Artsy Traveler

Artsy Suggestions in Germany

Following are a few artsy highlights that I’ve enjoyed in Germany. You’ll find hundreds more.

Bach Museum in Leipzig

If you’re a Bach fan, head for Leipzig to enjoy one of the hippest music museums I’ve ever visited. I could have stayed there all day!

The Bach Museum is located next to the Thomaskirche, the church where Bach is buried. The museum is open 10 am to 6 pm Tuesday to Sunday so make sure you don’t make Monday your Leipzig day.

A highlight for me were the many interactive exhibits, including the Virtual Baroque Orchestra. The instruments are displayed on a wall with each instrument being played marked by a light signal. Press the button corresponding to the instrument and its sound will be amplified so that you are able to hear it more distinctly. The orchestra plays three pieces and I listened to them all.

Another highlight, particularly if you’re a musician and have played Bach, is the Listening Studio. Sit on a comfy couch at a listening station, don the headphones provided and search a database containing every single one of Bach’s compositions (and trust me, he wrote a lot). I could have stayed forever.

Other notable music sites in Germany include Beethoven’s birthplace in Bonn and the many sites associated with Wagner in Bayreuth.

Beethoven House in Bonn

I visited Beethoven’s birthplace in Bonn when I was 18 and will never forget going into the small house and hearing Beethoven being played on a piano located in the room where he was born.

The Beethoven-Haus museum has grown since then and is now considered one of the most visited music museums in the world and one of the 100 most popular sights in Germany. The museum is open almost every day of the year from 10 am to 6 pm.

Romano-Germanic Museum in Cologne

The Romano-Germanic Museum (Römisch-Germanisches Museum) is simply amazing and one of the best museums we’ve visited in Germany.

Beautifully curated displays present the archaeological heritage of Cologne from the Palaeolithic period to the early Middle Ages, including, of course, the centuries when Rome was in charge. You’ll see the world’s largest collections of Roman glass vessels along with goldwork and goods showing the lives of Romani and Franks in early medieval Cologne.

Concerts

Go out of your way to attend concerts when you’re in Germany. One of the highlights of our German travels was hearing Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in the magnificent Philharmonie Hall in Berlin. This acoustically amazing and super-modern concert hall was almost as exciting as the performance.

In Cologne, catch a performance at the Kölner Philharmonie. Located close to Cologne Cathedral, the modern concert hall is breathtaking, with excellent acoustics and comfy seats.

On a folksier note, be on the lookout for concerts featuring medieval instruments. We attended one in Bacharach in the Rhine Valley. Costumed performers played wind instruments, drums, zithers, and other medieval instruments and explained in English and German what they were playing. At the end of the concert, most of the audience (me included) got up to dance.

Art Museums

Here’s a list of the art museums I’ve visited and recommend. You’ll find plenty more!

Berlin

Pergamon Museum: As one of the most visited museums in Germany, the Pergamon Museum deserves a spot high on your list of Berlin sites. The big attraction is the incredible collection of massive archaeological structures from ancient Middle East, including the Pergamon Altar, the Market Gate of Miletus, the Ishtar Gate and Processional Way from Babylon, and the Mshatta Façade.

The Pergamon Museum is one of five world-class museums on Museum Island in Berlin. To read about all of them, see Booming Berlin.

Gemäldegalerie: The modern building houses a first-rate collection of European painting from the 13th to 18th centuries including masterpieces by Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, and Jan Vermeer van Delft.

Munich

There are three “Pinakotheken” museums in the Art District or Kunstareal: the Alte Pinakothek is one of the oldest museums in the world and houses a fine collection of Old Masters.

Nearby is Pinakothek der Moderne which is four museums in one: art, prints and drawings, architecture, and design. When we visited, we saw a wonderful exhibition of paintings by Frank Stella.

The Neue Pinakothek is closed until 2025. Several works from the collection, including paintings by Goya, Manet, van Gogh, and Klimt, are currently on display on the ground floor of the Alte Pinakothek.

Outside Cologne

A highlight was a visit to the Max Ernst Museum in Brühl, a short distance from Cologne. If you’re not driving, take a tram from Cologne or Bonn. The museum features a marvelous collection of work by one of the 20th century’s foremost surrealists. Max Ernst is one of Gregg’s favorite artists so visiting the museum was a true pilgrimage for him.

If you’re a fan of the work of Max Ernst, be sure to put the museum on your list. The grounds surrounding the museum are beautiful.

Nuremberg: Albrecht Dürer’s House

This charming house where Dürer (1471-1528) lived and worked for over 20 years is one of the few surviving burgher houses in Nuremberg and the only surviving artist’s house from the period in northern Europe.

Tour the various rooms to see how a wealthy person lived in the 16^th century. Head upstairs to the workshop to enjoy a demonstration of the printmaking techniques Dürer used to produce his woodcuts, including one of his most famous—the rhinoceros.