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Schloss Karlsruhe

Schloss, Karlsruhe

The city layout of Karlsruhe is special: when looking at a map you can see a giant circle in the city center. In its middle you’ll find the castle with the castle tower. From there 32 streets radiate out giving the city the nickname of the ‘fan city‘, the Fächerstadt. The city was founded in 1715 and in that year also the construction works of the Baroque-style castle started. It served as the seat of margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach and was a residence until the year 1918 when the Grand Duchy of Baden was abolished.

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Buchenwald

Monument, Buchenwald Memorial​

German fascism created an extensive network of concentration camps, extinction camps and forced labor sites. Jewish citizens, political opponents, prisoners of war, homosexuals, disabled persons, Sinti and Romani people suffered and died because of the ideology of the German Nazi party supported by the German people. The three major concentration camps on German soil are Dachau (close to München), Sachsenhausen (close to Berlin) and Buchenwald on the Ettersberg mountain close to Weimar.

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Abstraction

Kunsthalle, Bielefeld

The Kunsthalle of Bielefeld is a surprisingly large exhibition hall with a special style: it was built in 1968 in International Style (a modernist architecture style developed in the 1920/30s) by architect Philip Johnson from the United States. It is the only building in Europe designed by him. The Kunsthalle is an art exhibition hall with changing exhibitions, but it also owns an art collection from the 20th century.

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Sparrenburg

Sparrenburg, Bielefeld

A high tower, strong fortification walls and casemates cut deep into the 180 meters high Sparrenberg mountain: the Sparrenburg is the most important and most visited sight of Bielefeld. It was built until the year 1250 CE to protect the passage through the Teutoburg Forest in which the city of Bielefeld is located in. The castle was continuously altered over time and adopted to technology changes in warfare.

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Bürgergrotte

Bürgergrotte, Niedeck

Gottfried August Bürger was a German poet who first studied law at the university of Göttingen. There his attention turned away fast from jurisprudence to literature and he became a writer. His most famous work is called Lenore and received attention even beyond German borders. Today the large street around the city center of Göttingen is named Bürgerstraße after him and a bust of him is standing next to. Probably most inhabitants believe that the street is named after themselves (Bürger means citizen in German).

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Place of warmth

View from Mtatsminda, თბილისი

It was 4 am when the lights of თბილისი appeared at the windows of the plane taking me to Georgia. A driver picked me up and drove me through the capital city that was still completely asleep. I dropped my bag at the hotel and sat in front in the dark, surrounded by stray dogs. A quick look at the watch: 5 pm, time for a coffee from one of the 24/7 shops and a walk through the empty streets to enjoy sunrise over the Mtkwari river.

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David Gareja

David Gareja monastery complex, კახეთი

Directly at the border between Georgia and Azerbaijan you can find different orthodox monasteries dating back to the 6th century CE. While the archeological sites on Azeri land are unused, the David Gareja monastery in Georgia is still active and often visited by tourists. It is a a wonderful cloister built into the Udabno mountain in a beautiful scenery.

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