Germany for Kids

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In most German cities buildings are older than in the U.S. – many built long before the U.S. existed. Almost all the buildings are made of brick or stone. In historic sections of German cities and towns, the streets are often narrow and crooked and are paved with cobblestones instead of asphalt. In other parts of the cities, tall, modern buildings soar skywards, like the ones in America. There are more bakeries, sidewalk cafés, parks and playgrounds in German cities and towns.

Certainly no other city in Germany and perhaps all of Europe has undergone as profound, complete and swift a transformation as has this city over the past decade. Berlin, which became the German capital in 1990, is a place where wide boulevards and grand old monuments mingle with some of the most spectacular modern buildings to be found anywhere in the world. The city attracts visitors of all ages with its world-class museums, its new art scene and music clubs. The capital is home to no less than three opera houses, 31 theaters, 29 cabarets and some 130 bars – just to name the mainstream locations. Kids especially like the city’s beautiful parks and its two famous zoos. These were founded in the 19th century and are now home to about 13,000 animals each. Each year, from the early 1990s through 2006, the Love Parade, the world’s biggest techno rave, has streamed through Berlin, bringing more than one million young people from all over the globe to each gathering.

Berlin's best-known symbol, the Brandenburg Gate, towers over the city center. The German parliament meets close by at the Reichstag, a building constructed between 1884 and 1894, now topped by a sparkling glass dome designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster. Since 1999, the Reichstag building has been the home of the German government. Near the Reichstag, other major tourist attractions include the elegant boulevard called Unter den Linden and the appropriately named Museum Island.

Between 1961 and 1989, the city of Berlin was divided into two halves by a massive concrete barrier called the Berlin Wall. Like the rest of Germany, which was once split into two states with two different governments, West Berlin and East Berlin were governed separately. Berlin became one city again when Germany was unified on October 3, 1990. In a few places, traces of the Berlin Wall remain.

For more information go to:
www.berlin.de/english/index.html
www.cityscope.de/citypanorama/index.html (webcam)

Hamburg, Germany's second-largest city, sits on the Elbe river near the North and Baltic seas. Every day huge ships leave Hamburg's harbors to transport goods made in Germany around the world. Imported products such as tea, coffee, and oil also enter the country here. If you take a boat tour around the port, you may see vessels from as far away as South America and China.

Since Hamburg has been a port of international trade for centuries, tolerance and open-mindedness are among its residents’ most notable traits. Thus, it comes as little surprise that music, film and fashion are the focal points of life there. In the past decade, some of Germany’s hottest hip-hop bands, such as Fettes Brot, Absolute Beginner and Eimsbusch have come from Hamburg. Fatih Akin, a German-Turkish filmmaker, produces his work there. Apart from ships and planes, metals, machinery and electrical goods are also produced in Hamburg. So are a lot of Germany's newspapers, books, television shows and movies.

Hamburg has a huge art museum and several great theaters. The city is also known for its excellent restaurants, music clubs and for the Reeperbahn, an infamous entertainment area where the Beatles started their international career at the Star Club in the early 1960s. This mixture makes Hamburg the "city with the most vivid urban youth culture in Germany," in the words of German hipster magazine Musicscene.

For more information go to:
www.hamburg.de
www.hafen-hamburg.de

Munich, the capital of Bavaria, is a major center for the arts and a great place to explore European history. The city also enjoys a reputation for being a playground for the wealthy and glamorous. Munich offers the rich many opportunities to spend and show off. Whether it be cruising through the fancy neighborhood of Bogenhausen in a Mercedes, strolling through Germany's largest city park, the Englischer Garten, browsing for clothes at the luxury shops that line Maximillian Straße, Munich’s Rodeo Drive, or dancing the night away at the high-society disco, P1, there is always something to amuse the schicki-micki, as the fashionable are known there. On the other hand, Munich is also the home of relaxed outdoor beer gardens and the world’s biggest fun fair, Oktoberfest.

Munich is also famous for its film and art scenes: You can see medieval paintings at a gallery called the Old Pinakothek, learn how BMWs are made during a visit to Germany's outstanding technical museum, the Deutsches Museum, or check out the lifestyle of the Bavarian kings at the extravagant Nymphenburg castle on the city’s outskirts. Each fall, millions of people from around the world visit Munich's Oktoberfest, a traditional celebration featuring Bavarian food, music, games, rides, and above all, beer.

For more information go to:
www.muenchen-tourist.de/englisch/index_e.htm
www.munichfound.de

Frankfurt has been a busy center of trade and commerce for hundreds of years. As far back as the 13th century, merchants came from all over Europe to display their goods at the city's annual fairs. Today, many banks have their headquarters in Frankfurt. The most important of these is the European Central Bank, which is the European counterpart of the Federal Reserve Bank in the U.S. All important decisions concerning the European common currency, called the euro, are made here. That’s why Frankfurt calls itself the “City of the Euro." It's also the home of Germany's leading stock exchange.

If you travel to Frankfurt, you can visit the house where Germany's most famous author, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, was born in 1749. You can also learn about modern — and not-so-modern — inventions at places like the Explora Museum of Science and Technology and the Zeppelin Museum. Frankfurt's Commerzbank Tower, an 849-foot-high skyscraper, is the tallest office building in Europe. It's just one of the towers of steel and glass that make up the city's glittering skyline, from which the city, located on the Main river, got its nickname, "Mainhattan."

For more information go to:
www.frankfurt.de/sis/English.html
deutsche-boerse.com

Dresden’s history dates to the 13th century, but its most beautiful landmarks were built in the early 18th century, when the city was in its prime. Still, many buildings preserve the spirit of those times with their magnificent baroque architecture, such as the Zwinger castle, one of the city’s landmarks now used as an art museum, the Semper opera house and the historic center, with its beautiful view over a graceful bend in the Elbe river.

In the 19th century, many of Germany's best-known painters, sculptors, musicians and writers lived in Dresden. Business and industry also flourished there, and it became one of the country's richest cities. Today, you can still visit the neighborhoods where Dresden's wealthy lived in grand style.

Dresden is the capital of Saxony and has 500,000 inhabitants. Its thriving economy is based mainly on the computer industry, consumer goods and tourism.

Much of the city was destroyed during the Second World War. Under the East German government, it was mainly rebuilt as a modern industrial center and is now one of Europe’s leading high-tech sites.

However, Dresden experienced major renovations through 2006, the year in which the city celebrated its 800th anniversary, and promised to emerge once more as one of Germany's most beautiful cities. Architects and builders are hard at work restoring Dresden's 18th-century Church of Our Lady (Frauenkirche), the largest domed Protestant church ever built.

For more information go to:
www.dresden-tourist.de/eng/homepage.html

Two of the biggest attractions in Köln (Cologne) are alliterative: Karneval (carnival) and Kunst (art). Each year in February, the city celebrates carnival as a week-long street festival, with colorful parades, outlandish costumes and live music. The city is one of Germany’s Karneval capitals and its inhabitants boast that only Rio de Janeiro, Brazil does it better. Cologne’s year-round attraction has long been its lively art scene. In the 1980s, this scene got a big boost from the opening of the Ludwigsmuseum, a striking building on the Rhine that houses collector Peter Ludwig’s extensive collection of modern and contemporary art.

The city is also famous for its majestic gothic cathedral, the Dom, a massive stone building with two 515-foot-tall spires. The largest cathedral in northern Europe, it has sections that date to the 13th century. The city of Cologne is older still. It became a Roman colony in 50 AD; its name comes from the Latin colonia (colony). In addition to the cathedral, its historic buildings include many romanesque churches, a medieval city hall and the 15th-century Gürzenich, the former meeting place of the city's merchants.

Today, Cologne is a major manufacturing center, producing metals, car engines, chemicals and textiles. The city is also home to many television stations, such as WDR and former VIVA, Germany’s equivalent to MTV. It was VIVA that used to bring "PopKomm," the world's biggest pop music fair, to the city.

In English, the word cologne also means perfume. This comes as little surprise because it was in this city that a fragrance called Echt Kölnisch Wasser (true water of Cologne), known as eau de cologne in French and a predecessor of today's perfumes, was developed centuries ago.

For more information go to:
www.koeln.de
www.willkommeninkoeln.de/06kunst/kunst04e.htm (Cologne cathedral)

Leipzig and its surroundings form one of the fastest-growing economic regions in Europe, thanks chiefly to the city’s trade fair grounds, which host more than 30 fairs of all kinds and attract roughly 1.4 million visitors each year.

What makes Leipzig so interesting to those who flock to it and to those who live there is its mix of modernism and tradition, which today finds expression in a blend of its rigid East German past and current receptiveness to new influences.

In 1989, it was here that, after services in the Church of St. Nicholas (Nikolaikirche), demonstrations were held that ultimately triggered the fall of the Berlin Wall and German unification. This gothic church is still very popular, although now most visitors come to hear music performed on its powerful organ, built between 1858 and 1862.

Music is Leipzig’s leitmotiv, or main theme. The city is the birthplace of composer Johann Sebastian Bach and home to the world-famous choir of St. Thomas’ Church (Thomanerchor), which Bach himself once led. The Gewandhausorchester, one of the top orchestras in the world, was conducted by Kurt Masur for many years before he left to take up the baton at the New York Philharmonic.

For more information go to:
www.leipzig-life.de/stadtfuehrung/8294.html
www.bach-leipzig.de/webnew/index4.html
www.leipzig-online.de (in German only)