Magdeburg

Magdeburg, nowadays capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt is one of the oldest cities of Germany. In this video I will show you around, walking a city tour showing all the highlights of the city center.

Link to the Hundertwasser hotel: The Hundertwasser hotel I stayed in:
http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-101358913-11795693?url=https://www.booking.com/hotel/de/arthotel-magdeburg.nl.html?aid=811995&label=affnetcj-11795693_pub-7417054_site-101358913_pname-ON%20verra%20Media_clkid-881d4adae815f46431b4bf8df1559fc0_cjevent-a402c880faa311ef8391006d0a18ba72&sid=c9f358ffca234ec11e0c516b493dd7c8&dist=0&group_adults=2&group_children=0&hapos=1&hpos=1&no_rooms=1&req_adults=2&req_children=0&room1=A%2CA&sb_price_type=total&sr_order=popularity&srepoch=1741276746&srpvid=eaf070438e7f00e7&type=total&ucfs=1&#hotelTmpl

Many thanks to former local Marcus Günther for his ideas and suggestions!

Links to the museums:
Kulturhistorisches Museum: https://www.khm-magdeburg.de
Gedenkstätte Moritzplatz – https://gedenkstaette-magdeburg.sachsen-anhalt.de/kontakt/oeffnungszeiten/
Technikmusem – https://www.magdeburg.de/technikmuseum

Sources:
Although available in English, I am really enthousiastic about the travel guide I used. So, if you speak a bit of German, consider:
City Trip Magdeburg – David Blum – https://amzn.to/3YYWvyI

Pictures:
Centrum Department Store – By Bundesarchiv, B 145 Bild-F088970-0025 / Thurn, Joachim F. / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5474022

The horses behind me are trying to pull apart what Magdeburg is probably most known for: The Magdeburg hemispheres. But there are much more interesting things to see in this city. An impression of Magdeburg, showing some of the great highlights of the city. Coming up! Welcome to Magdeburg. Located at the Elbe River, the city was founded in the year 805. During the Thirty Years’ War and again during the Second World War many people were killed and historical buildings were destroyed. Fortunately, many buildings were rebuilt. Magdeburg is known for its cultural heritage. Not only the city center is interesting to explore. It’s the combination of old and new, … …the monumental buildings and the Plattenbau, that makes it special. For a tour in the city center, we start at the Ernst Reuter Allee, formerly called Wilhelm Pieck Allee. , after the first and only president of East Germany. It is one of the most important streets in the old city. The street is relatively new. It was constructed in the 1950s. The Ulrichsplatz, Ulrich Square, is the location of the former St. Ulrich church. It was partly damaged during worldwar 2, but not restored and demolished in 1956. The point where the Ernst Reuter Allee meets the Breiter Weg, the former Karl Marx Street, marks the entrance of a pedestrian zone that used to be the main shopping area until a few decades ago. What used to be a Centrum department store changed into a Karstadt department store. The Alter Markt, the old market square: More than 1,000 years ago people started to trade at this square. The old city hall, Altes Rathaus, however, is much younger. It dates back from the 17th century. This statue, located not far from the old market square, shows Otto von Guericke. He was mayor of the city in the 16-hundreds. But he was also a scientist and the man behind the Magdeburg hemispheres experiment, that demonstrated that – when the air was pumped out, in other words a vacuum had been created – ; they could not even be pulled apart by two horses. It made him very famous at the time. This other statue, showing the experiment, is located a block away, at the Ratswaageplatz. The hemispheres are a common theme in the city. Sankt Petri, Saint Petri church, is a church that also was damaged during worldwar 2, but this church was renovated in the 1960s. The Elbe promenade was inaugurated in 1974 as the “Promenade der Völkerfreundschaft”, the promenade of friendship of nations. It is decorated with many sculptures. The former monastery Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen nowadays is an art museum. The green citadel was designed by the Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser and completed in 2005, 5 years after his death. No two windows or doors are the same. The building contains restaurants, offices, apartments, a theater and a hotel, where I stayed during my trip. This was what the bathroom looked like. The Magdeburg cathedral, Germany’s oldest gothic cathedral, is the landmark of the city. Construction began more than 800 years ago. The church also was the starting point for the Monday demonstrations of 1989 that played an important role in the demise of the East German state. A citizen’s monument next to the cathedral reminds us of the courage of ordinary citizens that participated in the peaceful protests. It is worthwhile exploring the area South of the cathedral as well, walking along the Hegelstrasse… …and crossing the Hasselbachplatz. Interesting museums in Magdeburg are the Kulturhistorisches Museum, the cultural history museum, with in the same building also the natural history museum. The Gedenkstätte Moritzplatz is a museum in a former stasi prison, that unfortunately was closed during my Magdeburg visit. But fortunately I was able to visit the Technikmuseum, where you can find a lot about aviation history and the industrial history of Eastern Germany. You can find the links to the museums in the video description.