Göttingen – the top sights on a city break

The top sights on a city trip to Göttingen

Compact information about the university city of Lower Saxony

Already in the 10th century AD, Göttingen, located on the Leine river, was first mentioned as "Gutingi", and in 1230 city rights were granted. With over 100,000 inhabitants, Göttingen is now a large city in the heart of Germany and is known as a university and university town – around 20 percent of the population are students. Together with Hanover, Braunschweig and Wolfsburg, Göttingen forms a so-called European Metropolitan Region.

The city lies on the Leinegraben not far from the Göttingen and Nörtener Wald; the Harz is not too far away either. As archaeological finds showed, the area was already settled in the Neolithic period, but it was only in the Middle Ages that the importance of the city increased and it expanded more and more.

Especially since the 18th century, Göttingen has been decisively shaped by education and research, which is why academies, universities and, of course, dominate Georg-August University the cityscape. The phenomenon of the Göttingen Nobel Prize Miracle is also well known, because a total of 45 Nobel Prize winners came from or worked in the city. A corresponding number of educational institutions are located in Göttingen: several libraries, the German Aerospace Center and various other institutes.

But not only in terms of education and research, but also in the area of ​​culture and sights, the university city of Lower Saxony has a lot to offer …

The Gänselieselbrunnen is the symbol of the city of Göttingen
Photo: Christian Mosewitzsch / pixelio.de

Göttingen – what you should have seen on a city break?

Friends of stage play will get their money’s worth, because there are a total of three theaters in Göttingen, including the prestigious one German theater. But the city also has a wide range of offers for tourists and locals in the music genre: the International Handel Festival is held there every year in early summer, because the performance of Handel operas has a long tradition in Göttingen. Several professional symphony orchestras also perform regularly, for example as part of chamber concerts at the Goethe Institute.

Of course, you will also find numerous museums in the scientifically shaped city, including archaeological and zoological collections as well as art collections. In addition, Göttingen is known for its multitude of monuments, mostly in the form of sculptures and memorial stones, which you gradually come across on a city tour. Above all that is important Gauss-Weber Monument, the Wöhler monument, the Goose Girl fountain (Landmark of the city) as well as the monuments of the poets Joseph von Eichendorff and Gottfried August Bürger, to name just a small selection. Since Otto von Bismarck studied in Göttingen, there are three monuments in his honor: the Bismarckstein, the Bismarck tower and the Bismarckhäuschen on the wall, where the future chancellor of the German Empire lived during his student days.

Göttingen is a well-known university town, about every fifth inhabitant is a student
Photo: Semen Grinberg / pixelio.de

The most important sights are almost all in the old town of Göttingen, including that Old City Hall, which was built in the Gothic style, various churches (including St. Albani and St. Jacobi). The half-timbered houses, for example the Junkernschänke or the Black Bear, are also one Half-timbered house from the Renaissance period – well worth seeing.

There is also a lot to see in the university area; many visitors walk through the old Botanical Garden, stroll through the classicist style auditorium of the Georg August University and take a look at the detention, the famous detention cell, where even at the beginning of the 20th century, some students had to serve prison terms.

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Christina Cherry
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