• Bad Hersfeld
• Homberg (Efze)
  
• Bad Homburg v.d. Höhe
  
• Darmstadt
• Frankfurt a.M.
• Fulda
• Giessen
• Hanau
• Heppenheim
• Kassel
• Korbach
• Lauterbach
  
• Limburg
• Marburg
• Offenbach
• Rüdesheim
  
• Wetzlar
• Wiesbaden
• Witzenhausen
  

The festival town and spa resort of Bad Hersfeld is the administrative seat of Landkreis Hersfeld-Rotenburg (rural district) in northeast Hesse.
Bad Hersfeld is known outside the region above all for the Bad Hersfeld Festival that has been held annually at the Stiftsruine since 1951. The Stiftsruine is considered Europe’s largest Romanesque church ruin. The Klosterbezirk, the old monastery area, is also the site of the Katharinenturm, the tower that holds the Lullusglocke, Germany’s oldest dated bell.
Major sections of the old town wall are still intact (Südtor, Halbschalenturm).
Remnants of the old town moat are to be found in two ponds, the Nordschulteiche, in the Leonhard-Müller-Anlage. This park is also the location of the Vitaliskreuz, although the original cross is now kept in a museum. It stands at the place where the citizens of the town were able to hold back an attack by the Sternerbund, an alliance of knights, in 1378. Further remains of the town’s defences stand in Unterstadt (eastern side of the old town), where you will also find the Klausturm (a watchtower and prison) and, nearby, the slightly smaller Pulverturm. The old town has 216 protected historical buildings.
Bad Hersfeld’s protected location in the Fulda valley, surrounded by the low mountain ranges of Hesse and Thuringia, gives the town a relatively high annual average temperature of 8.7 degrees Celsius and a dry climate with average rainfall of only 718.1 millimetres a year.

Homberg (Efze) is a small town in north Hesse with approximately 15,000 inhabitants. It is also the administrative seat of Schwalm-Eder-Kreis (district). The town’s name is derived from the Hoheburg, the castle on the basalt rock formation above the town.
Homberg is situated in the transitional zone between the Westhessischer Senke – a geological depression dating from the Tertiary Period – and the Knüll, a low mountain range. The town itself spreads over several hills which consist largely of basalt. Coming from the Knüll, the river Efze flows through Homberg before draining into the river Fulda. There are small coal deposits in the immediate vicinity.
The medieval town centre and numerous historical buildings have remained largely intact until the present.

Bad Homburg vor der Höhe is the administrative seat of the Hochtaunuskreis (district) in Hesse and one of the state’s seven special status towns. It is part of the Rhine Main Region and directly borders on Frankfurt am Main.
The prefix “Bad” (meaning bath or spa) was added to the town’s name in 1912 and, like several other Taunus towns, the spa town is considered a select place of residence for better-off commuters to Frankfurt am Main. In fact, however, more people commute to than from Bad Homburg because it is the home of numerous company headquarters.
Bad Homburg borders on the municipality of Wehrheim and the town of Friedrichsdorf in the north, the towns of Rosbach and Karben (both of which belong to the Wetterau district) in the east, the urban district of Frankfurt am Main in the south, the town of Oberursel in the southwest and the town of Neu-Anspach in the northwest.
The exceptional purchasing power of the local population provides considerable benefits for retailers in Bad Homburg; part of this income also flows into the retail trade in neighbouring Frankfurt. Local policy attempts to maintain the charm of the town centre and the location of discount supermarket chains, for example, is prohibited on the edge of town. This has led to the rapid expansion of the neighbouring industrial areas in Frankfurt-Nieder-Eschbach and Frankfurt-Kalbach.
The Schloss, a former imperial summer residence, is surrounded by the Schlosspark, a English-style landscape garden.
Based on numerous mineral springs, the spa industry is an important element of the local economy. The spa industry centres on the postmodern new Kurhaus, which was built between 1982 and 1984. The traditional Kaiser-Wilhelms-Bad is located in the Kurpark Bad Homburg, a 44-hectare park in the middle of town. The lower part of the park is well-known primarily for its many springs, which are relatively close together, but have sometimes very different mineral content.
The particularly high quality of life that Bad Homburg offers makes property prices in Bad Homburg among the highest in the whole of Germany.

Darmstadt is a kreisfreie Stadt (urban district) in southern Hesse and administrative seat of Regierungsbezirk Darmstadt (administrative region) and of Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg (rural district). The city is part of the Rhine Main Region and one of Hesse’s nine major regional centres. Darmstadt is Hesse’s fourth largest city – after Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden and Kassel. Geographically, the nearest large cities are Frankfurt am Main, roughly 30 kilometres to the north, and Mannheim, roughly 45 kilometres to the south.
Darmstadt was awarded the title “City of Science” by Hesse’s Interior Ministry in 1997 as a result of its importance as a science and research centre. This is based largely on its University of Technology, founded in 1877, and three universities of applied sciences with a total of more than 30,000 students as well as a large number of research facilities and institutes. Darmstadt’s reputation as the centre of the Jugendstil movement goes back to the artists’ colony on the Mathildenhöhe established by Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig in 1899.
Darmstadt offers a large number of attractive leisure opportunities:
virtual worlds can be experienced in the Cybernarium and live animals from all over the world can be visited at the Vivarium with its “zoo school”.
The downtown cinema centre always presents the newest films. Cafés, restaurants and bars catering for every taste can be easily reached from the city centre on foot or conveniently using public transport. A large and lively pedestrian precinct with varied shopping opportunities – ranging from major retail chains to small and sophisticated specialist stores – fills the city with life.
Four bathing lakes and two indoor pools encourage people to swim, take a sauna or generally keep fit. A boot trip on the Steinbrücker Teich at Oberwaldhaus can be combined with walks in the neighbouring forest.
Beautifully kept public parks and the Botanical Gardens of the University of Technology attract nature lovers into the city’s green spaces.
The Hessian State Museum, the Mathildenhöhe and the Artists’ Colony Museum, Darmstadt State Theatre and several galleries offer interesting and ever new attractions for locals and visitors alike.

With more than 667,000 inhabitants, Frankfurt am Main is the largest city in Hesse and the fifth largest city in Germany, after Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Cologne. As a centre of the financial services and trade fair industries, of literature and culture, Frankfurt is one of the richest cities in Europe.
Frankfurt has been one of Germany’s most important urban centres ever since the Middle Ages. First mentioned in an official document in 794, Frankfurt became a free imperial city during the High Middle Ages and was the place where Holy Roman Emperors were elected and crowned until 1806. It was the seat of the German Federation from 1816 to 1866 and of the first elected German parliament in 1848/49.
Today, Frankfurt has attained worldwide significance as the home of the European Central Bank, the German Bundesbank, the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Frankfurt Trade Fair and it is the only German city listed as one of the ten Alpha world cities. Thanks to its central location, Frankfurt is one of Europe’s most important transport hubs with Frankfurt International Airport, a major railway station and Frankfurter Kreuz, one of the continent’s busiest road transport interchanges.
Frankfurt first registered more than 100,000 inhabitants in 1875 and a population of more than 500,000 in 1928. Some 1.8 million people live in the Frankfurt metropolitan area today, while the entire Rhine Main Region has over 5 million inhabitants. Frankfurt thus represents the centre of the second largest German metropolitan area, after the Rhine Ruhr conurbation.
One special feature of Frankfurt is its skyline, whose skyscrapers are counted among Europe’s tallest buildings.

Fulda lies on the banks of the river of the same name and is the main centre of the East Hesse region and Hesse’s ninth largest city. It is the administrative seat of Landkreis Fulda (rural district) and also one of seven special status towns in Hesse. Additionally, Fulda was the site of the Fulda Monastery and remains a major centre of higher education, Baroque art and the Catholic Church (seat of the Fulda diocese).
The city is situated on the river Fulda not far from Hesse’s borders with Thuringia and Bavaria and lies between the Rhön region in the east and the Vogelsberg in the west.
As the seat of the Catholic diocese and the German Bishops’ Conference, Catholicism has a traditionally strong influence in Fulda. The monastery foundation in the year 744 is also regarded as the year of the city’s foundation. The monastery and its territory grew until it became a bishopric in 1752. After the foundation of the monastery, ecclesiastical demand provided the initial impetus for winegrowing. The monastery also established Fulda’s long tradition as a school and university town. In 1734 Adolph von Dalberg founded the University of Fulda, which existed until 1805.
Today, Fulda is the educational centre for the region with several high schools; some 4,000 students are registered at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. There is also a Catholic seminary.

Frankfurt’s distinctive feature is its skyline. The high-rise bank towers form a unique backdrop that is not found in any other German city and is considered typical of Frankfurt.
Yet Frankfurt makes an impression through its very diversity!
The city is a multicultural centre and lives from its internationality. People who spend any length of time here are struck above all by the city’s multifaceted nature, especially its visual contrasts. They soon notice how certain spaces and areas stand out from others due to their highly individual character. The informed visitor soon gains access to the city’s atmospheric diversity, its plethora of rewarding locations.
Starting in the centre of Frankfurt, the view extends from the lofty towers of “Mainhattan” to the roofs outlining the foothills of the Taunus and then up to the horizon along the edge of the green mountain slopes. The panorama has a great deal to offer. The expanse of architectural structures is crossed by the Main, the river whose gentle undulations divide the city into two halves connected by a variety of bridges. A kind of green belt, an almost semi-circular network of gardens, skirts the centre of Frankfurt, which also has several larger parks on offer. On the other side of this green line lie the airport and the central railway station. Both are central pillars of Frankfurt’s role as a European transport hub and both offer additional backdrops for the film-makers’ camera.
Frankfurt’s individual districts differ from one another in many respects. You only need to compare Sachsenhausen, Westend and Bornheim, for example, and you will not only discover distinct differences in architecture, but also three very distinctive atmospheric settings. The old town in Sachsenhausen offers charming old taverns and narrow alleyways. It stands in stark contrast to Westend with its broader and prosperous tree-lined avenues – or Bornheim with its long shopping streets and seemingly endless cafés.
Frankfurt’s centre includes the Zeil (Germany’s top-selling shopping street), the banking district, the red-light district at the central rail station, the museum bank, the urbane shopping passageways of the B-Ebene with the underground rail stations... Countless settings are available for all genres, formats, visions and dreams.
The city takes on a completely different character at night.
The high-rise buildings can be seen from a long way off – for example, a car driver travelling south towards Frankfurt on the A5 autobahn has a magnificent view of the city’s brightly illuminated skyscrapers. Initial impressions are not disappointed.
Frankfurt is a big and bustling city – night and day – with many different facets.

Fulda lies on the banks of the river of the same name and is the main centre of the East Hesse region and Hesse’s ninth largest city. It is the administrative seat of Landkreis Fulda (rural district) and also one of seven special status towns in Hesse. Additionally, Fulda was the site of the Fulda Monastery and remains a major centre of higher education, Baroque art and the Catholic Church (seat of the Fulda diocese).
The city is situated on the river Fulda not far from Hesse’s borders with Thuringia and Bavaria and lies between the Rhön region in the east and the Vogelsberg in the west.
As the seat of the Catholic diocese and the German Bishops’ Conference, Catholicism has a traditionally strong influence in Fulda. The monastery foundation in the year 744 is also regarded as the year of the city’s foundation. The monastery and its territory grew until it became a bishopric in 1752. After the foundation of the monastery, ecclesiastical demand provided the initial impetus for winegrowing. The monastery also established Fulda’s long tradition as a school and university town. In 1734 Adolph von Dalberg founded the University of Fulda, which existed until 1805.
Today, Fulda is the educational centre for the region with several high schools; some 4,000 students are registered at Fulda University of Applied Sciences. There is also a Catholic seminary.

Giessen is Hesse’s eighth largest city, a university town with a population of approximately 74,000, including more than 21,000 students. It is also the administrative centre for central Hesse, an important transport hub and a major regional centre. The city is the administrative seat of both Regierungsbezirk Giessen (administrative region) and Landkreis Giessen (rural district).
Giessen is situated on a bend in the river Lahn where it changes direction from south to west, one of the places where the Lahn valley broadens out. Upstream, to the north of the city, the valley continues in the direction of Marburg. The Westerwald mountains are located at some distance to the west, the Wetterau region is in the south and, also at some distance, the Taunus mountains are in the southwest. The countryside around Giessen blends into the Vogelsberg mountains in the east
Giessen’s neighbouring towns are Wetzlar (15 kilometres to the west) and Marburg (30 kilometres to the north), which are both situated on the Lahn, and Fulda (80 kilometres to the east), Friedberg (30 kilometres to the south) and Frankfurt am Main (70 kilometres to the south).
In addition to Giessen’s old town centre, the city consists of another six districts. The Botanical Gardens of 1609 are the oldest university gardens in Germany still at their original location. The gardens of the Ostanlage and particularly the Theaterpark between Südanlage and Johannesstrasse are also worth mentioning here. Events are also held in the Theaterpark of Giessen Municipal Theatre.
The city’s most important and most famous educational institution is the Justus Liebig University (JLU). The main emphasis of teaching at the university lies on scientific and medical disciplines. Giessen is considered one of the most important centres of higher education in the fields of agricultural science and veterinary medicine. Giessen has the highest student population density in Germany with a total of roughly 26,500 students among a population of 72,500.

Hanau, the Brothers Grimm city, is situated in the eastern part of the Rhein Main Region on the confluence of the Kinzig and the Main. It is one of Hesse’s nine major regional centres, special status town in the Main-Kinzig-Kreis (district) and the sixth largest city in Hesse with roughly 88,000 inhabitants. The former royal residence is the economic and cultural centre of the Main-Kinzig region and an important industrial and technological centre. Hanau was the home of the first German faience factory, has a long tradition as a centre of goldsmithing and jewellery production and is today the headquarters of major businesses, for example, in the fields of materials technology, medical and dental technology, chemistry and plant design and construction.
Hanau is situated on the Lower Main Plain in a depression between Wetterau and the foothills of the Spessart and is surrounded by an extensive belt of woodland. The city also forms the intersection of major traffic routes at the entrance to the Kinzig valley.
Famous attractions include the German House of Goldsmiths (in the former old town hall), Marienkirche in the old town, Philippsruhe Palace and the Wilhelmsbad historic spa resort. The spa resort is one of the most popular recreational destinations in the Rhine Main Region. The spa facilities include an expansive park where thousands of people from all over the Rhein Main Region come to relax during the summer.
Philippsruhe Palace is the home of Hanau Historical Museum, which also has an archaeological annexe at Steinheim Palace. The Wilhelmsbad spa complex, an almost intact facility dating from the end of the 18th century that offers a historical carousel, the Comedy House and the Hessian Doll Museum, is situated in a park on the western edge of the city.
The German Fairytale Road begins in Hanau and ends in Bremen. The German Limes Road runs through Hanau and the German Framework Road through Hanau-Steinheim. Steinheim is also the starting point for Hesse’s Apple Wine Road.

Heppenheim (Bergstrasse) is the administrative seat of Kreis Bergstrasse (district) located on the Bergstrasse on the edge of the Odenwald mountains.
Heppenheim is romantically situated among gentle vineyard slopes beneath the Starkenburg, the town’s medieval castle. In addition to the castle, the other characteristic landmark is St. Peter’s, or “Bergstrasse Cathedral” as the locals call it. Although large, the Catholic church, which was consecrated in 1904, is not the seat of a bishop. Heppenheim is centrally located on the B3, B460 and A5/A67 highways almost half way between Heidelberg and Darmstadt. Situated in south Hesse on the state border with Baden-Württemberg, it is Hesse’s most southern district administrative seat.
The name “Bergstrasse” (literally, mountain road) is not only the designation for the route that runs from Darmstadt to Heidelberg along the western edge of the Odenwald and the eastern edge of the Rhine valley (today’s B3 trunk road), but also for the landscape of the immediate vicinity. It is also known for its exceptionally mild and sunny climate that causes the trees to blossom very early.
Heppenheim still has a largely intact and self-contained picturesque old town centre covering an area of roughly six hectares with a large number of attractive sights. The face of the old town is strongly influenced by traditional timber-framed buildings.
Heppenheim’s Starkenburg Observatory, an amateur astronomical observatory on the Schlossberg, the castle hill, has made a name for itself outside the region in the field of minor planet research.
Heppenheim is part of the economically powerful Rhine-Neckar Triangle and has been designated a medium-level centre in the regional plan for south Hesse in conjunction with a number of neighbouring towns and municipalities (among others, Bensheim, Lorsch and Lautertal).
Heppenheim is a wine town and part of the Hessische Bergstrasse winegrowing region. The particularly favourable climate and good soil conditions along the Bergstrasse make it possible to produce very high-quality, predominantly dry and medium-dry wines. The main grape variety is Riesling.

Kassel (officially spelt “Cassel” until 1926) is the venue of the documenta contemporary art festival and the only large city in northern Hesse. Although it is now only the third largest city in Hesse after Frankfurt am Main and Wiesbaden, historically, Kassel was the Hessian capital, a status it held from 1277 to 1866. Today it is the administrative seat of both Regierungsbezirk Kassel (administrative region) and Landkreis Kassel (rural district). It is also one of Hesse’s nine major regional centres.
Situated on both banks of the river Fulda, Kassel is internationally famous for the Wilhelmshöhe Bergpark with its Wasserspiel (“water games”) in Habichtswald and the documenta contemporary arts show that has been held in the city every four or five years since 1955, which is why Kassel was granted the official title “Documenta City” in 1999.
Kassel’s population exceeded 100,000 in 1899 and has now reached a total of 198,589 (February 2007).
Kassel is roughly 70 kilometres north of Germany’s geographical centre and therefore its most central city after Erfurt and Göttingen.
Typical 1950s architecture has left a strong mark on Kassel’s city centre as a result of the reconstruction programme after the Second World War when British bombing raids left very few historical buildings intact. Unlike many other towns, Kassel decided to rebuild in the contemporary style and did not attempt to reconstruct the old city centre. As a result, the remains of many historical buildings were torn down. The new town plan was based on garden city principles and mainly four- and five-storey residential buildings were built. Interestingly, on the one hand, the city, including the centre, was optimised for car traffic, while, on the other, it became the site of the Federal Republic of Germany’s first pedestrian zone. By the 1970s, however, the capacity of the road system was no longer sufficient to cope with rapidly growing traffic volumes. Today Kassel’s radical departure from the historical city plan is contentious.
In contrast to the often highly built-up areas in the suburbs, Kassel offers many areas of greenery, including the Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe in Habichtswald and the Karlsaue and Fuldaaue parks along the river (see parks and gardens in Kassel for more details). One conspicuous feature of Kassel is the numerous oak trees found all over the city. They were planted in its streets and squares by artist Joseph Beuys between 1982 and 1987 as part of his 7,000 Oaks project.

Korbach, an over 1,000-year-old former Hanseatic town, is the largest town and the administrative seat of Landkreis Waldeck-Frankenberg (rural district). It is the only town in Hesse that belonged to the medieval Hanseatic League.
Korbach is situated on the northeastern edge of the Rheinische Schiefergebirge (Rhenish Slate Mountains) on an unwooded elevated plateau known as Waldecker Tafel. Nordhessiches Hügelland, the uplands of north Hesse that stretch between Schiefergebirge and the Habichtswald range west of Kassel, begins in the eastern part of town. The highest elevations in Korbach are the Widdehagen (635 metres) near Rhena and the Eisenberg (562 metres) which is famous for its rich veins of gold-bearing ore. Shafts and mines at the site of Germany’s richest gold deposits offer insights into the goldmining industry.
Significant fossil finds from the Upper Permian have been made in the Korbacher Spalte, a cleft in the Earth’s surface near Korbach.

Lauterbach (Hesse) is the administrative centre of the Vogelsbergkreis (district) in east Hesse. The place-name originates from the stream, the Lauter, which flows through the town. Lauterbach lies on the northeastern edge of the Vogelsberg mountains some 20 kilometres northwest of Fulda.
Ankerturm is the only remaining tower of the former town wall and Lauterbach’s main landmark. It is also where the Ankertreppe begins, which leads up from Graben, an ensemble of old timber-framed buildings, to Marktplatz, the market square. The observation and defence tower also served as a prison for a time.
Created in 1905, the “Lauterbacher Strolch” design shows a curly headed young boy holding an umbrella but wearing only one sock. It is based on a local song, Lauterbacher Strumpflied, and Lauterbacher Strolch became both the brand name and the trademark of the first German camembert cheese, which used to be produced in Lauterbach.

Limburg an der Lahn in west Hesse on the river Lahn between the Taunus and Westerwald mountain chains is the administrative centre of Landkreis Limburg-Weilburg (rural district).
The town is relatively centrally located in the Limburger Becken, a basin in the Rheinische Schiefergebirge (Rhenish Slate Mountains) that is surrounded by the Taunus and Westerwald mountain chains. As a result of its favourable soil and climate, the Limburger Becken forms one of Hesse’s most fertile agricultural landscapes and has also been very important for transport ever since the Middle Ages as a favourable Lahn crossing.
Limburg has a historical old town with narrow streets and timber-framed buildings dating from the 13th century. The main landmark is the Limburger Dom, the large cathedral that stands picturesquely on a steep cliff above the Lahn.

The university city of Marburg is the administrative seat of Landkreis Marburg-Biedenkopf (rural district) in Hesse and lies on the banks of the Lahn.
The city stretches along both banks of the Lahn into the hills of Gladenbacher Bergland to the west and beyond the Lahnberge in the east as far as the edge of the geological depression known as the Amöneburger Becken.
The historical old town centre lies to the west of the present-day centre, below the Landgrave’s Castle; however, the former tanning village of Weidenhausen, on the other side of the Lahn, also offers a charming old town setting.
During the last two centuries Marburg has expanded into the Lahn valley from the original old town centre around the castle. South of the castle lies Südviertel, the Jugendstil and Biedermeier quarter, and to the west the Ockershausen district. Separated from the centre by the railway line, Ortenberg lies to the east. Almost unchanged in their overall composition down the centuries, the houses of the old town rise above the Lahn valley with Marburg Castle and St. Elizabeth’s Church. The old town lends Marburg its characteristic appearance and is Marburg’s main tourist attraction.
Marburg owes its importance to the university. Philipps University Marburg is considered the world’s oldest (still existing) Protestant-founded university and even today its buildings and students leave their mark on the city.
With more than 3,200 employees and over 19,500 students, the university continues to be Marburg’s most important economic asset.
Marburg and its surroundings offer numerous attractions. The main sights are St. Elizabeth’s Church, the Castle and the old town. Every Saturday from April to October there are also tours of the castle’s underground fortifications.
Due to the very narrow river valley, Marburg is one of the few German cities where different parts of town are linked by lifts.

Offenbach am Main is the fifth largest city in the Rhine Main Region with a population 116,923 (status on 31 December 2006). The former court residence is now an important industrial, services and trade fair centre. Offenbach is known as a leather town and international leather goods fairs are held several times a year. The city lies on the southern bank of the river Main and borders directly on Frankfurt am Main to the west. Offenbach is one of Hesse’s nine major regional centres and Hesse’s smallest urban district in terms of both population and land area.
Offenbach benefits from its favourable transport links. It is only 15 kilometres from Frankfurt Airport and Frankfurter Kreuz, one of Europe’s busiest road junctions. Four low mountain ranges with very different characteristics are close enough for short excursions: Vogelsberg, Spessart, Taunus and Odenwald.
Lots of interesting landscapes, art and history can be found in ever larger circles as you travel away from the city centre – from daytime bustle and pulsating nightlife in Frankfurt to idyllic timber-framed buildings. Visitors will find monasteries, castles and museums, opportunities for time travel back to the Roman era, to the Middle Ages and the extravagance of the Baroque.
Offenbach’s museums are naturally worth a mention here – especially two that are absolutely unique: the German Leather Museum and Shoe Museum and the Klingspor Museum for Modern International Book Art, Typography and Calligraphy.
It is only understandable that its central location and favourable transport links have made Offenbach a popular destination for conferences, congresses and seminars. These visitors and business travellers account for most overnight stays.
Offenbach offers a varied hotel landscape that satisfies the various needs and interests of different types of visitor. Families, groups and individual travellers will find accommodation that meets their requirements. Additional service facilities are available for conferences and events. Increasing overnight stays prove that Offenbach is an attractive place for work, rest and play, for an excursion, exploration and relaxation.
Although the first impression may make you think otherwise, Offenbach is actually rich in cultural monuments. In 1986 the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments counted a total of 1,300 objects that are worth protecting for artistic, scientific, technical, historical or architectural reasons. They are predominantly residential buildings, of which the oldest are over 300 years old. These are often inconspicuous and modest structures that bear witness to the era in which they were built through their design, architectural features and materials.

Rüdesheim is a winegrowing town in the Middle Rhine Valley, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The town is situated in the Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis (district) at the foot of the Niederwald and is part of the Rhine Main Region. It is also one of Germany’s most popular tourist attractions – only Cologne Cathedral draws more foreign tourists. Rüdesheim is worth visiting not only because of the excellent wine – Rüdesheimer Berg is counted among Germany’s best vineyard locations – and the old town itself, but also because of the picturesque landscape of the Taunus mountains combined with the romantic Rhine.
The town’s main tourist attractions include the Drosselgasse, a 3-metre-wide and 144-metre-long cobblestoned street that is visited by roughly three million people a year. This world-famous Rüdesheim street is strongly marked by countless timber-framed wine taverns and numerous souvenir and gift shops.
Above the town, on the edge of Niederwald Landscape Park, stands the Niederwald Monument. With the 38-metre-tall monument and the 12.5-metre-tall statue of Germania, Kaiser Wilhelm I wanted to symbolise the “watch over the Rhine” and commemorate the foundation of the new German Empire immediately after the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). The patriotic monument has attracted large numbers of tourists ever since. A cable car carries visitors to the monument high above the town.
Beneath the monument lie the vineyards of Rüdesheimer Berg. The Riesling Route, a hiking path, winds its way along the Rhine through the charming vineyards from Rüdesheim to Wiesbaden.

Wetzlar, a former Imperial City and seat of the Imperial High Court, is a commercial and cultural centre as well as the outstanding industrial location in central Hesse. The city is the administrative seat of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis (district) and a major regional centre. It is located at the place where the Dill flows into the Lahn.
Wetzlar is the main seat of the district administration of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis and an important centre for trade and industry. Like six other larger medium-sized towns in Hesse, Wetzlar has been granted special status that allows it to perform many of the duties of a rural district, thereby making it similar in many respects to a kreisfreie Stadt, an urban district with greater autonomy than a rural district. With the immediately adjacent university town of Giessen and the surrounding area, this region forms a much larger conurbation. Close ties also exist with the nearby Rhine Main Region.
The city spreads out over mainly hilly terrain except for the peaks on both sides of the Lahn valley. The Romanesque cathedral with its red sandstone tower stands on an elevated plateau in the centre. The old town with its carefully restored timber-framed houses reaches down towards the Lahn and the old Lahn Bridge with narrow alleyways and small squares arranged in terraces. Sometimes you can see intact parts of the city wall, which is for the most part bordered by gardens. The historical quarters are today characterised by small businesses and shops with the roads mainly converted into pedestrian zones. The newer part of Wetzlar is characterised by modern office buildings and manufacturing facilities.
The most important sights are the historical old town with the cathedral, the former Imperial High Court and Lotte-Haus, important museums, the 750-year-old Lahn bridge, the Reichsburg Kalsmunt ruin and the Hermannstein Castle ruin. In addition to the cathedral, the most interesting ecclesiastical buildings are Hospitalkirche, Franziskanerkirche, Michaeliskapelle and the remains of Theutbirg-Basilika.
The almost complete ensemble of historical buildings in the old town with its timber-framed and stone structures in Romanesque (cathedral), Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque styles has remained almost unchanged since the end of the 18th century. It has been largely restored and is very much intact. Significant remains of the city fortifications dating from the 13th and 14th centuries are also still in place – for example, a defensive tower known as Schneiderturm or Säuturm, the Kalsmuntpforte as the city gate to the former suburb of Silhofen and large parts of the city wall.

Wiesbaden is the state capital of Hesse and one of Europe’s oldest spa resorts with 26 thermal springs.
Just under 287,000 people live in Hesse’s second largest city, including the US soldiers stationed in Wiesbaden and their family members, who are not counted in censuses. The Wiesbaden metropolitan area, which consists not only of the city itself, but also the neighbouring Rheingau-Taunus-Kreis, the towns of Eppstein, Hochheim am Main, Hofheim am Taunus and the municipalities of Bischofsheim and Ginsheim-Gustavsburg, has a total population of approximately 570,000. Wiesbaden is one of Hesse’s nine major regional centres and is also one of the main cities in the Rhine Main Region alongside Frankfurt am Main, Mainz, Darmstadt, Offenbach am Main and Hanau.
Wiesbaden is situated on the right bank of the Rhine opposite Mainz, the state capital of Rhineland-Palatinate. It lies on a bend in the river where the valley changes direction from north to west. The Taunus mountains lie to Wiesbaden’s north.
Today the face of Wiesbaden is strongly marked by three elements:
First, the majority of the buildings in the city centre were built in a period of only 60 years (roughly between 1850 and the beginning of the First World War in 1914). Essentially, only two architects were responsible for the town planning, namely Christian Zais at the beginning of the 19th century and Felix Genzmer at the end of the 19th century.
Second, during this period Wiesbaden was able to attract not only the imperial court, but also numerous other wealthy guests who wished to live in suitably prestigious surroundings.
Third, Wiesbaden’s centre suffered far less destruction than other cities during the Second World War. The level of devastation was roughly 30% and the most important buildings and streets remained intact.
These three factors mean that Wiesbaden’s city centre today presents a rather uniform appearance with buildings that can almost all be attributed to neo-classicism, historicism or Jugendstil. At the end of the 19th century generous residential areas were established with ornate facades and avenues (quarters such as, for example, the Rheingauviertel and the Feldherrnviertel, the Dichterviertel and the area around Wiesbaden’s Ringstrasse). Its reputation as a global spa resort also resulted in the construction of many magnificent public buildings such as the Kurhaus (1907), Hessisches Staatstheater (1894), Marktkirche (1853 to 1862) and Ringkirche (1894) as well as large gardens such as the Kurpark, Warmer Damm, the Reisinger-Anlagen and the Bowling Green. As a result Wiesbaden is today considered a perfect example of historicist architecture. In 2005, on the initiative of Gottfried Kiesow, chairman of Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, the city applied for the status of UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Witzenhausen is a small town in Werra-Meissner-Kreis (district) in northeast Hesse.
It was granted a town charter in 1225 and was the administrative centre of the district until 1974.
The University of Kassel maintains an annexe in Witzenhausen where, among other subjects, a nationally unique programme in organic agricultural sciences is offered. Witzenhausen is thus one of Germany’s smallest university towns. The municipality is also home to the German Training Institute for Applied Technology (DEULA) which works in the fields of environment and technology, agriculture, horticulture and market/landscape gardening. The town is also known outside the region for the invention of the organic waste collection bin in 1983 and as an important cherry-growing centre: it is considered the largest cherry cultivation area in Europe. Cherries have a long tradition in Witzenhausen and the Kesperkirmes (cherry fair) is celebrated every year, including the election of a cherry queen.