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with a bowl of popcorn in one hand and a remote in the other. Go for a classic or pick from among the great crop of recent made-in-Germany flicks. Look for brief reviews on Click here.

1 Metropolis (1927) Director: Fritz Lang

2 Die Legende von Paul und Paula (1973) Director: Heiner Carow

3 Das Boot (1981) Director: Wolfgang Petersen

4 Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire; 1987) Director: Wim Wenders

5 Lola Rennt (Run Lola Run; 1998) Director: Tom Tykwer

6 Good Bye, Lenin! (2003) Director: Wolfgang Becker

7 Der Untergang (Downfall; 2004) Director: Oliver Hirschbiegel

8 Sophie Scholl – Die Letzten Tage (Sophie Scholl – The Final Days; 2005) Director: Marc Rothemund

9 Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others; 2006) Director: Florian von Donnersmarck

10 Der Baader-Meinhof Complex (The Baader-Meinhof Complex; 2008) Director: Uli Edel

TOP READS

One of the best ways to learn about a country’s culture and grasp a sense of a people is to immerse yourself in a good book. The following Top 10 – from classics to contemporary works – have won kudos and critical acclaim in Germany and abroad. Click here for more details.

1 Grimms Märchen (Grimm’s Fairy Tales; 1812) Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

2 Der Prozess (The Trial; 1925) Franz Kafka

3 Berlin Alexanderplatz (1929) Alfred Döblin

4 Im Westen Nichts Neues (All Quiet on the Western Front; 1929) Erich Maria Remarque

5 Die Blechtrommel (The Tin Drum; 1959) Günter Grass

6 Kindheitsmuster (Patterns of Childhood; 1976) Christa Wolf

7 Der Mauerspringer (The Wall Jumper; 1995) Peter Schneider

8 Russendisko (Russian Disco; 2000) Wladimir Kaminer

9 Der Vorleser (The Reader; 2002) Bernhard Schlink

10 Stasiland (2004) Anna Funder

OUR FAVOURITE FESTIVALS & EVENTS

Germans really know how to let their hair down, and there’s almost always something interesting happening around the country. Here are 10 festivals worth planning a trip around. Also see the various destination chapters and the Events Calendar.

1 Berlinale (International Film Festival; Berlin), February

2 Cannstatter Volksfest, Stuttgart (Baden-Württemberg) September/October

3 Karneval/Fasching (various regions), Cologne, Munich

4 Frankfurt Book Fair, Frankfurt am Main (Hesse), September–October

5 Hamburger Dom (Hamburg), March

6 Karneval der Kulturen (Berlin), late May

7 Kieler Woche, Kiel (Schleswig-Holstein), June

8 Bach Festival, Leipzig (Saxony), around Ascension Day

9 Landshuter Hochzeit, Landshut (Bavaria), every four years in July

10 Munich Oktoberfest (Bavaria), mid-September

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DON’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT…

Valid travel and health insurance Click here

Memorising at least a few basic words of German

Loose pants to accommodate a growing beer belly

Hotel or camping reservations if travelling outside the cities in summer Click here

Nerves of steel for driving on the autobahns Click here

Towel and soap if staying in hostels, private rooms or cheap Pensionen

Good maps or a GPS for finding your way on country roads Click here

A set of smart clothes and shoes for hitting big-city clubs, the opera or fancy restaurants

Emergency drug prescriptions and spare glasses or contact lenses

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There’s also The Temple, an autobiographical novel by one of Britain’s most celebrated 20th-century poets, Stephen Spender. It is based on his travels to Germany in the late 1920s and his encounters with, among others, Isherwood.

It’s a tough slog, but Claudio Magris’ Danube certainly has its moments. Part travelogue, part meditation, it follows the great river through Bavaria and beyond, reflecting on the events that took place along it and the people who’ve lived there.

The Bells in Their Silence: Travels Through Germany (2004) was written by Michael Gurra, an American literature professor who spent a year living and travelling around Germany in the early 1990s. This travelogue combines a literary tour of the country with impressionistic observations about