You don’t have to travel far to visit world-class attractions. Because of the more than 1000 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, 51 are in Germany – practically on the doorstep.
This includes landscapes of World Natural Heritage, such as the North German Wadden Sea and the beech forests, or World Heritage sites. Here the spectrum ranges from archaeological traces such as the Limes from Roman times to richly decorated baroque palaces and medieval castles on the Rhine to the monuments of a lost industrial culture. It was not until 2015 that Hamburg’s Speicherstadt and its neighboring Kontorhaus district were included in the illustrious circle of the World Heritage List.
The list has been updated annually by Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since 1978. The guiding principle of the World Heritage Convention is the “consideration that parts of the cultural or natural heritage are of exceptional importance and must therefore be preserved as part of the world heritage of all mankind.” But there have already been two deletions, including one in Germany: Because of the construction of the Waldschlößchen Bridge, the “Dresdner Elbtal Cultural Landscape” was revoked its World Heritage status in 2009.
World heritage in XXL format
However, a new construction project that gets in the way of World Heritage status remains the great exception. Rather the opposite is the case: In Germany, natural and cultural sites with a rich past are of great importance to nature conservation authorities and the preservation of monuments.
In a large-format and heavy illustrated book published by Frederking & Thaler under the title “World Heritage – Germany’s living past” was published, all World Heritage sites between the Baltic Sea and the Alps are summarized. The large-format photos by Günther Bayerl make you want more: to visit the sites ennobled by Unesco. The magnificent work is supplemented by texts by Florian Heine, who has already published several books on art , photography and architecture.
You can also click through the following photo series:
– Jewish heritage in Speyer, Worms and Mainz: UNESCO declares ShUM sites World Heritage
– Factories, founders and offices: Germany’s industrial heritage in pictures
– Hiking Germany: These are our most beautiful long-distance hiking trails
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