of the building have been converted to office spaces and a trendy restaurant, but you can tour the underground infrastructure.

Across the Loisach River stands the original St. Martin church (aka "Die Alte Kirche," or the Old Church), whose original foundation was laid in the 9th century. Its current building dates to 1280 and showcases Gothic wall paintings from throughout the centuries, including a 7-meter-high (21-foot-high), larger-than-life figure of St. Christopher from 1330 and a Passion of the Christ fresco dating to the 1400s.

The three-story Baroque structure was built between 1712 and 1735 at the behest of the elector Johann Wilhelm, although Heidelberg's Ruprecht Karl University was originally founded in 1386. Today it houses the University Museum, with exhibits that chronicle the history of Germany's oldest university. The present-day Universitätsplatz (University Square) was built over the remains of an Augustinian monastery that was destroyed by the French in 1693. Be sure to visit the colorful graffiti-filled Student Prison, where bad behavior was punished by old-fashioned lockdown, and the Great Hall, now used mostly for concerts and ceremonies,

Erected in 1558, the Alte Wasserkunst served as part of the town's defensive fortifications, but its true purpose was to pump water from the Spree into 86 cisterns spread throughout the city. It proved so efficient that it provided the city's water supply until 1965. It is now a technical museum.

This ornate, leafy cemetery is the resting place of many of the country's most celebrated sons and daughters. Look for the tomb of composer Robert Schumann (1810–56) and his wife, Clara, also a composer and accomplished pianist. A PDF plan of the most prominent burial sites can be found on the cemetery website.

The town's showpiece square was the setting for military parades during the years of Communist rule. It's dominated by two buildings: the ornate neo-Renaissance state theater, constructed in 1883–86; and the Kunstsammlungen Schwerin (Schwerin Art Collection).

Alter Hof was the original home of the Wittelsbach dynasty of Bavaria (not to be confused with the adjacent Residenz). Established in 1180, the Münchner Kaiserburg (Imperial Palace) at Alter Hof now serves various functions. Its Infopoint is a tourist-information center for Bavaria's castles and museums. In the vaulted hall beneath is a multimedia presentation about the palace's history.