The most beautiful cities in Germany

Germany’s most beautiful cities and towns stand among the best places to visit in the European Union. They span almost the full range of European variety.

• There are cities with Roman origins and remains such as Trier, Cologne, Regensburg and Mainz.
• Medieval cities such as Nuremberg, Erfurt, Bamberg and Worms and the half-timbered Harz region towns of Goslar, Quedlinburg and Wernigerode.
• Renaissance showpiece cities such as Lübeck, Augsburg or Bremen.
• Cities with Baroque survivals, including Dresden, Heidelberg or Passau.
• Plenty of German cities have beautiful palaces on their streets or nearby, like Potsdam, Munich, Stuttgart, Würzburg and Weimar.
• The great cathedrals such as Cologne, Regensburg, Bamberg, Mainz, Erfurt, Worms, with countless other churches, sometimes in Romanesque but more commonly in the Gothic style. The münster of Ulm has the tallest spire of them all.
• Museums of culture and art among world’s best, including Deutsches Museum, Deutsches Nationalmuseum, Alte Pinakothek and the Pergamonmuseum.

All these places can be reached by train and bus (Quedlinburg is on a branch line). All offer a range of hotels, hostels, guest houses and other types of accommodation. All are very walkable and, like most German towns and cities, are really best seen on foot. But trams and buses help get people to and from hotels or attractions and for the bigger centres, Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Nuremberg, there are fast regular options in the form of S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains and light-rail transport.

Events

Big events are not always celebrations. Business is big in Germany and the many trade fairs (Messen) seem to dominate accommodation in cities such as Hannover, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt and make a big impact in Nuremberg, Munich, Cologne and Berlin. There are many hundreds in Germany each year – sometimes multiple events at once in a big city – and this affects especially budget accommodation, which is often booked out or much more expensive at these times. Hannover – the home of Deutsche Messe – in March and April is abuzz with activity. To check, especially for the abovenamed cities, travellers should go to tradefairdates.com and select Germany for the full trade fair calendar.

But costume fun also attracts the masses to local events of all types. There is a German fondness for summer festivals based on local historical events such as Dinkelsbühl’s Kinderzeche late in June as well as the gaiety of Fastnacht, which overtakes many of the western and north-western cities. These festivals tend to last about 10 days, no doubt because this covers two weekends. The third weekend of September is the Spreewaldfest in Lübben, a town in the region of Lusatia south-east of Berlin, interesting because amid the revelry it acknowledges the native ethnic minority the Sorbs, with traditional punt rides and costumes.

Calendar of celebrations

Here are the big events probably likely to affect travellers – whether or not they are keen to take part:

New Year brings on celebrations of an international character and New Year’s Eve, known as Silvester, is party time, with fireworks in most cities.

The mid-February Shrovetide Monday festival of  Fastnacht, Fasching or Karneval (the name depends on the location) brings costumed night parades and festivities that tend to take over cities such as Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn, Mainz and Aachen and other parts of North Rhine-Westphalia, as well as parts of Rheinland-Pfalz and Baden-Württemburg.

April 30 brings Walpurgisnacht and its traditional associations with witches, and the Harz region comes alive with modern celebrations of Wicca. Next day brings May Day labour parades throughout Germany (and some political demonstrations) and maypoles combined with town or village fairs are common in southern Germany, though they are also seen far to the north in East Frisia.

The three-week city fairs Stuttgarter Frühlingsfest and Nürnberger Frühlingsfest in Stuttgart and Nuremberg run from mid-April to early May with fairground activities and beer tents and the cities’ activity intensifies at weekends.

Hamburg’s Hafengeburtstag is recent but rests on an 800-year tradition and brings fleets of craft including tall ships to the giant port area on the first or second weekend of May, associated with other festivities and a trade show of navigation.

The Thursday of Corpus Christi, in late May or June 60 days after Easter Sunday, is celebrated as Fronleichnam in Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Saarland and parts of Saxony and Thuringia, processions being the common link in most local observances.  In Cologne a boat procession is held on the Rhine.

In the first two weeks of June the three-day Luthers Hochzeit festival, celebrating the wedding of Martin Luther, crowds the streets of Lutherstadt Wittenberg with historical costumes and recreations. It's a lively experience that requires tickets to visit some areas at certain times, and travellers should book accommodation months in advance.

From mid-June, the Bachfest Leipzig organises more than 100 musical events, most of them in the city, over about 10 days, in honour of J.S. Bach as well as his family of composers.

Target shooting is a traditional activity and each June the world's largest Schützenfest, including a fair and a parade of marksmen, is held in Hannover.

The Kieler Woche, the third week of June, is Kiel's own regatta, mixed with music and city-wide summer party.

The Christopher Street Day parades for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities are especially prominent in Berlin and Cologne, where CSD-Berlin and Cologne Pride run from late June into July.

The last week of July and the start of August brings the Richard-Wagner-Festspiele to Bayreuth (last home of the composer), mostly selling out months in advance to local and international devotees. 

Oktoberfest, a celebration of beer, is probably Germany’s biggest annual event, taking over Munich for more than two weeks late in September and most of the first week of October. On the Theresienwiese fairground organisers set up more than 30 tents with several thousand seats. Hannover stages its Oktoberfest at the same time.

Stuttgart’s Cannstatter Volksfest is regarded as bigger than its spring event, starting about a week later than the Oktoberfest and running equally long.  

The eve and day of Tag der Deutschen Einheit, on October 3, celebrates the 1990 reunification with ceremonies, public festivals, music and fireworks, always with special meaning in Berlin, but the focus of national celebration moves each year.

The Advent-Christmas markets known as Christkindl or Weihnachtsmärkte run from late November until Christmas in cities large and small all over Germany.