The Munich Residenz

30 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  7 minutes

Munich Residenz © Gryffindor

Munich Residenz © Gryffindor

The Munich Residenz is the former royal palace of the Bavarian monarchs in the center of the city of Munich. The Residenz is the largest city palace in Germany and is today open to visitors for its architecture and room decorations, and displays from the former royal collections.   read more…

The Phoenix Lake in Dortmund

25 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Lake Phoenix from East Shore © Rainer Halama

Lake Phoenix from East Shore © Rainer Halama

Steel was refined in Dortmund-Hörde for 160 years. The name Phoenix stood for the blast furnace plant on the Phoenix-West site and the Hermannshütte oxygen steel plant on the Phoenix-Ost site. Structural change in the region brought the end of the steel era. In 2001 the plant site became one of the region’s many industrial wastelands.   read more…

The porcelain and wine city of Meissen

24 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  6 minutes

Meissen seen from 'Juchhöh' in the nearby mountains 'Spaargebirge' © Olaf1541/cc-by-sa-3.0

Meissen seen from ‘Juchhöh’ in the nearby mountains ‘Spaargebirge’ © Olaf1541/cc-by-sa-3.0

Meissen is a town of approximately 30,000 about 25 km (16 mi) northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony. The Grosse Kreisstadt is the capital of the Meissen district.   read more…

50th anniversary of the Élysée Treaty

19 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, EU blog post series, European Union Reading Time:  4 minutes

Sculpture of Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle by Chantal de la Chauvinière-Riant outside the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Berlin © Adam Carr

Sculpture of Konrad Adenauer and Charles de Gaulle by Chantal de la Chauvinière-Riant outside the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, Berlin © Adam Carr

Élysée Treaty also known as the Treaty of Friendship, was concluded by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer in the Élysée Palace on January 22 1963. It set the seal on reconciliation between the two countries. With it, Germany and France established a new foundation for relations that ended centuries of rivalry between them.   read more…

Portrait: Carl Friedrich Gauss, the Prince of Mathematicians from Brunswick

9 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: Portrait Reading Time:  5 minutes

Oil painting of mathematician and philosopher Carl Friedrich Gauss by G. Biermann © Gauß-Gesellschaft Göttingen e.V. - Foto: A. Wittmann

Oil painting of mathematician and philosopher Carl Friedrich Gauss by G. Biermann © Gauß-Gesellschaft Göttingen e.V. – Foto: A. Wittmann

Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss (* 30 April 1777 in Braunschweig – † 23 February 1855 in Göttingen) was a German mathematician and physical scientist who contributed significantly to many fields, including number theory, statistics, analysis, differential geometry, geodesy, geophysics, electrostatics, astronomy and optics.   read more…

Bamberg: Fascination World Cultural Heritage

3 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, UNESCO World Heritage Reading Time:  5 minutes

View from Michaelsberg © Bodo Kubrak

View from Michaelsberg © Bodo Kubrak

Bamberg is a city in Bavaria located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is home to eight breweries, Brauerei Fässla, Brauerei Greifenklau, Brauerei Heller-Trum, Brauerei Kaiserdom, Keesmann Bräu, Klosterbräu, Mahrs Bräu and Brauerei Spezial, and one brewpub, Ambräusianum – an unusually high number for a city of 70,000.   read more…

The Sophienterrassen in Hamburg

1 January 2013 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Hamburg, House of the Month Reading Time:  3 minutes

© sophienterrassen.de

© sophienterrassen.de

From time immemorial, Harvestehude, lying on the banks of the Alster, has been one of the most privileged residential locations to be offered by Hamburg. Venerable white Wilhelminian style and art nouveau villas in large parks and town houses resembling the London town houses, still distinguish the banks of the Alster today. As it was in this period, the Alster plays a central role as an area for rowing and sailing and numerous sports and social clubs line its banks.   read more…

The Trade Fair City of Leipzig

20 November 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General Reading Time:  8 minutes

New Town Hall © Appaloosa

New Town Hall © Appaloosa

Leipzig with more than 530,000 inhabitants, is one of the two largest cities (along with Dresden) in the federal state of Saxony. Leipzig is situated about 150 km south of Berlin at the confluence of the Weisse Elster, Pleiße and Parthe rivers at the southerly end of the North German Plain.   read more…

Theme Week Dresden – The Zwinger

17 November 2012 | Author/Destination: | Rubric: General, Museums, Exhibitions, Palaces, Castles, Manors, Parks Reading Time:  5 minutes

Dresdner Zwinger © der-dresdner-zwinger.de

Dresdner Zwinger © der-dresdner-zwinger.de

The Zwinger (Der Dresdner Zwinger) is a palace in Dresden built in Rococo style and designed by court architect Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann. It served as the orangery, exhibition gallery and festival arena of the Dresden Court. The location was formerly part of the Dresden fortress of which the outer wall is conserved. The name derives from the German word Zwinger (outer ward of a concentric castle); it was for the cannons that were placed between the outer wall and the major wall. The Zwinger was not enclosed until the Neoclassical building by Gottfried Semper called the Semper Gallery was built on its northern side.   read more…

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