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"Travel Tips" 19/2011, 26 Oktober
Land of poets, philosophers and composers
Germany is the land of poets, philosophers and composers. Heidelberg, for instance, one of the Historic Highlights of Germany in Baden-Württemberg, was once a magnet for poets such as Goethe, Eichendorff, Hölderlin and Keller. Another Historic Highlight of Germany is Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hessen, where visitors can discover some of Goethe’s favourite haunts. Not far away, in Biebrich am Rhein, Richard Wagner composed part of his opera ‘The Mastersingers of Nuremberg’. The largest private collection of Beethoven memorabilia is on display at a museum in Koblenz, a little further down the Rhine in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller were two of Germany’s greatest poets, and visiting the houses where they were born and lived is always a thrill. Goethe, who wrote ‘Faust’ and ‘Erl King’, was born in Frankfurt am Main in Hessen. His lovingly preserved birthplace can be seen in Frankfurt, whilst many literature lovers make the pilgrimage to the Goethe Museum in Weimar, Thuringia. Schiller, whose plays include ‘The Robbers’ and ‘William Tell’, was born in Marbach in Baden-Württemberg, which today has a museum devoted to the writer’s life. Theodor Fontane, Heinrich Heine and Gotthold Lessing also wrote timeless classics which continue to appeal to new generations of readers. Their writings can be discovered at the book fairs and readings that take place all over Germany.
www.goethehaus-frankfurt.de www.schillerjahr2009.de friedrich_schiller/marbach.php
Bertolt Brecht, Erich Kästner and Günter Grass represent a more recent generation of German poets and philosophers. In Lübeck the Günter Grass House opens up the world of the Nobel Prize winner, whose works include ‘The Tin Drum’ and who still delights in this old Hanseatic town in Schleswig-Holstein. Visitors to the Erich Kästner Museum in Dresden can discover the author of books such as ‘Emil and the Detectives’. The dramatist Bertolt Brecht, who was born in Augsburg, and Thomas Mann, who was born in Lübeck and won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his novel ‘Buddenbrooks’, also left many traces for us to discover in the cities of their birth.
www.erich-kaestner-museum.de www.luebeck.de/tourismus www.augsburg.de
Every year countless music festivals are staged in Germany in honour of its most famous composers and musicians. The Beethoven Festival in Bonn, the former federal capital, is a celebration of Ludwig van Beethoven, who was born in this city in North Rhine-Westphalia. Göttingen in Lower Saxony sparkles with the spirit of another great composer, George Frideric Handel, when the annual Göttingen International Handel Festival attracts audiences from around the world. The Bach Festival in Leipzig, Saxony, is devoted to works by Johann Sebastian Bach, who lived and worked in the city for almost 30 years before his death.
www.beethovenfest.de www.haendel-festspiele.de www.bach-leipzig.de
Contents:
- Health & wellness in 2011: thermal baths
- 125th anniversary of the automobile:museums
- Museums and birthplaces of German composers
- Museums in Germany
- News and dates
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19/2011, 26 Oktober
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