Must-see attractions in Northern Germany

  • Schwerin Castle, Schwerin, Germany; Shutterstock ID 418483972; Your name (First / Last): Gemma Graham; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Northern Germany destination page

    Schloss & Gardens

    Northern Germany

    Gothic and Renaissance turrets, Slavic onion domes, Ottoman features and terracotta Hanseatic step gables are among the mishmash of architectural styles…

  • Sunday morning market in Fischmarkt

    Fischmarkt

    St Pauli & Reeperbahn

    Here's the perfect excuse to stay up all Saturday night. Every Sunday in the wee hours, some 70,000 locals and visitors descend upon the famous Fischmarkt…

  • St. Mary's Church in Rostock. Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.; Shutterstock ID 418416580; Your name (First / Last): Gemma Graham; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Hamburg & the North Destination Page

    Marienkirche

    Rostock

    Central Rostock’s pride and joy is the 13th-century Marienkirche, the only main Rostock church to survive WWII unscathed (although restorations are…

  • HAMBURG, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 04:  Visitors walk through the large hall of the newly-completed Elbphilharmonie concert hall on November 4, 2016 in Hamburg, Germany. Designed by the archiecture firm Herzog and de Meuron and begun in 2007, the Elbphilharmonie was originally slated to be completed by 2010 at a cost of EUR 241 million. Instead it was finally finished on October 31, 2016 at a cost of EUR 789 million. Germany has been burdened with a string of high-profile construction projects whose completion has been years delayed and whose costs have ballooned. The first public concert at the Elbphilharmonie is scheduled for January 11, 2017 as part of its official opening.  (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

    Elbphilharmonie

    Hamburg

    Welcome to one of the most Europe's most exciting recent architectural creations. A squat brown-brick former warehouse at the far west of HafenCity was…

  • Holstentor.

    Holstentor

    Lübeck

    Built in 1464 and looking so settled-in that it appears to sag, Lübeck’s charming red-brick city gate is a national icon. Its twin pointed cylindrical…

  • Miniature Wonderland in Hamburg, Germany; Shutterstock ID 696145270; Your name (First / Last): Gemma Graham; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: BiT Destination Page Images

    Miniatur Wunderland

    Hamburg

    Even the worst cynics are quickly transformed into fans of this vast miniature world that goes on and on. The model trains wending their way through the…

  • luebeck new Hanseatic museum and historic facades; Shutterstock ID 312039476; Your name (First / Last): Gemma Graham; GL account no.: 65050; Netsuite department name: Online Editorial; Full Product or Project name including edition: Northern Germany destination page

    Europäisches Hansemuseum

    Lübeck

    Opened in 2015, this brilliant museum tells the remarkable story of the Hanseatic League, Lübeck and the region. For 600 years, city states in northern…

  • (GERMANY OUT) Deutschland, Hamburg Veddel: Auswanderermuseum BallinStadt. (Photo by Uwe Steffens/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

    Auswanderermuseum BallinStadt

    Hamburg

    Sort of a bookend for New York's Ellis Island, Hamburg's excellent emigration museum looks at the conditions that drove about 5 million people to leave…

  • (GERMANY OUT) Hamburg: herbstliche Szene auf dem Altonaer Balkon in Altona. Sie Menschen sitzen in der Sonne auf B?nken und dem Gel?nder und schauen auf die Elbe. Aufnahmedatum:1999. (Photo by Schwartz/ullstein bild via Getty Images)

    Altonaer Balkon

    Hamburg

    Thrill to some of Hamburg's best harbour views from this accurately named and quite pretty park.

  • Museumsquartier St Annen

    Lübeck

    This museum quarter includes an old synagogue, church and medieval buildings along its uneven streets. The namesake St Annen Museum details the diverse…

  • Dokumentationszentrum Prora

    Rügen Island

    Macht Urlaub (Power Vacation) is a well-done exhibition on the Nazis and the role the workers' resort Prora played in their 'strength through joy' schemes…

  • Galerie Alte & Neue Meister

    Northern Germany

    Revel in the Flemish masterpieces collected by the Mecklenburg dukes during the 17th and 18th centuries at this impressive museum with wide-ranging…

  • Schloss Ludwigslust

    Northern Germany

    Such was the allure of this palace that when the ducal seat moved 36km north to Schwerin in 1837, some family members continued living here until 1945…

  • Rathaus

    Northern Germany

    The medieval Rathaus has a spectacular baroque facade, added in 1720 and decorated with coats of arms and three tiers of statues. The top row represents …

  • St Michaelis Kirche

    Hamburg

    ‘Der Michel’, as it is affectionately called, is one of Hamburg’s most recognisable landmarks and northern Germany’s largest Protestant baroque church…

  • Am Sande

    Northern Germany

    The cobbled, slightly wobbly street and square Am Sande is full of red-brick buildings with typically Hanseatic stepped gables. Even among these striking…

  • Schloss Güstrow

    Northern Germany

    Güstrow's fabulous Renaissance 16th-century Schloss is home to a historical museum as well as a cultural centre, period art exhibitions and occasional…

  • Aussichtsturm Adlerhorst

    Rügen Island

    Northwest of Binz, in a lovely Rügen forest, the extraordinary spiral Aussichtsturm Adlerhorst rises 30m above the forest floor – the spiral ramp goes…

  • St Pauli Nachtmarkt

    St Pauli & Reeperbahn

    Wednesday late afternoon and evening is a terrific time to be in St Pauli when the weekly night market takes over Spielbudenplatz with food stalls, live…

  • Germany, Hamburg, International Maritime Museum at Magdeburger Hafen in Hafencity

    Internationales Maritimes Museum

    Hamburg

    Hamburg's maritime past – and future – is fully explored in this excellent private museum that sprawls over 10 floors of a revamped brick shipping…

  • City Wall

    Northern Germany

    Neubrandenburg was founded in 1248 by Herbord von Raven, a Mecklenburg knight granted the land by Brandenburg Margrave Johann I, and building progressed…

  • KZ-Gedenkstätte Neuengamme

    Northern Germany

    In the 1938, the Nazis converted an old brick factory 25km southeast of Hamburg into a concentration camp. Over the next seven years, countless numbers of…

  • Markt

    Northern Germany

    Besides the Rathaus, notable buildings around the large Markt include the Court of Justice, the little gated-in, grotto-like area with paintings depicting…

  • Bullenhuser Damm Schule

    Hamburg

    During WWII, 20 Jewish children were chosen by Dr Josef Mengele at Auschwitz and sent to Neuengamme concentration camp near Hamburg for medical…

  • St Johanniskirche

    Northern Germany

    At the eastern edge of Am Sande stands the 14th-century St Johanniskirche, whose 108m-high spire leans 2.2m off centre. Local legend has it that the…

  • Jagdschloss Granitz

    Rügen Island

    A grandiose hunting palace built in 1723 on top of the 107m-high Tempelberg, Jagdschloss Granitz was significantly enlarged and altered by Wilhelm Malte I…

  • Marienkirche

    Lübeck

    This fine Gothic church boasts the world's highest brick-vaulted roof and was the model for dozens of churches in northern Germany. Crane your neck to…

  • Buddenbrookhaus

    Lübeck

    Thomas Mann, winner of the 1929 Nobel Prize for Literature, was born in Lübeck in 1875, and his family’s former home is now the Buddenbrookhaus. Named…

  • Günter Grass-Haus

    Lübeck

    Born in Danzig (now Gdańsk), Poland, Günter Grass had been living just outside Lübeck for 13 years when he collected his Nobel Prize in 1999. But this…

  • Tanzende Türme

    St Pauli & Reeperbahn

    Watching over the eastern gateway to St Pauli since 2011, the 'Dancing Towers' are a Hamburg icon. The two towers buck and weave by up to 3m from the…

  • Nord-Ostsee-Kanal

    Kiel

    The 99km-long Nord-Ostsee-Kanal reaches the Baltic Sea from the North Sea at Kiel, with some 60,000 ships passing through every year. It's easy to view…

  • Müritz National Park

    Northern Germany

    This serene national park consists of bog and wetlands, and is home to a wide range of waterfowl, including ospreys, white-tailed eagles and cranes. Its…

  • Neuer Markt

    Rostock

    Rostock’s large, somewhat bland central square is dominated by the splendid 13th-century Rathaus. The building’s baroque facade was added in 1727 after…

  • Museum für Hamburgische Geschichte

    St Pauli & Reeperbahn

    Hamburg's history museum has lots of kid-friendly features: it's chock-full of intricate ship models, has a large model train set (which runs on the hour)…

  • Atelierhaus

    Northern Germany

    Based on sketches he made in Russia, Ernst Barlach's squarish sculptures began bearing the same expressive gestures and hunched-over, wind-blown postures…

  • Karls

    Rostock

    Gloriously hokey, Karls is a roadside attraction in the cheesiest tradition. The schtick here is fruit, strawberries to be exact. In this sprawling hodge…

  • Süllberg Hill

    Hamburg

    The best views of the Elbe (nearly 3km wide here) and its container ships are from the 75m-high Süllberg hill. To get to Süllberg, take the S-Bahn to…

  • Heiligen-Geist-Hospital

    Lübeck

    The former Heiligen-Geist-Hospital has an elegant old entryway and a few resonances of Germany's first hospital (dating back to 1227). Through an early…

  • Kiellinie

    Kiel

    The splendid waterfront promenade known as the Kiellinie begins northeast of the Schlossgarten. Sailing clubs, a tiny aquarium, cafes and restaurants line…

  • Prora

    Rügen Island

    The beach just north of Binz still bears testament to Nazi plans to create the world's largest resort: six hideous six-storey buildings, each 500m long,…

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