Things to Do in Germany

In 1934, a jeweler by the name of Leonard Dahlen rented his shop to the National Socialist Party, better known as the Nazis. Officially, the building was repurposed as the Nazi Documentation Center, but the Nazis soon set up the shop as the headquarters of the Gestapo, the party’s secret police. Its basement made room for cells and torture stations, where a parade of the regime’s victims - Jews, Roma, homosexuals and other political enemies -  were imprisoned and treated savagely for the better part of a decade. Miraculously, when most of Cologne was destroyed during the Allies’ bombardment, the EL-DE Haus remained completely intact.
Today, the building is a memorial to the victims of the Nazi’s fascist regime.

In 1981, the government opened the basement to the public and in 1987, the Nazi Documentation Center was also opened, permanently featuring an exhibit detailing life in Cologne under the National Socialist government. Part of the exhibit features the testimony of a Communist sympathizer and resistance fighter named Martha Mense, who was held for five months and interrogated there for the crime of printing anti-Hitler literature.

While the subject matter is certainly grim, the museum is one of two German museums to  have won the European Heritage Association’s prestigious Best in Heritage award, a prize given only to select museums.

Deichstrasse is the oldest street in Hamburg, Germany dating back to the 14th century. It is located near Speicherstadt, which is the old warehouse district near the harbor. The Great Fire of 1842 destroyed many of the original 14th century buildings on this street, so most of what you see today are restored 17th-19th century buildings. The tall, narrow, half-timbered houses here represent typical architecture from this region a few hundred years ago.  

Munich’s gigantic Deutsches Museum is the kind of museum that begs for multiple visits and as one of the world’s largest science and technology museums, you could easily spend an entire weekend taking in its vast permanent collection. Opening its doors in 1925, the museum sits on a specially constructed river island, reached by bridge from the mainland.

Famous for its interactive exhibitions, inventive displays and impressive collection of artifacts, the Deutsches Museum succeeds in its quest to make science fun and accessible to all ages and interests. Exhibitions cover topics like transport, communication, energy and natural science, with interactive elements including a series of giant musical instruments to play, model coal and salt mines, glass-blowing and paper-making demonstrations and an authentic space laboratory. There’s even a Kid’s Kingdom, where a child-sized mouse wheel and a real fire engine will keep the kids entertained.

The collection is so big it even spills over into 2 additional buildings – the nearby Verkehrszentrum houses the Transport Museum, where highlights include a series of historic tram and train wagons, and the Flugwerft Schleißheim, located at Oberschleissheim Airfield, displays the museum’s sizable collection of aircraft.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the East Side Gallery was the result of what remained. It is longest segment of the Berlin Wall that is still standing and the world’s largest open-air gallery, showcasing over 100 murals over 1.3 kilometres along the Mühlenstrasse, which is parallel to the River Spree. Artist interpretations are a mix of optimistic and political statements.

Some of the more famous and most photographed images on the wall include a boxy East German Trabant car that appears to burst through the wall called “Test the Best” by Birgit Kinder; and “The Mortal Kiss,” a fraternal communist kiss between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German boss Erich Honecker.

Many of the images became weathered from taggers and tourists adding their own graffiti to their favorite pictures on the wall. In 2009, forty of these works of art were restored.

Sections of the wall continued to be removed for purposes like the O2 World Arena to have its own boat landing and more recently, to provide access to a planned luxury apartment complex overlooking the Spree River, despite protests.

This is a great place for a bike ride or a walk.

The Frankfurt Zoo opened in 1858 and is the second oldest in Germany. The zoo contains over 4,500 animals of more than 400 species. If want to experience crocodiles, gorillas, lions and rhinos while in Germany, the zoo is great place to visit. Animal aficionados will find many many exotic animals to observe, from mouse lemurs and galagos over tamanduas to aardvarks, fossas and kiwis.