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.

Performing arts

German cultural life has always been considered vital to the nation and cultural information centres are common in big cities, the best starting place for information about, and booking for, a variety of local events. In many cases the local tourist information office (often attached) can also assist and is most likely to have information in English.

Because of the strong German interest in culture, sites associated with the greatest figures – houses, birth houses, summer houses and other places associated with them – are celebrated and have a high priority for preservation, often taking on the status of museums. This provides visitors with the opportunity for insights into the lives of the famous. In some cases their libraries are on show (if not actually accessible) and their art collections.

Music

The German love of music is famously intense and this is reflected in the number of orchestras, concert houses and educational institutions devoted to its performance and study. German influence over Western music – in the form of an overwhelming contribution by German-speaking Classical, Romantic and Modern composers and conductors – has been enormous, but its place in contemporary music is also imposing. Ticket prices below are for 2023.

Germany did not invent electronic music but, with the doors opened by the experimental studio work of Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk and the avant garde composer Karlheinz Stockhausen, a movement in electronic and synthesiser music developed, reaching prominence in the 1970s in various streams from symphonic music to techno rock.

Due largely to Berlin’s 40 years as a divided city, its music lovers now have six orchestras to choose from: the Berlin Philharmonic (Berliner Philharmoniker, resident at the Philharmonie, consistently ranked in the world’s top five orchestras), the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (performing at the Konzerthaus on Gendarmenmarkt), the Berliner Symphoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (or DSO-Berlin, performing at the Philharmonie and other venues), the Staatskapelle Berlin (the oldest, linked with the Berliner Staatsoper), and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (performing at the Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus and on tour).

There is also the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, several choral ensembles and countless smaller ensembles.

Online booking is available in English for all large orchestras, many of which offer concerts in churches, children’s or family afternoon concerts at reduced seat prices. Concert tickets booked online for performances at the Berliner Philharmonie range from €9 (for standing room) to €290, depending on position and the category of concert. But basic tickets for chamber concerts or modern musicals at other venues, such as Komische Oper, can be booked for as little as €12. Good seats for symphony concerts at Dresden’s Semperoper can be bought for €58 online.

Regularly voted among the world’s top 20 orchestras are the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig and the Bavarian Radio Symphony (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks). Tickets to a grand concert at the Gewandhaus are in the range €22-73. The BRSO website and ticket shop offer tickets (€15-59) for concert hall performances. Some concert tickets go on sale at €10 or less.

Munich has more than 20 resident orchestras and large ensembles, including the Bayerisches Staatsorchester, Münchner Philharmoniker, Münchner Rundfunkorchester and Münchner Symphoniker, performing at a range of venues.

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, one of the most advanced concert venues in the world, offers orchestral concert tickets starting below €20.

It is often possible to tour famous concert halls or book performances with lectures – naturally almost all are in German. For further interest and study, travellers will find music museums and houses connected with the lives of famous musicians are a staple of German cultural preservation.

For details in English on music, opera and dance performances throughout Europe, consult Bachtrack.com.

Extensive collections of musical instruments form part of the Deutsches Museum in Munich (1800 pieces) and the Deutsches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg (500 pieces). A further collection is at the Kulturforum in Berlin, with about 800 pieces on permanent exhibition. The Musikermuseen website listing almost 40 museums connected with prominent musicians gives locations, opening times, information and links to further resources in English.

Opera

Opera tickets in Germany can be booked online, in English, from the program and seating plan. Opera (Oper) company links are among the German-language Theaterparadies stage listings. Ticket prices below are for 2023.

Bookings online for tickets at Berlin’s Deutsche Oper cost between €180 and €20, depending on the seat, but most prime seat prices are in the €80-100 range. Tickets can be printed out on the spot or collected at the box office. The Berliner Staatsoper Unter den Linden stages its performances at the refurbished Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where seats with a view range between €25 and €97. Premiere seats may cost up to €220. Berlin’s Komische Oper is famous for a lighter, more modern popular tradition and ticket prices are lower.

In Dresden, tickets for the Sächsische Staatsoper’s Semperoper performances vary from less than €50 to more than €130. A guided tour of the house before the performance can also be booked. To see Wagner in Leipzig, the ticket range can be €23-85. Opera houses are also maintained in cities such as Cologne, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Hannover and Mannheim. A small booking fee is added to prices

To take in Wagner at the Bayreuth Festival in late July or August, it is possible to queue for some tickets at the door on the day of the performance but advance requests for recent festivals outnumbered the available tickets six to one. Even the online ordering process involves the post and orders must be placed by the previous October. Visit the Bayreuther Festspiele website for details. It is hard to get in first time – joining a Wagner society such as the Gesellschaft der Freunde von Bayreuth is said to help but the joining fee at last report was €260 and annual subscription more than €200. Visit the Freunde von Bayreuth website for details.

The Munich Opera Festival takes place in June and July at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

Dance

A guide to the contemporary dance scene in Germany has reviews on performance in Germany that translate well in a broswer.

Ballet ticket prices vary widely. Seat prices at traditional venues are based on the opera house price scales, graded by event. Bayerisches Staatsballett’s seat prices for ballet events at the ornate Munich Nationaltheater vary from €11 to €100 but there are standing categories down to €8.

At Hamburg’s Staatsoper tickets for the 2023 season of A Streetcar Named Desire varied from €7 to €119. The Leipziger Ballett’s tickets for Der kleine Prinz were in the range €17-79. The Stuttgarter Ballett’s tickets for 2023 opera house performances ranged from €8 to €152. Staatsballett Berlin seats for Bovary at the Deutsche Oper cost €28-138 depending on position.

Bookings are usually possible (and advisable) online, but a proportion of tickets are often kept for box office sales. Box offices generally open about an hour before the performance.

Bookings for Munich Ballet Week in April start in mid-January (for postal bookings) or mid-February (online and box office).

Contemporary dance by Berlin’s Hebbel am Ufer at Theater am Halleschen Ufer – which has traditions of experimental theatre – costs €13-25 (concession rates available). At Düsseldorf’s Tanzhaus NRW tickets to avant garde performances range up to €30.

Among the prominent German dance festivals are Tanz Bremen in March or April every two years and Berlin’s Tanz in August.

Theatre

German theatre has a history of revered classics based around Goethe, Schiller, Lessing, Kleist and others, plus a tradition of experimental theatre going back to the early 20th century innovations of Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht. Advanced speakers of German are in for a treat on several hundred stages throughout the country.

The theatre directory Deutsches Theater Verzeichnis provides a booking option for almost anything on a German stage at prices ranging from €10 up, occasionally over €80 for top seats at special events. Depending on the show, there could be discounts for purchasers of city tourist cards. To look at tickets for a wide variety of live shows visit German Ticket Office. For links to stage companies all over Germany visit the Theaterparadies website.

Deutsches Theatermuseum Munich (admission €4/3) assembles much of Germany’s theatre history, including opera, especially exhibits from Bavaria. Theatermuseum Düsseldorf (admission €4/2) displays actual performances and the work behind the scenes as well as exhibits.

English theatre in Germany: The long-established English Theatre of Hamburg offers work from the contemporary to Oscar Wilde six nights a week at €25-35 for online bookings.

English Theatre Berlin typically offers adult tickets at €20 or less (student concession €11). The performance of German classics in Berlin is led by the Deutsches Theater, which has proud traditions going back to the 19th century, including the directorship of Max Reinhardt. But there is a range of contemporary works and some labelled performances display English surtitles. There is a wide range of ticket prices.

The Theater am Schiffbauerdamm became the home of Brecht's Berliner Ensemble during the Cold War and continues his legacy today. Some performances in the main theatre (€13-53) have English surtitles and it’s best to ensure desired seats have a good view of these. Information is on the English version of the website.

The English Theatre Frankfurt was facing a fight to stay in its venue but offers a solid program in a 300-seat theatre with ticket prices in the €27-37 range.

For shows in Munich, consult the Muenchen.de guide.

Düsseldorf stages a Shakespeare summer program.

Musical theatre, especially in Hamburg, has featured record-breaking runs of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals but the libretti are German versions. The Theater des Westens of west Berlin, now part of the Stage Entertainment group, mixes musicals with blockbuster seasons – in German.

Cinema

Cinema in Germany has a proud history, apart from late in World War I, the Nazi period and the early GDR productions, when cinema was tightly controlled or used as an instrument of the state. In the interwar Weimar period, Expressionist cinema was prominent, as was the Potsdam-based UFA studios, which launched the careers of Fritz Lang, Marlene Dietrich and others. Many German-speaking Jewish actors, writers, composers and directors such as Lang escaped Hitler, mostly to the US, crafting prominent careers in Hollywood or parts of Europe and becoming recognised as innovators.

German cinema had to regenerate itself in the 1960s and remerged early in the 1980s with the internationally successful Das Boot. State support, film schools and a healthy experimental cinema are now features of the industry.

The Berlin International Film Festival or Berlinale each February is considered one of the world’s best. Tickets go on sale early in February.

Movies in English: When attending a German cinema to see international feature films in English, don’t expect easy-to-watch English action with German subtitles. It is normal to dub movies into German (for exceptions look for ‘Englisch mit Untertiteln’ or sometimes ‘OmU’ or 'OmdU' where originals are in English). But all-English versions can be found – there are listings of current and classic movies in English in major cities. For international movies released in English, look for OV (original version) or OF. Minimum ages are given for each.

Dynamic pricing has been part of the German cinema market for several years. Prices can vary according to the movies offered, cinema format, seat position or quality, or by session. Often there are discounts for online bookings. Expect ticket prices of €10-12 for adults, €7-8 for students with identification, children under 12 about €6. Higher rates may be charged at peak times and films in 3D will cost extra. There can be discounts for family movies before 7pm.

Munich’s Cinema Filmtheater and Gloria Palast show original versions of international releases. Berlin’s Odeon in Schöneberg is the traditional home of film in English, but its Yorck Kinogruppe cinemas show movies in English. The site has an English version, but book carefully. The Expatica site has a good guide to movies in English in Berlin, Munich or Frankfurt.

Television

German television screening programs in English generally dub speech into German. English entertainment programs are easy to find in hotel pay channels.