Do you know Frankfurt am Main? With its skyscrapers and modern glass facades, at first the banking city in Hesse can appear somewhat cold. But it also has wonderful quaint corners with half-timbered houses and cobblestone streets. The New Old Town, the Römerberg and the Alt-Sachsenhausen district are some of the sights not to be missed. Take a tour through one of Germany’s largest cities with Elissa and Rodrigo from @Alemanizando.
Video timeline: 00:00 Intro 00:44 Main River and Bank District 01:49 Main Tower 02:35 Old Sachsenhausen District, Eppelwoi and Green Sauce 04:28 Römerberg, Old Town and the New Old Town 05:45 Kleinmarkthalle
This week: our associate editor, Kabir Jhala, and editor-at-large, Jane Morris, have been in Kassel, Germany, to see Documenta, the quinquennial international art exhibition.
They review the show and respond to the escalation of a long-running row over antisemitism and broader racism, which has resulted in a work being removed from the exhibition. Virginia Rutledge, an art historian and lawyer, discusses the dispute over Andy Warhol’s appropriation of a photograph by Lynn Goldsmith of the pop icon Prince. The case will be heard in the US Supreme Court this autumn and has potentially huge implications for artistic freedom. And this episode’s Work of the Week is An Outpost of Progress (1992), a drawing by the late Spanish artist Juan Muñoz, inspired by Joseph Conrad’s short story of the same name.
Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany, until 25 September.
Juan Muñoz: Drawings 1982-2000, Centro Botín, Santander, Spain, 25 June-16 October.
Two wheels, one goal: exploring Hamburg from a cycling perspective. Rather than exploring Hamburg through a city walk, Amélie’s mission on a sunny day in Hamburg is to bike through the urban jungle as well as through the green parts of the city. Amélie starts at the Fischmarkt in the Rad Race Shop and crosses the Elbtunnel, which connects the centre of Hamburg with the docks and shipyards on the south side of the Elbe.
Video timeline: 00:00 Fischmarkt | Rad Race Shop 03:44 Elbtunnel 08:33 Landungsbrücken 11:34 Elbphilharmonie 12:37 Hafencity 18:22 Speicherstadt 25:41 Hamburger Rathaus 28:16 Jungfernstieg 40:14 Planten un Blomen 49:06 Reeperbahn
Out of the lift of the Elbtunnel, the route continues via the Landungsbrücken to the Elbphilharmonie. From there, via the Speicherstadt to Hamburg City Hall. After the Jungfernstieg, the tour continues along the green side of Hamburg through the Old Botanical Garden and Planten un Blomen.
Via the Reeperbahn, we return to the Rad Race Shop for Amélie to enjoy a cup of coffee.
Heads of state are meeting for the G7 World Economic Summit at the luxury Schloss Elmau hotel in Bavaria. And they won’t just be talking about global problems there, they’ll also be staying at the hotel, protected from the outside world.
We take a look behind the scenes at the five-star superior hotel close to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the south of Germany. What does German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s hotel room look like? And US President Joe Biden’s bathtub? How’s the view from the balcony over the Alps? What’s the food like at the hotel’s two-star Michelin restaurant? How much does it all cost? And why is the hotel manager such a fan of elephants?
Schloss Elmau, built by the philosopher and theologian Johannes Müller and architect Carl Sattler between 1914 and 1916, is a four-story national monument with hipped roof, tower and porch, situated between Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Mittenwald in a sanctuary of the Bavarian Alps, Germany.
Even the ancient Greeks, wealthy Romans and Emperor August were big asparagus fans. Presumably, the Romans with their expansionist campaigns were behind its quick spread in Europe, including in Germany.
Today, Germany is one of the leading producers of asparagus in Europe. But why are Germans so crazy about the “white gold”? Our reporter Brant Dennis visits an asparagus farm during harvest, to see what exactly makes this funny-looking vegetable so popular.
We discuss Germany’s dithering on the issue of sending weapons to Ukraine. Plus: Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen enter the final days of campaigning, Japan weighs in on the Solomon Islands-China security pact and the latest urbanism news.
Flowering mountain slopes and traditional meadows. Icy glaciers and majestic summits. With their untouched nature and raw beauty, the Alps have always been a source of fascination. Angelika Taschen presents the best accommodation for Alpinists – historic inns, guesthouses, monasteries, mountain huts, chalets, palazzi, design hotels, even a youth hostel.
A Mountain Tour of the Alps
The Alps are Europe’s biggest and greatest mountain range. Formed millions of years ago, they became a popular destination for travelers in the late eighteenth century – first for adventurers and explorers, then for artists and writers, and finally for everyone who wanted to spend summer in the fresh air of this wonderful scenery or take part in winter sports. Angelika Taschen has followed in their footsteps and collected the finest hotels in the Alpine nations of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Italy.
They include the Kranzbach near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, built for a British aristocrat, Gasthof Hirschen in the Bregenzerwald, where art-loving visitors have been welcomed since 1755, and the Seehof near Salzburg with its emphasis on contemporary art and fine cuisine. The journey goes to Waldhaus Sils in Sils Maria, where many creative guests have found inspiration, to the Schatzalp in Davos, which Thomas Mann immortalized in literature in “The Magic Mountain”, and to picturesque bed & breakfasts with a personal touch such as Brücke49 in Vals and Maison Bergdorf in Interlaken.
High above Chamonix, mountaineers have stayed overnight for more than 140 years at Refuge du Montenvers with its view of the Mer de Glace, the largest glacier in France. In the exclusive Megève, too, which Baroness Noémie de Rothschild put on the tourist map, travelers experience the Alps à la française in the chalet hotel L’Alpaga; and a bit of Italian dolce vita is provided by stunning addresses in the South Tyrol such as the Ottmangut in Merano, Villa Arnica in Lana with its nostalgic atmosphere, and Pension Briol near Barbiano, constructed in 1928 in the Bauhaus style and extended in 2021 with the addition of two extremely modern buildings.
This opulent book of photographs presents the Alpine range and accommodation in large-format images, short texts, and useful details on prices and how to get there. Walkers, skiers, gourmets, and lovers of good living will find valuable tips and very special accommodation: former monasteries where guests still find peace and seclusion, a mountain hut at the heart of the Dolomites, and a youth hostel occupying what was once a sanatorium, a rare example of modern architecture in Switzerland that was declared a heritage monument in 2002.
Bonn is a city in western Germany straddling the Rhine river. It’s known for the central Beethoven House, a memorial and museum honoring the composer’s birthplace. Nearby are Bonn Minster, a church with a Romanesque cloister and Gothic elements, the pink-and-gold Altes Rathaus, or old city hall, and Poppelsdorf Palace housing a mineralogical museum. To the south is Haus der Geschichte with post-WWII history exhibits.
Cochem is the seat of and the biggest town in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With just over 5,000 inhabitants, Cochem falls just behind Kusel, in the Kusel district, as Germany’s second smallest district seat. Since 7 June 2009, it has belonged to the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem.
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