City tours usually lead to beautiful places, but Ludwigshafen shows visitors its negative sides. When the NDR show “Extra 3” named the municipality as the “ugliest city in Germany” three years ago, Ludwigshafen did not moan, but cheered with a wink: “Whew, won! We prevailed against enormous competition.” Under the name “Germany’s Ugliest City Tours”, the city in Rhineland-Palatinate offers tours to “ugly places”. The demand is great.
“I can understand some people who are frightened by the state of the city,” says tour guide Helmut van der Buchholz. “Disaster tourism” is here and there. “But an ugly place can also be a home.”
One stop is Carl-Wurster-Platz. “It’s actually the gateway to the city center, but with the rubbish you think everything ends here,” says van der Buchholz. The square is a “prime example of failed urban planning”. Other stations include a disused train station, former water basins and unadorned squares.
In fact, Ludwigshafen is better known as the headquarters of the chemical giant BASF or as the home of long-time Chancellor Helmut Kohl than as a tourism hotspot. Ludwigshafen does without an elaborate high-gloss facade, behind which it crumbles, says the administration of Ludwigshafen on the “Ugliest City Tour”.
After two hours, the free walk through the “ugliest city in Germany” offered by the municipality on the Rhine is over.
Further information: www.ludwigshafen.de
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