Tiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin. Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform, Tiergarten was also the name of a borough, consisting of the current Bezirk of Tiergarten plus Hansaviertel and Moabit. A new system of road and rail tunnels runs under the park towards Berlin's Central Station in nearby Moabit.Once a hunting ground of the Electors of Brandenburg the Großer Tiergarten park of today was designed in the 1830s by landscape architect Peter Joseph Lenné. In 1894 the Reichstag building by architect Paul Wallot opened as the seat of the German parliament. The lawn between the contemporary Haus der Kulturen der Welt and the Reichstag building was the site of the Krolloper opera house, built in 1844, which served as parliament house after the Reichstag fire on 27 February 1933 and was demolished by air raids in 1943.On 15 January 1919 the socialist Karl Liebknecht was shot by Freikorps soldiers within the park near the lake Neuer See. The corpse of Rosa Luxemburg, murdered on the same day, was found in the nearby Landwehrkanal on 1 June 1919.The first Institut für Sexualwissenschaft of Magnus Hirschfeld was situated at the former In den Zelten street, near the contemporary Haus der Kulturen der Welt, from 1919 until it was closed by the Nazis in 1933.After 1944 the park was largely deforested, because it served as a source of firewood for the devastated city. In 1945, the Soviet Union built a war memorial along the Straße des 17. Juni, the Tiergarten's main east-west artery, near the Brandenburg Gate.The locality houses many parliamentary and governmental institutions, among others the Bundestag in the Reichstag building and the new German Chancellery. The residence of the German President, Schloss Bellevue and the Carillon are also located in the Tiergarten park. It contains several notable sculptures including the four-tiered Victory Column, the Bismarck Memorial and several other memorials to prominent Prussian generals, all of which were located in the ceremonial park facing the Reichstag before they were moved to their present location by the Nazis. In addition, the tree-lined pedestrian avenues emanating from the Victory Column contain several ceremonial sculptures of Prussian aristocrats enacting an 18th-century hunt.The Brandenburg Gate and the Potsdamer Platz are situated on the eastern rim of the locality, the former frontier between East and West Berlin. Nearby is the Kulturforum stretching from the Berliner Philharmonie, a 1963 concert hall by architect Hans Scharoun and home of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra to the Neue Nationalgalerie built by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe in 1968. In between are the neoclassical Saint Matthew Church, built in 1845 by Friedrich August Stüler, the Gemäldegalerie as well as the new branch of the Berlin State Library. A villa that stood in the place of the bus station next to the Berliner Philharmonie at Tiergartenstraße No. 4 was the seat of the Nazi killing of disabled persons program Action T4. A memorial marks the site.

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Charlottenburg Palace is the largest palace in Berlin,Germany, and the only surviving royal residence in the city dating back to the time of the Hohenzollern family.It is located in the Charlottenburg district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf borough.The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during the 18th century. It includes much exotic internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. A large formal garden surrounded by woodland was added behind the palace, including a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. During the Second World War, the palace was badly damaged but has since been reconstructed. The palace with its gardens are a major tourist attraction.The original palace was commissioned by Sophie Charlotte, the wife of Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg in what was then the village of Lietzow. Originally named Lietzenburg, the palace was designed by Johann Arnold Nering in baroque style. It consisted of one wing and was built in 2½ storeys with a central cupola. The façade was decorated with Corinthian pilasters. On the top was a cornice on which were statues. At the rear in the centre of the palace were two oval halls, the upper one being a ceremonial hall and the lower giving access to the gardens. Nering died during the construction of the palace and the work was completed by Martin Grünberg and Andreas Schlüter. The inauguration of the palace was celebrated on 11 July 1699, Frederick's 42nd birthday.Friedrich crowned himself as King Friedrich I in Prussia in 1701. Two years previously, he had appointed Johann Friedrich von Eosander as the royal architect and sent him to study architectural developments in Italy and France, particularly the Palace of Versailles. On his return in 1702, Eosander began to extend the palace, starting with two side wings to enclose a large courtyard, and the main palace was extended on both sides. Sophie Charlotte died in 1705 and Friedrich named the palace and its estate Charlottenburg in her memory. In the following years, the Orangery was built on the west of the palace and the central area was extended with a large domed tower and a larger vestibule. On top of the dome is a wind vane in the form of a gilded statue representing Fortune designed by Andreas Heidt. The Orangery was originally used to overwinter rare plants. During the summer months, when over 500 orange, citrus and sour orange trees decorated the baroque garden, the Orangery regularly was the gorgeous scene of courtly festivities.

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Highlight Towers is a twin tower office skyscraper complex completed in 2004 in Munich, Germany. The towers are joined by two bridges made of glass and steel combine to offer the two planned by architects Murphy/Jahn of Chicago. Tower I is 126 m (413 ft) with 33 storeys, and Tower II is 113 m (371 ft) with 28 storey which make them among the highest buildings in the city. Also in the complex are two low-rise buildings between the twin towers, that serve as a hotel and additional office space. Overall, the facility offers approximately 73,836 m2 (794,760 sq ft) of office space.The towers are slightly shifted in the historic sightline of Odeonsplatz on Ludwigstrasse with Victory Gate to the north and form a focal point for visitors coming from the north of the city.The smooth glass facades of the buildings appear to be light and transparent and provide a good exposure of the office space. Openable window structures with wind and sound isolation allow employees in the towers an individual ventilation and are part of an environmentally friendly air-conditioning and ventilation system.

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Linderhof Palace is in Germany, in southwest Bavaria near Ettal Abbey. It is the smallest of the three palaces built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria and the only one which he lived to see completed.The gardens surrounding Linderhof Palace are considered one of the most beautiful creations of historicist garden design, designed by Court Garden Director Carl von Effner. The park combines formal elements of Baroque style or Italian Renaissance gardens with landscaped sections that are similar to the English garden.

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The Königssee is a natural lake in the extreme southeast Berchtesgadener Land district of the German state of Bavaria, near the border with Austria. Most of the lake is within the Berchtesgaden National Park.Situated within the Berchtesgaden Alps in the municipality of Schönau am Königsee, just south of Berchtesgaden and the Austrian city of Salzburg, the Königssee is Germany's third deepest lake. Located at a Jurassic rift, it was formed by glaciers during the last ice age. It stretches about 7.7 km in the north-south direction and is about 1.7 km across at its widest point. Except at its outlet, the Königsseer Ache at the village of Königssee, the lake similar to a fjord is surrounded by steeply rising flanks of mountains up to 2700 m , including the Watzmann massif in the west. The railway Königsseebahn served the lake from 1909 until 1965. Its last tracks were dismantled during 1971, and the station in Berchtesgaden was torn down in 2012. The only remaining element of the railway is the Königsee station. The track route is mostly used as a walking path.The literal translation of the name, Königssee, appears to be "king's lake"; however while German: König does indeed mean "king", there had been no Bavarian kings since the days of Louis the German until Elector Maximilian I Joseph assumed the royal title in 1806. Therefore the name more probably stems from the first name Kuno of local nobles, who appear in several historical sources referring to the donation of the Berchtesgaden Provostry in the twelfth century; the lake was formerly called Kunigsee.In 1944 a sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp was located nearby where Heinrich Himmler had a residence built at Schönau for his mistress Hedwig Potthast.The lake is noted for its clear water and is advertised as the cleanest lake in Germany. For this reason, only electric-powered passenger ships, rowing, and pedal boats have been permitted on the lake since 1909. Passenger services along the length of the lake, calling at various points, are operated by the Bayerische Seenschifffahrt company.Ports of call for this monopolist are: Seelände, St. Bartholomä, Salet, and Kessel. With perfect conditions, the longest tour takes two hours from Seelände to Salet.Swimming is permitted except in the lock area at Seelände.Due to its picturesque setting, the lake and surrounding parklands are very popular with tourists and hikers. In addition, the lake's position surrounded by sheer rock walls creates an echo, which is known for its clarity. On boat tours, it has become traditional to stop and play a flugelhorn or trumpet to demonstrate the echo. Formerly demonstrated by shooting a canon, it can be heard to reverberate up to seven times. The trumpeter plays along with the returning sounds so it sounds like as many as 7 multiple players.

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Cochem is the seat of and the biggest place in the Cochem-Zell district in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. With just under 5,000 inhabitants, Cochem falls just behind Kusel, in the like-named district, as Germany's second smallest district seat. Since 7 June 2009, it has belonged to the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem.Cochem lies at an elevation of some 83 m above sea level and the municipal area measures 21.2 km².The town centre with the outlying centre of Sehl upstream lies on the Moselle's left bank, while the constituent centre of Cond lies on its right. A further constituent centre, Brauheck, with its commercial area, air force barracks and new town development, lies in the heights of the Eifel on Bundesstraße 259, some 2 km from the town centre. Emptying into the Moselle in Cochem are the Kraklebach, the Ebernacher Bach, the Sehlerbach, the Falzbach, the Märtscheltbach and the Enthetbach.As early as Celtic and Roman times, Cochem was settled. In 886, it had its first documentary mention as Villa cuchema. Other names yielded by history are Cuhckeme and Chuckeme in 893, Cochemo in 1051, Chuchumo in 1056, Kuchema in 1130, Cuchemo in 1136, Cocheme in 1144, then Cuchme, and into the 18th century Cochheim or Cocheim. Cochem was an Imperial estate. It was pledged by King Adolf of Nassau in 1294 to the Archbishopric of Trier and remained Electoral-Trier territory until the French occupation began in 1794. In 1332, Cochem was granted town rights, and shortly thereafter, the town fortifications, which still stand today, were built. Between 1423 and 1425, the town was stricken with a Plague epidemic. In 1623, Elector Lothar von Metternich brought about the founding of a Capuchin monastery. In the Thirty Years' War, the town was besieged, but not conquered. In 1689, King Louis XIV's troops first burnt the Winneburg down and then conquered the town of Cochem with its castle. Reconstruction was long and drawn out. Beginning in 1794, Cochem lay under French rule. In 1815 it was assigned to the Kingdom of Prussia at the Congress of Vienna.Louis Fréderic Jacques Ravené bought the ruin of the former Imperial castle in 1866 and began its reconstruction. Only after a bridge was built across the Moselle at Cochem in 1927 were the two fishing villages of Cond and Sehl amalgamated with the town in the course of administrative reform in 1932. This bridge, called the "Skagerrak Bridge", was dedicated on 23 January 1927. In the Second World War, great parts of Cochem's old town were destroyed. Also during the war, the operations staff of the underground subcamp of Zeisig of the Natzweiler concentration camp between the villages of Bruttig and Treis was located here. At its height, 13,000 people were imprisoned. They provided slave labour for Bosch, which made spark plugs, ignition systems and glow plugs, which were important to the German war effort, under brutal conditions.After both the town council and the Verbandsgemeinde council approved the motion on 23 October 2008, the until then Verbandsgemeinde-free town of Cochem became part of the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem-Land on 7 June 2009. In connection with this, the state government also enacted a law on 18 February 2009 that deals with, among other things, the transfer of ownership of certain properties from the town to the Verbandsgemeinde.The Verbandsgemeinde also changed its name with the amalgamation of Cochem, becoming the Verbandsgemeinde of Cochem.

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Hohenschwangau Castle or Schloss Hohenschwangau is a 19th-century palace in southern Germany. It was the childhood residence of King Ludwig II of Bavaria and was built by his father, King Maximilian II of Bavaria. It is located in the German village of Hohenschwangau near the town of Füssen, part of the county of Ostallgäu in southwestern Bavaria, Germany, very close to the border with Austria.Hohenschwangau Castle was built on the remains of the fortress Schuangau, which was first mentioned in historical records dating from the 12th Century. A family of knights was responsible for the construction of the medieval fortress, and it served as the seat of the local government of Schwangau. In 1523, the schloss was described as having walls which were too thin to be useful for defensive purposes. After the demise of the knights in the 16th Century, the fortress changed hands several times. The decay of the fortress continued until it finally fell into ruins at the beginning of the 19th Century.In April 1829, Crown Prince Maximilian discovered the historic site during a walking tour and reacted enthusiastically to the beauty of the surrounding area. He acquired the ruins - then still known as Schwanstein - in 1832. In February 1833, the reconstruction of the Castle began, continuing until 1837, with additions up to 1855. The architect in charge, Domenico Quaglio, was responsible for the neogothic style of the exterior design. He died in 1837 and the task was continued by Joseph Daniel Ohlmüller and Georg Friedrich Ziebland.Queen Marie created an alpine garden with plants gathered from all over the alps.Hohenschwangau was the official summer and hunting residence of Maximilian, his wife Marie of Prussia, and their two sons Ludwig and Otto. The young princes spent many years of their adolescence here. The King and the Queen lived in the main building, and the boys in the annex.King Maximilian died in 1864 and his son Ludwig succeeded to the throne, moving into his father's room in the castle. As Ludwig never married, his mother Marie was able to continue living on her floor. King Ludwig enjoyed living in Hohenschwangau, especially after 1869 when the building of his own castle, Neuschwanstein, began only a stone's throw from his parental home.After Ludwig's death in 1886, Queen Marie was the castle's only resident until she in turn died in 1889. Her brother-in-law, Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria, lived on the 3rd floor of the main building. He was responsible for the electrification in 1905 and the installation of an electric elevator. Luitpold died in 1912 and the palace was opened as a museum during the following year.During World War I and World War II, the castle suffered no damage. In 1923, the Bavarian Landtag recognised the right of the former royal family to reside in the castle. From 1933 to 1939, Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria and his family used the castle as their summer residence, and it continues to be a favourite residence of his successors, currently his grandson Franz, Duke of Bavaria. In May 1941, Prince Adalbert of Bavaria was purged from the military under Hitler's Prinzenerlass and withdrew to the family castle Hohenschwangau, where he lived for the rest of the war.More than 300,000 visitors from all over the world visit the palace each year. The castle is open all through the year. Opening hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.Guided tours are provided in German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Czech, Slovenian, and Japanese. Self-guided tours are not available.

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Aachen, also known as Bad Aachen is a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Sometimes in English, the city is referred to as Aix-la-Chapelle. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and later the place of coronation of the German kings. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost city of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, 61 km west-southwest of Cologne.It is located within a former coal-mining region, and this fact was important in its economic history.[3] RWTH Aachen University, one of Germany's Universities of Excellence, is located in the city.Aachen's predominant economic focus is on science, engineering, information technology and related sectors. In 2009, Aachen was ranked 8th among cities in Germany for innovation.Aachen Cathedral was erected on the orders of Charlemagne in AD 796 and was, on completion, the largest cathedral north of the Alps. It was modelled after the Basilica of San Vitale, in Ravenna, Italy,and was built by Odo of Metz.On his death, Charlemagne's remains were interred in the cathedral and can be seen there to this day. The cathedral was extended several times in later ages, turning it into a curious and unique mixture of building styles. For 600 years, from 936 to 1531, Aachen Cathedral was the church of coronation for 30 German kings and 12 queens. The church built by Charlemagne is still the main attraction of the city.In addition to holding the remains of its founder, it became the burial place of his successor Otto III. Aachen Cathedral has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The city hall, dated from 1330,lies between two central places, the Markt and the Katschhof. The coronation hall is on the first floor of the building. Inside you can find five frescoes by the Aachen artist Alfred Rethel which show legendary scenes from the life of Charlemagne, as well as Charlemagne's signature. It also contains the hall of the emperors.The Grashaus, a late medieval house at the Fisch Markt, is one of the oldest non-religious buildings in downtown Aachen. It hosts the city archive. The Grashaus was the former city hall before the present building took over this function.The Elisenbrunnen is one of the most famous sights of Aachen. It is a neo-classical hall covering one of the city's famous fountains. It is just a minute away from the cathedral. Just a few steps in south-eastern direction lies the 19th-century theatre.Also of note are two remaining city gates, the Ponttor, one half-mile northwest of the cathedral, and the Kleinmarschiertor, close to the central railway station. There are also a few parts of both medieval city walls left, most of them integrated into more recent buildings, but some others still visible. There are even five towers left, some of which are used for housing.St. Michael's Church, Aachen was built as a church of the Aachen Jesuit Collegium in 1628. It is attributed to the Rhine mannerism and a sample of a local Renaissance-architecture. The rich façade remained unfinished until 1891 when the historistic architect Peter Friedrich Peters added to it. The church is a Greek Orthodox church today, but the building is used also for concerts because of its good acoustics.

The Jewish synagogue in Aachen which was destroyed at the Night of Broken Glass on 9 November 1938, was reinaugurated on 18 May 1995.One of the contributors for the reconstructions of the synagogue was Jürgen Linden, the Lord Mayor of Aachen from 1989 to 2009. On 30 March 2011, it was reported that a swastika was spray-painted on a wall of the synagogue at Aachen, as an anti-Semitic act.

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Monschau is a small resort town in the Eifel region of western Germany, located in the district Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia.The town is located in the hills of the North Eifel, within the Hohes Venn – Eifel Nature Park in the narrow valley of the Rur river.The historic town center has many preserved half-timbered houses and narrow streets have remained nearly unchanged for 300 years, making the town a popular tourist attraction nowadays. An open-air, classical music festival is staged annually at Burg Monschau. Historically, the main industry of the town was cloth-mills.On the heights above the city is Monschau castle, which dates back to the 13th century — the first mention of Monschau was made in 1198. Beginning in 1433, the castle was used as a seat of the dukes of Jülich. In 1543, Emperor Charles V besieged it as part of the Geldern Feud, captured it and plundered the town. However, the castle stayed with Jülich until 1609, when it became part of Palatinate-Neuburg.In 1795, the French captured the area and, under the name Montjoie, made it the capital of a canton of the Roer département. After the area became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815, Monschau became the district capital of the Kreis Montjoie.

During World War I, some people argued that Monschau should be annexed to Belgium since they believed it historically to be a Walloon area that had been Germanized by the Prussians.In 1918, William II, German Emperor, changed the name to Monschau. In 1972, the town was enlarged with the previous independent municipalities of Höfen, Imgenbroich, Kalterherberg, Konzen, Mützenich and Rohren. Mützenich, to the west of the town center, is an exclave of German territory surrounded by Belgium. It is separated from Germany by a railroad line that was assigned to Belgium by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

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The Königssee is a natural lake in the extreme southeast Berchtesgadener Land district of the German state of Bavaria, near the border with Austria. Most of the lake is within the Berchtesgaden National Park.Situated within the Berchtesgaden Alps in the municipality of Schönau am Königsee, just south of Berchtesgaden and the Austrian city of Salzburg, the Königssee is Germany's third deepest lake. Located at a Jurassic rift, it was formed by glaciers during the last ice age. It stretches about 7.7 km in the north-south direction and is about 1.7 km across at its widest point. Except at its outlet, the Königsseer Ache at the village of Königssee, the lake similar to a fjord is surrounded by steeply rising flanks of mountains up to 2700 m, including the Watzmann massif in the west. The railway Königsseebahn served the lake from 1909 until 1965. Its last tracks were dismantled during 1971, and the station in Berchtesgaden was torn down in 2012. The only remaining element of the railway is the Königsee station. The track route is mostly used as a walking path.The literal translation of the name, Königssee, appears to be "king's lake"; however while German: König does indeed mean "king", there had been no Bavarian kings since the days of Louis the German until Elector Maximilian I Joseph assumed the royal title in 1806. Therefore the name more probably stems from the first name Kuno of local nobles, who appear in several historical sources referring to the donation of the Berchtesgaden Provostry in the twelfth century; the lake was formerly called Kunigsee.In 1944 a sub-camp of the Dachau concentration camp was located nearby where Heinrich Himmler had a residence built at Schönau for his mistress Hedwig Potthast.The lake is noted for its clear water and is advertised as the cleanest lake in Germany. For this reason, only electric-powered passenger ships, rowing, and pedal boats have been permitted on the lake since 1909. Passenger services along the length of the lake, calling at various points, are operated by the Bayerische Seenschifffahrt company.Ports of call for this monopolist are: Seelände, St. Bartholomä, Salet, and Kessel. With perfect conditions, the longest tour takes two hours from Seelände to Salet.Swimming is permitted except in the lock area at Seelände.Due to its picturesque setting, the lake and surrounding parklands are very popular with tourists and hikers. In addition, the lake's position surrounded by sheer rock walls creates an echo, which is known for its clarity. On boat tours, it has become traditional to stop and play a flugelhorn or trumpet to demonstrate the echo. Formerly demonstrated by shooting a canon, it can be heard to reverberate up to seven times. The trumpeter plays along with the returning sounds so it sounds like as many as 7 multiple players.St. Bartholomä, a famous pilgrimage church with an inn nearby, is located on a peninsula about halfway down the western lake shore. The small Christlieger island is located near its northern end. South of the Königssee, separated by the Salet moraine, is the smaller Obersee lake with the 470 m high Röthbach waterfall. As there is no lakeside path on the steep shore of the Königssee, St. Bartholomä and the southern edge can only be reached by boat or via hiking trails up the surrounding mountains—except for harsh winters, when the lake freezes over. Stepping on the ice, however, can be fatal, as it was for a motorist in the winter of 1964, who on his way back from St. Bartholomä drowned in his VW Beetle. The car was not detected until 1997 at a depth of about 100 m.

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Neuschwanstein Castle is a nineteenth-century Romanesque Revival palace on a rugged hill above the village of Hohenschwangau near Füssen in southwest Bavaria, Germany. The palace was commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria as a retreat and as a homage to Richard Wagner. Ludwig paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than Bavarian public funds.The palace was intended as a personal refuge for the reclusive king, but it was opened to the paying public immediately after his death in 1886.Since then more than 60 million people have visited Neuschwanstein Castle.More than 1.3 million people visit annually, with as many as 6,000 per day in the summer.The palace has appeared prominently in several movies and was the inspiration for Disneyland's Sleeping Beauty Castle and later, similar structures.The municipality of Schwangau lies at an elevation of 800 m at the south west border of the German state of Bavaria. Its surroundings are characterized by the transition between the Alpine foothills in the south and a hilly landscape in the north that appears flat by comparison.In the Middle Ages, three castles overlooked the villages. One was called Schwanstein Castle.[nb 1] In 1832, Ludwig's father King Maximilian II of Bavaria bought its ruins to replace them with the comfortable neo-Gothic palace known as Hohenschwangau Castle. Finished in 1837, the palace became his family's summer residence, and his elder son Ludwig  spent a large part of his childhood here.Vorderhohenschwangau Castle and Hinterhohenschwangau Castle sat on a rugged hill overlooking Schwanstein Castle, two nearby lakes, and the village. Separated only by a moat, they jointly consisted of a hall, a keep, and a fortified tower house.In the ninwteenth century only ruins remained of the twin medieval castles, but those of Hinterhohenschwangau served as a lookout place known as Sylphenturm.The ruins above the family palace were known to the crown prince from his excursions. He first sketched one of them in his diary in 1859.When the young king came to power in 1864, the construction of a new palace in place of the two ruined castles became the first in his series of palace building projects.Ludwig called the new palace New Hohenschwangau Castle; only after his death was it renamed Neuschwanstein.The confusing result is that Hohenschwangau and Schwanstein have effectively swapped names: Hohenschwangau Castle replaced the ruins of Schwanstein Castle, and Neuschwanstein Castle replaced the ruins of the two Hohenschwangau Castles.Neuschwanstein embodies both the contemporaneous architectural fashion known as castle romanticism, and Ludwig II's immoderate enthusiasm for the operas of Richard Wagner.In the nineteenth century, many castles were constructed or reconstructed; often with significant changes to make them more picturesque. Palace-building projects similar to Neuschwanstein had been undertaken earlier in several of the German states and included Hohenschwangau Castle, Lichtenstein Castle, Hohenzollern Castle, and numerous buildings on the River Rhine such as Stolzenfels Castle.The inspiration for the construction of Neuschwanstein came from two journeys in 1867 — one in May to the reconstructed Wartburg near Eisenach,another in July to the Château de Pierrefonds, which Eugène Viollet-le-Duc was transforming from a ruined castle into a historistic palace.The king saw both buildings as representatives of a romantic interpretation of the Middle Ages as well as the musical mythology of his friend Richard Wagner. Wagner's operas Tannhäuser and Lohengrin had made a lasting impression on him.In February 1868, Ludwig's grandfather Ludwig I died, freeing the considerable sums that were previously spent on the abdicated king's appanage.This allowed Ludwig II to start the architectural project of building a private refuge in the familiar landscape far from the capital Munich, so that he could live out his idea of the Middle Ages.The building design was drafted by the stage designer Christian Jank and realized by the architect Eduard Riedel.For technical reasons the ruined castles could not be integrated into the plan. Initial ideas for the palace drew stylistically on Nuremberg Castle and envisaged a simple building in place of the old Vorderhohenschwangau Castle, but they were rejected and replaced by increasingly extensive drafts, culminating in a bigger palace modelled on the Wartburg.The king insisted on a detailed plan and on personal approval of each and every draft.Ludwig's control went so far that the palace has been regarded as his own creation, rather than that of the architects involved.Whereas contemporary architecture critics derided Neuschwanstein, one of the last big palace building projects of the nineteenth century, as kitsch, Neuschwanstein and Ludwig II's other buildings are now counted among the major works of European historicism. For financial reasons a project similar to Neuschwanstein – Falkenstein Castle – never left the planning stages.The palace can be regarded as typical for nineteenth-century architecture. The shapes of Romanesque, Gothic and Byzantine architecture and art were mingled in an eclectic fashion and supplemented with 19th-century technical achievements. The Patrona Bavariae and Saint George on the court face of the Palas are depicted in the local Lüftlmalerei style, a fresco technique typical for Allgäu farmers' houses, while the unimplemented drafts for the Knights' House gallery foreshadow elements of Art Nouveau.Characteristic of Neuschwanstein's design are theatre themes: Christian Jank drew on coulisse drafts from his time as a scenic painter.The basic style was originally planned to be neo-Gothic but the palace was primarily built in Romanesque style in the end. The operatic themes moved gradually from Tannhäuser and Lohengrin to Parsifal.

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Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated 30 km south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers. About one in ten people living in Tübingen is a student.Immediately north of the city lies the Schönbuch, a densely wooded nature park. The Swabian Alb mountains rise about 20 kilometres to the southeast of Tübingen.

The Ammer and Steinlach rivers discharge into the Neckar river, which flows right through the town, just south of the medieval old town in an easterly direction. Large parts of the city are hilly, with the Schlossberg and the Österberg in the city centre and the Schnarrenberg and Herrlesberg, among others, rising immediately adjacent to the inner city.The highest point is at about 500 m above sea level near Bebenhausen in the Schönbuch forest, while the lowest point is 305 m in the town's eastern Neckar valley. Nearby the Botanical Gardens of the city's university, in a small forest called Elysium, lies the geographical centre of the state of Baden-Württemberg.Tübingen is the capital of an eponymous district and an eponymous administrative region,before 1973 called Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern.Tübingen is, with nearby Reutlingen, one of the two centre cities of the Neckar-Alb region.Administratively, it is not part of the Stuttgart Region, bordering it to the north and west. However, the city and northern parts of its district can be regarded as belonging to that region in a wider regional and cultural context.The area was probably first settled in the 12th millennium BC. The Romans left some traces here in AD 85, when they built a Limes frontier wall at the Neckar. Tübingen itself dates from the 6th or 7th century, when the region was populated by the Alamanni. Some even argue that the Battle of Solicinium was fought at Spitzberg, a mountain in Tübingen, back in AD 367, though there is no evidence for this.In 1007, Hugo I, Count of Tübingen, was invested with the royal estates of Holzgerlingen and the Imperial forest at Schönbuch. The city first appears in official records in 1191, and the local castle, Hohentübingen, has records going back to 1078 when it was besieged by Henry IV, King of Germany. From 1146, Count Hugo V was promoted to count palatine, as Hugo I. The concept of a county palatine was no longer connected to the traditional task of supervising a royal palace, but became a kind of supervisory role, representing the king within the tribal duchies, being second only to the duke within the duchy of Swabia. This was accompanied by rights of justice, hunting, customs and mints, as can be seen from coins minted in Tübingen since 1185.Hugo II gained Bregenz and other property in Raetia, Tettnang and Sigmaringen by marriage and, in 1171, founded Marchtal Abbey; his second son founded the Montfort dynasty, as Hugo I, Count of Montfort. In 1183, his first son, Rudolph I founded Bebenhausen Abbey. In 1264, Gießen, acquired with the county of Gleiberg by Rudolph I's marriage, was sold to the landgrave of Hesse.By 1231, the city was a civitas indicating recognition of civil liberties and a court system. Its name ends with the familiar suffix -ingen, indicating it was originally settled by the Alemanic tribes. In 1262, an Augustinian monastery was established by Pope Alexander IV in Tübingen, in 1272, a Franciscan monastery followed. The latter existed until Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg disestablished it in 1535 in course of the Protestant Reformation, which the Duchy of Württemberg followed. In 1300, a Latin school was founded.In 1342, the county palatine was sold to Ulrich III, Count of Württemberg and incorporated into the County of Württemberg and has since been part of the Duchy of Württemberg, the Kingdom of Württemberg , the Free People's State of Württemberg  and Baden-Württemberg.Tübingen, Neckar front. Left: plane trees growing on the Neckarinsel. Far end: the yellow tower where Hölderlin lived in utter seclusion.Shops lining town square.Between 1470 and 1483, St. George's Collegiate Church was built. The collegiate church offices provided the opportunity for what soon afterwards became the most significant event in Tübingen's history: the founding of the Eberhard Karls University by Duke Eberhard im Bart of Württemberg in 1477, thus making it one of the oldest universities in Central Europe. It became soon renowned as one of the most influential places of learning in the Holy Roman Empire, especially for theology.

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Hohenzollern Castle About this sound Burg Hohenzollern is a castle approximately 50 kilometers south of Stuttgart, Germany. It is considered the ancestral seat of the Hohenzollern family, which emerged in the Middle Ages and eventually became German Emperors.The castle is located on top of Berg Hohenzollern, at an elevation of 855 meters  above sea level; 234 m above the towns of Hechingen and nearby Bisingen, to the south. Both are located at the foothills of the Schwäbische Alb. The castle was first constructed in the early 11th century.When the Hohenzollern family split into cadet branches, the castle remained the property of the Swabian branch of the family, who were the dynastic seniors of the Franconian/Brandenburg branch that later acquired an imperial throne. The castle was completely destroyed after a 10-month siege in 1423 by the imperial cities of Swabia. A second, larger and more sturdy castle was constructed from 1454 to 1461, and served as a refuge for the Catholic Swabian Hohenzollerns during wartime; including during the Thirty Years' War. By the end of the 18th century, however, the castle was thought to have lost its strategic importance and gradually fell into disrepair, leading to the demolition of several dilapidated buildings. Today, only the chapel remains from the medieval castle.

The third version of the castle, which stands today, was constructed for King Frederick William IV of Prussia between 1846 and 1867. The castle was built under the direction of architect Friedrich August Stüler, who based his design on English Gothic Revival architecture and the Châteaux of the Loire Valley.The castle was built as a family memorial, thus, no member of the Hohenzollern family was in permanent or regular residence when it was completed. In 1945 it became home to the last German/Prussian Crown Prince - Wilhelm - who is buried there with his wife, Crown Princess Cecilie.

Among the historical artifacts of Prussian history contained in the castle are the Crown of Wilhelm II, some of the personal effects of King Frederick the Great and a letter from US President George Washington thanking Baron von Steuben for his service in the American Revolutionary War. The castle is today a popular tourist destination.After the castle was rebuilt, it was not regularly occupied, but rather used primarily as a showpiece. Only the last Prussian Crown Prince William lived in the castle for several months, following his flight from Potsdam during the closing months of World War II. William and his wife Crown Princess Cecilie are both buried at the castle, as the family's estates in Brandenburg had been occupied by the Soviet Union.Since 1952, the castle has been filled with art and historical artifacts, from the collection of the Hohenzollern family and from the former Hollenzollern Museum in Schloss Monbijou. Two of the major pieces in the collection are the Prussian king's crown and a uniform that belonged to Frederick the Great. From 1952 until 1991, the caskets of Frederick Wilhelm I and Frederick the Great were in the museum. Following the German reunification in 1991, the caskets were moved back to Potsdam.

On 3 September 1978, the Hohenzollern Castle closed after sustaining extensive damage due to an earthquake in the Alb region that injured 15 persons in the cities of Tailfingen, Burladingen and Onstmettingen, Albstadt. An additional 20 people were trapped by falling rubble.

Hohenzollern castle is still privately owned. Two-thirds of the castle belongs to the Brandenburg-Prussian line of the Hohenzollern, while one-third is owned by the Swabian line of the family. Since 1954, the castle has also been used by the Princess Kira of Prussia Foundation to provide a summer camp for needy children from Berlin. Hohenzollern castle has over 300,000 visitors per year, making it one of the most visited castles in Germany

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The Black Forest is a wooded mountain range in Baden-Württemberg, southwestern Germany. It is bordered by the Rhine valley to the west and south. The highest peak is the Feldberg with an elevation of 1,493 metres. The region is almost rectangular with a length of 160 km  and breadth of up to 60 km.

The Black Forest consists of a cover of sandstone on top of a core of gneiss and granites. Formerly it shared tectonic evolution with the nearby Vosges Mountains. Later during the Middle Eocene a rifting period affected the area and caused formation of the Rhine graben. During the last glacial period of the Würm glaciation, the Black Forest was covered by glaciers; several tarns such as the Mummelsee are remains of this period.

Rivers in the Black Forest include the Danube (which originates in the Black Forest as the confluence of the Brigach and Breg rivers), the Enz, the Kinzig, the Murg, the Nagold, the Neckar, the Rench, and the Wiese. The Black Forest occupies part of the continental divide between the Atlantic Ocean drainage basin (drained by the Rhine) and the Black Sea drainage basin.

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