Travel to Germany

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    Editor’s Choice: Long Nights of Museums all over Germany
    Theme: Great Buildings by International Star-Architects in Germany
    Feature: German Architects Create Masterpieces at Home
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        Editor’s Choice: Long Nights of Museums all over Germany   
       

Culture in Germany is special, engaging and interactive. The Long Nights of Museums have developed over the past years as fixed events in most cities’ annual schedules. These events are held once or twice a year and give locals and tourists alike the chance to explore the cultural offerings of the diverse museums of each city for one price and one night. The museums stay open past their usual hours, sometimes until 2 am with a program of special exhibitions and events. Thousands of visitors enjoy this possibility to experience culture and art in such a communicative context and for prices typically under $20 per person. Upcoming highlights are the long nights of museums in Hannover (June 12), Dresden (July 10), Berlin (August 28), Munich (October 16) and Cologne (November 13).  www.germany.travel
 
Theme: Great Buildings by International Star-Architects in Germany   

Architectural diversity is the main feature of Germany’s cities. Many internationally acclaimed star-architects left their mark here with fascinating buildings from museums, shopping centers to famous German brand headquarters. Zaha Hadid, David Chipperfield and Richard Meier are just a few of the bright international stars shining in Germany.

The London based star architect Zaha Hadid is known for pushing boundaries with her imaginative works. Most famous in Germany is her design for the phaeno science landscape in Wolfsburg right across the Autostadt Volkswagen center and factory. The phaneo was finished in 2005 and is a one of a kind experience: An interactive, event driven science exhibition, where visitors can literally touch lightning, experience a fire tornado or run through walls. All this is taking place in Hadid’s futuristic design of the exhibition space that rests on conic supports and hoverings over a constructional wonderland shaped by craters, caverns, terraces and plateaus.  www.phaeno.de
Hadid also designed the central building of the BMW plant in Leipzig in eastern Germany. Finished in 2002, this innovative design connects the different work areas of the factory. The central building is designed as a dynamic nerve center, connecting and incorporating the whole factory, combining the function of the factory with futuristic aspects of modern work organization. Tourists can discover the great design of the BMW factory and take a fascinating look into modern car production with guided tours throughout the week.  www.bmw-werk-leipzig.de

The Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron are one of the most famous and cutting edge design teams in the world and their work in Germany is most impressive. In 2005 they finished the Allianz Arena in Munich, the world’s most modern soccer stadium and a fascinating landmark with its illuminated futuristic design. MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "news.germany.travel" claiming to be www.allianz-arena.de
In cooperation with Norman Foster, Herzog & de Meuron also redesigned the Museum for Modern and Contemporary Art Kuppersmuehle in Duisburg. The original industrial building was completely gutted and an exhibition space was created across three stores connected by an intriguing staircase design. As a milestone in the reutilization of industrial space the museum is one of the main attractions of the Ruhr region, the European Capital of Culture 2010.  www.museum-kueppersmuehle.de
In development is Hamburg’s new Elbphilharmonie, which will be the flagship building of the HafenCity urban development in the port of Hamburg, Germany’s largest harbor. The Herzog & de Meuron concept is based on the existing brick-wall building, which will be topped of with a light glass-structure consisting of over 1000 individual elements and will be over 360 feet high. The Elbphilharmonie will open in 2012 and will be Hamburg’s new cultural beacon, with its two concert auditoriums and a five five-star hotel.  www.hafencity.com

US-star architect Richard Meier is known for his modernist style museum buildings. In Germany he constructed the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden north of the Black Forest, one of the most renowned private collections of modern and contemporary art. Finished in 2005, the museum is a modernist white building, masterfully incorporated in the surrounding park area. It actually consists of two buildings connected by a glass bridge. www.sammlung-frieder-burda.de/Architecture.architecture.0.html?&L=1
One of the most impressive works of Richard Meier is the extension to the Museum of Applied Art in Frankfurt. Like no other it connects his modernist style with the villa’s 19th century graceful visage.  www.angewandtekunst-frankfurt.de
   
       
Feature: German Architects Create Masterpieces at Home   
       

Germany stands for architectural excellence and innovation. In the 1920s the Bauhaus school revolutionized architecture and construction not only in Germany, but around the world. The original Bauhaus buildings are today a vibrant testament to Germany’s architectural excellence, as are the building of newer generations of German architects from US-based Helmut Jahn to the Behnisch architects in Stuttgart to the Henn architects in Munich whose masterpieces shape and enrich Germany’s cities and cultural landscape.

Bauhaus Born
The look and feel of life today traces back to the Bauhaus school in Germany that existed for only 14 years, from 1919 to 1933. Being founded in Weimar in Thuringia, the Bauhaus moved in 1925 to the slightly larger city of Dessau, near the Elbe river, two hours outside of Berlin. The original Gropius-designed school building, carefully renovated, survives there, along with a few of the "masters’ houses," where famous Bauhaus artists like Klee and Kandinsky worked - one of them now a museum honoring the Dessau composer Kurt Weill - and a number of other buildings around the town. The school and houses together have been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  www.bauhaus-dessau.de

Glass Towers
Helmut Jahn is one of the best known German architects in the US where he immigrated in 1965. He is known for his high-rise buildings and glass constructions such as One Liberty Place in Philadelphia, the Messeturm in Frankfurt or the German Post Tower in Bonn. Jahn’s most famous masterpiece is by all accounts the Sony Center at Potsdamer Platz in Berlin. Finished in 2000 this modern urban high-tech center with its extensive glass roof is today a symbol for the inventive spirit of the new Berlin. www.sonycenter.de

Auto Experts
Gunther Henn Architects is known for his works for Volkswagen and Audi. On of the most notable masterpieces is the "Glaeserne Manufaktur" of Volkswagen in Dresden, finished in 2001. This new kind of factory is designed, to invite the public with its glass front and lucid interior giving it its name: "Transparent Factory". www.glaesernemanufaktur.de In 2000, Henn architects finished two other masterpieces for iconic car brands in Germany: The Volkswagen Autostadt in Wolfsburg and the Audi Forum in Ingolstadt. The Autostadt is a massive development on the grounds of the VW headquarters in Germany, combining the factory, exhibition hall, a concert hall and cultural spaces to a modern and vital urban development. MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "news.germany.travel" claiming to be www.autostadt.de
The Audi Forum restructures the old factory grounds of Audi in Ingolstadt near Munich and connects them to the new brand museum and exhibition hall. Open and modern design makes the Audi Forum one of the first examples of modern brand development in connecting the workings of the factory to the public. www.audiusa.com

Oceans of Design
The Stuttgart based Behnisch architects have built an international reputation with outstanding works in Europe and the US, such as the Genzyme center in Cambridge. They combine modern and cutting edge design with high-end energy-saving solutions of ecological-friendly building. Their corporate building the Norddeutsche Landesbank building in Hannover is an urban landmark. One of their latest projects, the Ozeaneum in Stralsund on Germany’ Baltic Sea, is a fascinating example of modern museum design. The Ozeaneum is both, museum and aquarium, displaying facets of oceanic live and is embedded into the historic city of Stralsund as part of UNESCO World Heritage Site. The museum is designed in several building modules to resemble stones in the ocean. It is mostly constructed from glass with steal ribbons mimicking sails and giving the visual impression of catching the wind.  www.ozeaneum.de