Germany - Wartburg Castle - Old postcard

Wartburg Castle was founded by Duke Ludwig of Thuringia in 1067 AD. It belonged to the landgraves of Thuringia and once hosted the medieval Minnesinger poets, immortalized by Wagner in Tannhäuser.

Most famously, the Wartburg is where Martin Luther hid out as "Knight George" upon his return from the Diet of Worms in 1521. Here he completed his translation of the Bible. During his stay here, he said he "fought the Devil with ink" and is said to have experienced dark periods of depression.

Today, the castle is a regional museum. Wartburg Castle was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1999 for its association with Luther and for its role as "a powerful symbol of German integration and unity."

Germany - 1945 views

Germany - Aachen

Aachen has historically been a spa city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favored residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany.

Aachen Cathedral, also referred to as the Kaiserdom ("Imperial Cathedral") of Aachen, is a building of great historical, architectural and religious importance. Built by Charlemagne in 805 AD, its unique design was highly influential on German church architecture and it was a site of imperial coronations and pilgrimage for many centuries.

Charlemagne (Karl der Grosse in German), the first Holy Roman Emperor, began building his Palatine Chapel (palace chapel) in 786 AD. The Palatine Chapel has been described as a "masterpiece of Carolingian architecture" and was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. It is all that remains today of Charlemagne's extensive palace complex in Aachen.

Germany - Halle an der Saale

Halle is the largest city in the German State of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale (literally Halle on the Saale river, and in some historic references simply Saale after the river) in order to distinguish it from Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia. The current official name of the city is Halle (Saale).

Halle's early history is connected with harvesting of salt. In fact the name Halle may be derived from a Pre-Germanic word for salt ("hall"). The name of the river Saale also contains the Germanic root for salt, and salt-harvesting has taken place in Halle at least since the time of the Bronze Age (2300-600 BC).
The town was first mentioned in 806. It became a part of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg in the 10th century and remained so until 1680, when Brandenburg-Prussia annexed it together with Magdeburg as the Duchy of Magdeburg. In 1815 it became part of the Prussian Province of Saxony.
After World War II Halle served as the capital of the short-lived administrative region of Saxony-Anhalt, this was until 1952 when the East German government abolished its "Länder" (States). As a part of East Germany (until 1990), it functioned as the capital of the administrative district ("Bezirk") of Halle. When Saxony-Anhalt was re-established as a Bundesland, Magdeburg became the capital.

Germany – Rhein River

The Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe (1,320 km / 820 mi).

The Rhine and the Danube formed most of the northern inland frontier of the Roman Empire and, since those days, the Rhine has been a vital, navigable waterway, and carried trade and goods deep inland. It has also served as a defensive feature and has been the basis for regional and international borders. The many castles and prehistoric fortifications along the Rhine testify to its importance as a waterway. River traffic could be stopped at these locations, usually for the purpose of collecting tolls, by the state that controlled that portion of the river.

Germany - Hamburg

Hamburg is a major port city situated on the Elbe River in northern Germany.
Hamburg is a city-state. It values its status as a city, being as independent as possible of other states that have existed or currently exist in Germany. Nevertheless, over the centuries, Hamburg has always been an international city. This is not only because of its position in international trade, but also in political dimensions.
One of the most important harbors in Europe and the world, Hamburg takes great pride in its mercantile background, which built the city's wealth in the past centuries. From 1241 on, it was member of the Hanseatic League, a medieval trade monopoly over Northern Europe. In the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, millions left Europe on their way to the new world through the Hamburg harbor. Today, the harbor ranks second in Europe and sixth to seventh world-wide. Consequently, one of Hamburg's tag lines is "The Gate to the World" (derived from the city’s coat of arms, showing an argent city wall with a gate and crowned by three towers on a field of gules). Hamburg is known to be one of the richest metropolitan area in the European Union, like Brussels and London.
The harbor is the heart of the city, however, Hamburg is one of the most important media hubs in Germany, too. Half of the nation's newspapers and magazines have their roots in Hamburg. And unknown even to some locals is the fact that, with one of the Airbus aircraft assembly plants, Hamburg is a major location of the world's aerospace industry, right after Seattle (USA) and Toulouse (France).
The mercantile background reflects in the city's architecture. The only palace in Hamburg is the town hall, house of the citizen's parliament and the senate. Apart from that, the city still has large quarters with expensive houses and villas. These residences are home to merchants and captains, surrounded by lots of greenery.

Germany - Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) starting August 13, 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin. The barrier included guard towers placed along large concrete walls, which circumscribed a wide area (later known as the "death strip") that contained anti-vehicle trenches, "fakir beds" and other defenses. The Soviet-dominated Eastern Bloc officially claimed that the wall was erected to protect its population from fascist elements conspiring to prevent the "will of the people" in building a Socialist State in East Germany. However, in practice, the Wall served to prevent the massive emigration and defection that marked Germany and the communist Eastern Bloc during the post-World War II period.

In 1989, a radical series of Eastern Bloc political changes occurred, associated with the liberalization of the Eastern Bloc's authoritarian systems and the erosion of political power in the pro-Soviet governments in nearby Poland and Hungary. After several weeks of civil unrest, the East German government announced on November 9, 1989 that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin. Crowds of East Germans crossed and climbed onto the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, a euphoric public and souvenir hunters chipped away parts of the wall; the governments later used industrial equipment to remove most of the rest. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990.