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<\/p>\nGermany\u00a0has long been a powerhouse of innovation and has bestowed upon the world the printing press, the automobile, the aspirin and other milestones of invention. And 100 years ago, a little school in the Thuringian countryside kick-started an aesthetic movement so globally influential that its reverberations are still felt today: the Bauhaus. Join the year-long birthday party of this midwife of modernism that was founded in Weimar in 1919, flourished in Dessau and was quashed by the Nazis in Berlin in 1933. Sparkling new museums are set to open in these three cities along with scores of related events and exhibitions held throughout Germany.<\/p>\n
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You can visit castles and cathedrals built before Columbus set sail or take in the latest trends in street art. Wherever you go, Germany is here to charm, enlighten and surprise you.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Since the fall of the Wall in 1989,\u00a0Berlin<\/a>\u00a0has been on a breathless journey to turn itself into one of the world\u2019s most vibrant capital cities. Go ahead and snap those selfies with the\u00a0Reichstag, the\u00a0Brandenburg Gate,\u00a0Checkpoint Charlie\u00a0and other famous landmarks. And yes, do stand in awe of the monumental antiquities in the\u00a0Pergamon Museum\u00a0or the eternal beauty of Queen Nefertiti at the\u00a0Neues Museum. But then tap more deeply into this cauldron of cultural experimentation by checking out those \u2018only-in-Berlin\u2019 places.<\/p>\n Hit the\u00a0Tempelhofer Feld, a former airport turned urban frolicking zone for everyone from kite-surfers to community gardeners. Across town, get a bead on the contemporary art scene at the\u00a0Boros Collection\u00a0in a WWII-era bunker or treat your ears to a concert at\u00a0Silent Green, a crematorium reborn as a cultural centre. On a hot summer day, there are few better places for cooling off than the\u00a0Badeschiff, a cargo barge up-cycled into a beach club. Or scope out Berlin\u2019s vibrant street art scene on a\u00a0walking tour\u00a0led by an actual spray-can\u00a0meister<\/em>\u00a0before popping into\u00a0Urban Nation<\/a>, the world\u2019s first street art museum. All of Berlin itself is still an unfinished canvas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The year was 1919.\u00a0Germany\u00a0was in turmoil, struggling deeply with post-WWI trauma and chaos. But order was restored in\u00a0Weimar, an idyllic town in the Thuringian countryside. Not only did it give birth to the Weimar Republic, Germany\u2019s first experiment with democracy, but also to the\u00a0Bauhaus, the design school whose \u2018less is more\u2019 credo would revolutionise 20th<\/sup>-century aesthetics. A new museum in Weimar will soon pay tribute to this midwife of modernism that entered its seminal phase after moving to\u00a0Dessau\u00a0in 1925. In this city on the Elbe, you can take a spin around the original school building, then pop into the\u00a0Meisterh\u00e4user, the private homes of some of its famous teachers \u2013 Walter Gropius, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky among them. Wrap up a Bauhaus tour in Berlin, where the school was quashed by the Nazis in 1932. Fortunately, plenty of modernist buildings survive, including the horseshoe-shaped Hufeisensiedlung, one of half a dozen 1920s housing estates granted Unesco world heritage status.<\/p>\n Germany\u2019s second-biggest city is poised to blow you away, and not just because of the brisk North Sea winds. A trading powerhouse since the Middle Ages, Hamburg is a captivating mosaic of contemporary culture, architecture, music and wickedly fun nightlife. Start by scanning the city skyline from the outdoor viewing platform of the wave-inspired\u00a0Elbphilharmonie, the city\u2019s spectacular new concert hall and gateway to the\u00a0HafenCity, a former docklands area turned futuristic waterfront quarter. Break for coffee in the canal-laced\u00a0Speicherstadt, a Unesco-recognised warren of red-brick warehouses that also shelters the truly mesmerising\u00a0Miniatur Wunderland, the world\u2019s largest model railway. Grab a fish sandwich at\u00a0Br\u00fccke 10\u00a0in the harbour and chase it down with a beer while counting container vessels from a beach chair in the funky\u00a0StrandPauli\u00a0bar.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/vookbook.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/berlin-696x465.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\nWeimar & Dessau<\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\nHamburg<\/h2>\n
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