In addition to Berlin, these cities in Germany are also world-famous

What is very different from France and the United Kingdom is that Berlin, the capital of Germany, does not enjoy the hegemonic status that Paris does in France and ethics does in the United Kingdom. It is true that Berlin is the capital and the most important city in Germany, but besides it, there are many other equally important cities in Germany. These cities are unique now and in the past. They have formed their own unique culture and urban style. They have a strong economic and political status in national life and are also well-known internationally. Therefore, during the trip to Germany, I will take you to appreciate some such German cities, including Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Munich, the three largest and most famous cities besides the capital Berlin, as well as the philosophical city of Freiburg, Cologne has the tallest spire in Europe and the famous Ruhr industrial area.

The first place we are going to is Freiburg. Freiburg is located in the southwest corner of Germany. It is a small border town, not far from France to the west and Switzerland not far to the south.

Freiburg means Free Castle in German. It has a long history and exquisite architecture. There are many monuments in the city, such as Münster Cathedral, City Hall, etc. Freiburg is an authentic forest city, surrounded by black forests. The forests inside and outside the city are continuous and cover the sky. In addition, there are hot springs and health resorts with good facilities nearby, attracting a large number of tourists every year. However, we are going to talk about Freiburg now, not because of its beautiful scenery, but because Freiburg is not only a tourist city, but also a famous university town, with the world-famous University of Freiburg in the city.

The University of Freiburg was founded by Archduke Albert of Austria in the 15th century. It currently has about 2 students. It has many famous departments, such as the Department of Economics, the Department of Law and the Department of Medicine. Modern Economics One of the Freiburg Schools came from this school, and its theories provided an important theoretical basis for the German economic take-off after World War II.

The University of Freiburg is most famous for its philosophy department. The philosophy department of the University of Freiburg has had a great influence on modern Western philosophy. Two great masters of modern Western philosophy have taught here—— Husserl and Heidegger respectively founded the two major schools of Western philosophy - phenomenology and existentialism. For a long period of time, the Department of Philosophy at the University of Freiburg was the center of these two schools. It is also the center of world philosophy.

Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and is also known as the "secret capital". Its important position in German history is evident. Munich is located in southeastern Germany, nearly 50 kilometers south of the Alps. It is the capital of Bavaria. Munich now has a population of about 1.3 million and an urban area of ??more than 300 square kilometers.

Munich is also nicknamed "Super Village", which is also the most distinctive feature of its city appearance. If you arrive in Munich, you will find that Munich has a very different image compared to other international metropolises. One of the most obvious signs is that in Munich you can’t see skyscrapers piled up with reinforced concrete, nor are there modern-style buildings surrounded by glass curtain walls. Munich's law clearly stipulates that the height of buildings in the city must not exceed 36 meters. The result of this regulation is that when you arrive in Munich, it seems that you are not in one of the largest cities in Germany, but in a relatively densely populated countryside. But there are vast tracts of grassland, woods, and parks everywhere. There are countless parks. There is a large forest not far outside the city. It is precisely because of this that Munich has earned the title of "super country".

Tombnihei is important not only because of its developed economy, but also because it is a cultural capital. It has always been known as the hometown of music and drama in Germany. It is especially closely related to the great Wagner. Most of his works were premiered here. In this city with a population of more than one million, there are more than 10 universities. , two opera houses, 42 theaters, 45 museums, and 136 public libraries, and they are still increasing.

Munich’s urban area is divided into the New Town and the Old Town. The New Town is on the east bank of the Isar River and is mainly a residential area and commercial area. The Old Town is on the west bank, where most of Niche’s historical sites are located. The center of the old city is Marienplatz. On the edge of the square is the Old Town Hall, which is a typical Gothic building. The towering spire in the middle houses a large mechanical puppet clock. The puppet is as big as a human being. It sounds every day at 11 o'clock in the morning. They all ring the bell to tell the time. On the other side of the square is the Church of Our Lady. It is the symbol of Munich. It was built in the 15th century. There are two round spiers juxtaposed on the top of the tower. The north tower is 100 meters high. Their round roofs are very different from ordinary Gothic buildings and are unique to Bavaria. There is a German museum on a small island in the Isar River. It was built in the early 20th century and is divided into 30 halls to display the achievements of natural science and industrial technology in various periods. The exhibition area reaches 40,000 square meters, making it the largest in the world. Science and Technology Museum.

The best season to travel to Munich is October every year, when the Oktoberfest is held. It is known as the largest folk festival in the world. Millions of tourists from all over the world drink the world's best German beer. Singing and dancing.

There are more than 70 satellite towns with different characteristics in the suburbs of Munich. One of them we have to visit is Dachau.

There is a "famous place" here that you should visit, which is the Dachau Concentration Camp. It is said that this was the first concentration camp established by the Nazis. Compared to the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland, where millions of Jews were massacred, Dachau is dwarfed in scale, but we can also see from this that the The brutality of the Nazis.

The reason why K?nihei occupies an important position in modern German history is also related to the Nazis. In the 1920s, Hitler joined the National Socialist German Workers' Party, referred to as the Nazi Party, in Munich and became the party leader. In November 1923, he and his accomplices launched a rebellion against the Bavarian authorities, the "Beer Hall Putsch". After the defeat, Hitler was imprisoned and wrote "Mein Kampf" in prison. On September 30, 1938, it was also in Tombnyhei that Britain, France, Germany and Italy signed the sinful "Tombnihei Agreement". Munich's close relationship with the Nazis can be regarded as one of its "characteristics", and it was also punished for this characteristic: in the last two years of World War II alone, the city suffered 66 large-scale bombings by the Allies. Half of the city was completely destroyed and turned into a pile of rubble.

The official name of Frankfurt is "Frankfurt am Main". Frankfurt is the abbreviation. In addition, there is another Frankfurt on the Oder River called "Frankfurt an der Oder". It is a city with only more than 80,000 people. An unknown town with a small population. Frankfurt is roughly located in the geographical center of Germany. The Main and Rhine rivers meet about 30 kilometers to the west. Its current city area is about 250 square kilometers and its population is more than 600,000.

Compared with other German cities, Frankfurt has a distinctive feature: although it also has many places of interest, it is no longer mainly an ancient capital, nor is it attractive because of its historic sites. The reason why it is in Germany Even Europe and the world have an important position because of its modern charm. When we arrived in Frankfurt, still on the plane, we could see the tall skyscrapers in the city from the air, no different from those seen in New York and Shanghai. Most of these high-rise buildings are Frankfurt's major banks. There are more than 350 banks in Frankfurt, and all major banks in the world have branches here. Germany's central bank, Deutsche Bank, is located in the city center. It is like a central nervous system that affects the economy of Germany and the world.

Perhaps more importantly, it is the site of the future European central bank. Now the EU is stepping up its integration process, especially economic integration. After economic integration, Europe needs a unified economic capital, which is here. Therefore, Frankfurt is also called "Manhattan on the Main" and is the main financial center in Europe.

In addition to being the financial center of Europe, it is also a famous exposition city with a history of 800 years. More than ten large-scale international expositions are held here every year, such as the International Consumer Goods Expo held every spring and summer, the biennial International "Health, Heating, and Air Conditioning" Professional Expo, the International Clothing and Textile Professional Expo, automobile exhibitions, and book exhibitions. Conference, cooking technology exhibition, etc. During the exhibition season, Frankfurt presents a busy scene, with an average of more than 1 million people participating in the expo every year. The expo has become a major window for Germany to understand the world and for the world to understand Germany. Frankfurt is also a famous historical and cultural city. There are many places of interest in the city and it has a very strong philosophical and literary tradition. This feature is mainly reflected in Goethe's former residence. "At noon on August 28, 1749, the clock struck twelve, and I was born in Frankfurt am Main." This is the first sentence in one of Goethe's masterpieces, and also his autobiography "Poetry and Truth" He told the story straight to the point where he came from.

If you go to Frankfurt, the thing you see most is not the bank, but Goethe. The shadow of Goethe is everywhere here, from houses, museums, libraries to the names of universities, many of which are named after Goethe. For example, the official name of the University of Frankfurt is Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, which is the largest university in Germany. largest university. As for the tourist souvenirs sold in stores, they are almost a patent of Goethe.

Goethe’s former residence is located in the city center. It is a mansion built with reddish-brown sandstone unique to the Rhine River. It is divided into 4 floors: the first floor has a kitchen and living room, etc., with exquisite copperware on display. There are cooking utensils and oil paintings hanging on the walls: the second floor is the piano room and banquet hall; the third floor has the bedroom of Goethe's parents, and the small room where Goethe lived when he was a child is also here. There is a big clock in the corridor that can show the profit and loss of the sun and the moon. It is still ticking, as if proudly telling you that Goethe was listening to the same piece of music. The fourth floor is Goethe's study, called "Poet's Room", with a picture. The ancient wooden table has a mature and solemn look, as if to imitate Goethe's demeanor when he was creating.

In addition to Goethe in literature, Frankfurt is also a famous city in the history of philosophy. For example, from 1833 to 1860, the lonely Schopenhauer lived in Frankfurt for 27 years. An important school of modern Western philosophy, the "Frankfurt School", was also born here. It combined Marxism with Western internationalism and produced many Great philosopher, philosophical thoughts and philosophical works.

Cologne is the fourth largest city in Germany. It covers an area of ??nearly 900 square kilometers and has a population of about one million.

Among all German cities, Cologne has a unique geographical location: the Rhine River flows into the plains of northern Germany, and ocean-going ships can sail all the way here from the North Sea. It is only a few dozen kilometers away from the Ruhr area, Germany's largest industrial center, to the north, not far from Belgium and Luxembourg to the west, and to the south is the main thoroughfare from the North German plains into the central German mountains, with extremely convenient transportation.

Cologne is a beautiful city, full of gardens and green spaces. We will not talk about these, only the world-famous Cologne Cathedral. The best way to get to Cologne is by train. There are six or seven railways entering Cologne from all directions. When you are quite far away from Cologne, you will see two towering giant spiers standing side by side, majestic. This is the Cologne Cathedral. The pair of spiers are nearly 160 meters high and are the tallest church spiers in Europe. When you get closer to the cathedral, you will appreciate its magnificence even more - how humble and insignificant you feel before it or God!

The church is divided into two parts, the upper and lower parts. There are two floors below, each floor is very high. The spire on the second floor rises into the sky, reaching into the blue sky, so high that it is even suffocating. The entire church is made of polished stones, and its scale is rarely seen in the West since ancient times. Because it is so huge, and every step of the construction and decoration is extremely exquisite, and because of the many obstacles and stoppages in the middle, the construction lasted for a rare period of time: it began to be built in the 13th century and was not completed until the 19th century. . The current cathedral is more than 140 meters long from east to west and nearly 90 meters wide from north to south, which is equivalent to a large football field. It is surrounded by green grass, blooming flowers, and the beautiful scenery is intoxicating.

Entering the church, the hollow ceiling of the central hall, which is more than 100 meters high, is also very high and dazzling. There is also the famous Crucifixion Cross, which is a work of the Germans in the 11th century and is very impressive. Real and touching. There are more than 500 steps in the church, about 30 stories high. If you have the foot strength, you can go up the stairs to a special lookout, overlooking the Laijun River like a jade belt going around your feet, and further away is The vast mountains are picturesque.

The Ruhr Area is the largest and most famous industrial area in the world. It is located slightly in the middle of northwest Germany and administratively belongs to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The Ruhr area is not a city, but an urban agglomeration of many developed industrial cities. The largest is Duisburg, as well as large cities such as Dusseldorf, Essen, and Dortmund, as well as dozens of small cities. Small towns, which together form the entire Ruhr area, have a total area of ??about 5,000 square kilometers and a population of about 6 million, accounting for about 7% of the total population of Germany. The population density is more than 3,000 people per square kilometer. It is the most densely populated region in Germany. Although there are so many place names, in fact, when you walk in the Ruhr area, it is difficult to see the distance between these cities, because they have been connected into one, making the Ruhr area a unified area, a huge "urban belt".

There are two main reasons why the Ruhr area has become a huge industrial area: First, the Rhein, Ruhr, and Ems rivers flow through it, forming a dense water network that provides It has convenient and cheap shipping methods and water for production and living required by a large population; secondly, it is rich in coal resources, and it is high-quality hard coal with reserves of more than 20 billion tons. Coal fields are spread throughout the region and are the best raw materials and driving force for the industrial development of the Ruhr area.

The coal and steel industries are the leading industrial sectors in the Ruhr Area. There are 6 very large steel companies in the area with an annual steelmaking capacity of more than 4 million tons. Machine building and the chemical industry are also large industrial sectors here. Due to the huge industrial electricity consumption, the power industry here is also very developed. In fact, due to the complete industrial sectors here, the Ruhr area has formed two complete industrial chains. The first is: coal mining → coking → power generation → ironmaking → steelmaking → steel processing → machine manufacturing; the second It is: coal mining → coking → coal chemical industry. Since the factories in each link are very close to each other, various costs can be greatly reduced and efficiency improved.

Hamburg is Germany’s window to the world, the second largest city and the largest port, with a population of more than 1.6 million. Hamburg is also Germany’s largest economic center, with per capita GDP ranking first in the country, and transportation and The development of trade is the highest in the country. Its port area is about 100 square kilometers, of which the water surface accounts for about 40 square kilometers, and the dock coastline is about 40 kilometers long. There are dozens of extremely modern and advanced seagoing ship berths and various professional terminals.

Hamburg's land transportation is very developed. There is Europe's largest train dispatching yard in the suburbs, and there is a long dedicated railway in the port area. It is connected to the national railway network and is very convenient for water and land transportation. Hamburg also has two airports, with Volsbüttel in the north being one of the busiest international airports in Europe. Hamburg's underground transportation is also very developed. Its subway extends in all directions and has several underground tunnels that cross the Elbe River. Hamburg's industry is also very developed. It is one of the largest industrial cities in Germany with a complete industrial sector. Hamburg also has equally developed journalism and cultural and educational undertakings. It is the center of the national press and publishing industry. The headquarters of Germany's largest news agency Deutsche Presse Agency is located here: it also has 6 large museums and more small and medium-sized museums, among which Hamburg The museum is one of the largest and most important in Europe; Hamburg also has a strong musical tradition and is the home of Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Hamburg’s economy is so developed, but it does not look like a fashionable modern metropolis. If you first come to Hamburg, your first impression is that Hamburg really looks like Venice, because Hamburg is also an authentic water city. The city center of Hamburg is a fairly large lake formed by a dam. The beautiful Lombardy Bridge spans the lake, dividing it into two lakes: the inner and outer Alster lakes. The river in Hamburg is crisscrossed and winding, and there are many bridges, many more than the water city of Venice in Italy. There are also boats here like Venice. On a sunny day, you can get on a boat and shuttle through the streets and alleys. Sometimes you will see modern skyscrapers, sometimes antique old houses. It feels like you are traveling through time and space. Machines travel between history and reality.