Travel Guides: Germany

While Germany may officially be one again, it will certainly continue to look and feel like two separate countries until the end of the century - and probably well beyond.

Moreover, international pressure had ensured that, far from being a re-creation of the old Reich, it can be no more than the nineteenth-century concept of a Kleines Deutschland ("little Germany"), excluding not only Austria but also the "lost" Eastern Territories, which are now part of Poland, the Czech Republic and the Russian Federation.

In total contrast to Germany's intristic fascination as the country which has played such a determining role in the history of the twentieth century is its otherwise predominantly romantic image .

This is the land of fairy-tale castles, of thick dark forests, of the legends collected by the Brothers Grimm, of perfectly preserved timber-framed medieval towns, and of jovial locals swilling from huge foaming mugs of beer.

As always, there is some truth in these stereotypes, though most of them stem from the southern part of the country, particularly Bavaria , which, as a predominantly rural and Catholic area, stands apart from the urbanized Protestant north which engineered the unity of the nation last century and thereafter dominated its affairs.

Regional characteristics , indeed, are a strong feature of German life, and there are many hangovers from the days when the country was a political patchwork, even though some historical provinces have vanished from the map and others have merged.

Hamburg and Bremen , for example, retain their age-old status as free cities. The imperial capital, Berlin , also stands apart, as an island in the midst of the erstwhile GDR where the liberalism of the West was pushed to its extreme, sometimes decadent, always exciting.

In polar opposition to it, and as a corrective to the normal view of the Germans as an essentially serious race, is the Rhineland , where the great river's majestic sweep has spawned a particularly rich fund of legends and folklore, and where the locals are imbued with a Mediterranean-type sense of fun.

The five new Länder which have supplanted the GDR, and in particular the small towns and rural areas, are in many ways the ones which best encapsulate the feel and appearance of Germany as it was before the war and the onset of foriegn influences which were an inevitable consequence of defeat.

Back to page 1