Discover your roots in Germany
Hamburg BallinStadt: The BallinStadt museum complex in Hamburg's Veddel district enables visitors to gain an authentic impression of the conditions under which emigrants traveled across the Atlantic on their way to America. You can even go in search of relatives in the huge research center – with access to the world's largest genealogical database with over 600 million entries.
Bremerhaven: The German Emigration Center is Europe’s biggest interactive museum and was awarded the renowned prize “European Museum of the year 2007”. The exhibition focuses on the biographies of around 60 selected emigrants. With elaborate reconstructions and spectacular scenes, visitors learn about people's reasons for leaving, how they survived the cross-Atlantic journey and how they started a new life in America.
Pilgrimige Sites
Luther Sites: Martin Luther, once an Augustian monk, became a gigantic presence in the Protestant Reformation. It was in Wittenberg where he nailed his 95 theological and political theses on the church door in 1517, setting off a political and religious wildfire that pitted Catholic against Protestant across Europe. Following in his footsteps will take you to Wittenberg and Eisleben where Luther was born, as well as Erfurt and Eisenach. Locator: All Luther Sites are most easily reached from Berlin: Wittenberg, 70 mi.; Eisleben, 130 mi.; Erfurt, 190 mi.; Eisenach 220 mi.
Altötting: Located on the Inn River in the heart of Bavaria, Altötting has been a pilgrimage site for more than 500 years. The faithful come to see the Gothic statue of the Madonna and tablets testifying to miracles of assistance.
Locator: 60 mi. east of Munich; 40 mi. west of Salzburg
Famous Cathedrals
Cologne: The cathedral that UNESCO has declared a World Heritage Site is one of the best-known architectural monuments in Germany. It took 632 years to be completed and is Cologne’s most famous landmark today.
Füssen: In the mid-18th century, Dominikus Zimmermann crafted the majestic Wieskirche in the middle of an Alpine meadow just off Germany’s “Romantic Road;” his brother Johann Baptist frescoed the extravagant ceiling; Unesco proclaimed it a World Heritage Site. Locator: 80 mi. southwest of Munich
Ettal: Founded by Emperor Ludwig the Bavarian in 1330, the magnificent Ettal Abbey was originally Gothic in form, but later became an exceptional example of South German Baroque architecture. Its wildly flamboyant interiors are decidedly Baroque. Ettal also offers visitors a glimpse of how the Benedictine monks live and work.
Locator: 50 mi. south of Munich, 10 mi. north of Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Jewish Heritage Sites
Berlin: Has the highest concentration of places of interest to Jewish visitors. The most hopeful landmark is the newly renovated Oranienburger Strasse Synagogue. Unlike the other five Berlin synagogues, this immense and glorious structure operates only as a memorial and museum. The spectacular Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, presents a panorama of German-Jewish history, its cultural achievements and its horror. The Jewish Holocaust memorial, opened in 2005, reminds of times of war in Berlin and is an ample, cultural sight located near Potsdamer Platz.
Frankfurt: For more than 200 years, Frankfurt has been the German city with the largest proportion of Jewish residents. Frankfurt’s Jewish Museum is housed in one of several mansions owned by the Rothschild family; its vast array of exhibits, memorabilia and artifacts trace the history of Jews in Frankfurt from the 12th century, as well as the story of German Jewry in general. The Westend Synagogue is the only one in the city to have survived Reichskristallnacht.
Munich: While the Menorah Monument marks where the city’s main pre-war synagogue stood until 1938, today it is the Jewish Community Center that houses Munich’s Main Synagogue, as well as the Munich Jewish Museum. A new Community Center and Jewish Museum have recently been opened in Saint-Jakobs Platz.
Regensburg: Jews have lived in this city since the 10th century, with a Jewish quarter established in 1000 A.D. Ancient roots of the community are the focus of exciting excavation work now in progress that has so far revealed remains of a Gothic synagogue and an earlier Romanesque synagogue.
More information
For more details on Germany's history and heritage visit www.cometogermany.com.
For more on German American heritage visit www.germanoriginality.com.