Where in Germany can I see original buildings,streets, etc. that were not bombed during WW2?

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JUPITER

I live in a small, tiny town named Stade (not too far from Hamburg); and Stade never had been bombed during WW2 and still has a medieval charm and character.

Greetings from Germany...

http://www.stade.de

ajo6892

The city of Rothenburg (full name: Rothenburg ob der Tauber) is a walled, medieval city that has escaped bombing during WWII. It has all the traditional things you would expect from a medieval city: high walls with moat, winding cobblestone streets, half-timbered houses, and more. Inside these old buildings, modern shops and restaurants will keep you busy should you grow tired of the historical stuff.

This is just one great place. There are too many town and cities to list that have the characteristics you're looking for.

Ravin

The person before was correct about Wiesbaden, but was incorrect about Mainz, partially; Mainz was very badly bombed, but there are still plenty of structures that survived. St. Martin's (the Mainzer Dom) and Christuskirche, the two most prominent cathedrals in Mainz, both suffered damage but were not "flattened". There are other buildings in Mainz that weren't completely "flattened" either; in truth, the same can be said for many other German cities. Wiesbaden, though, truly did evade the kind of bombings most other comparably-sized German cities suffered. Many more isolated sites that weren't in cities, such as Germany's hundreds of beautiful castles, weren't hit because they weren't targets, as were many smaller towns and villages that were not big enough to be targeted by bombing raids... any many of those smaller places still harbor plenty of "original buildings, streets, etc." that suffered no WW2 damage. If you're interested in the kinds of damage that larger cities and even famous individual structures suffered during the war, many (if not most) of the more well-known places and buildings are searchable in Wikipedia, as well as the rest of the web, of course.

Tanja S

Heidelberg pretty much kept its originality...its really beautiful

Kaiman

Pretty much all smaller towns and cities in Germany were spared the bombing by the allies. They were mainly interested in the industrial areas as well as the Nazi stronghold. Just start traveling the countryside and you'll encounter med-evil architecture everywhere.

> Beate <

For Wiesbaden, there is the story that is was not bombed so severely as the US Headquarters was to be placed there after the war.

The downtown area has only few modern buildings, many buildings are built around 1900.

Please look at the Wiesbaden homepage:
http://www.wiesbaden.de/index.php
you can choose the English language at the top left part.
If you chose the menue "city map" and there "Luftbilder" you can walk around town online. In the German version under "sightseeing" you find "virtueller Rundgang" and may chose 22 different spots you can view and control with your mouse.

Whatever you chose, have fun.

Amina

Hmm, that's hard.
(I'm from Berlin..a lot of things were bombed there.)
Try the south of Germany.
It's absolutely gorgeous down there and the people are much friendlier.
Haven't been everywhere in Germany.
Check out the west definately, like: North Rhine Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Saarland..

Petra M

In northern Germany, by the ege of the Luneburger Heide (luneburg heath - famous for fields of heather and flocks of distinctive black faced sheep) between Hamburg and Hannover is the historic town of Luneburg. I was there about 10 years ago and it is absolutely beautiful. It was amazingly left untouched from the ravages of war, and there are still buildings intact with their splendid gables from the 13th century. It grew up as a major trading town especially for salt, and part of the powerful merchant Hanseatic League. Here is a weblink to this town:
http://www.niedersachsen-tourism.de/en/regionen-staedte/staedte/lueneburg/index.php

Gute Reise!

Petra M, Vancouver

Misty B

Wiesbaden has a bunch of locations that are still standing. Especial around Goebenstrasse and the Ring Kirche. There are whole areas that are still standing in what was once considered West Berlin as well.

A really interesting thing to do is to go to Wiesbaden and wander around and then cross the river to Mainz. Lots of prewar buildings in Wiesbaden not even 10 k from Mainz. Mainz was flattened during the war. Nothing left of pre-war architecture.

Story is that during the war anti aircraft guns shot down a US bomber. The pilot was captured tortured drug around the city streets and hung up. Many pictures. The allies found out about it and forever after "saved one for Mainz."

john b

I can see some from my kitchen window. You could try Trier or Regensburg. Lots of medieval buildings.

shovelkicker

The town of Bamberg has many structures that were never touched. Most of the old city is part of the UNESCO historical site http://www.stadt.bamberg.de/

About 1 hour by car down B-470 you can see Rothenburg o.d. Tauber or the Walled City
http://www.rothenburg.de/d/ISY/index.php probably the largest collection of non-war damaged old structures in Europe.

Only 30 minutes by train is Nurnberg with the HUGE Nazi statdium and beautiful old city
http://www.nuernberg.de/internet/portal/index.html

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