Germany (Lonely Planet, 6th Edition) - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [45]
Good places in Berlin to catch some of these are Berghain, where Galluzzi has recently been resident, and Watergate. Also look for gigs by musicians/DJs such as the trance pioneer Paul van Dyk (www.paulvandyk.de, in German) or DJ Tanith (www.tanith.org, in German).
The rap scene in Germany is never short of a protagonist and a tough plot – Germany has lots of rappers, some of dubious quality and politics. Heidelberg’s Advanced Chemistry and Stuttgart-bred Die Fantastischen Vier are the mild-mannered godfathers of the form in Germany (some would say still the best), paving the way for a younger, more sinewy breed of gangsta rappers like Bushido (b 1978), Sido (b 1980) and his colleague Fler (b 1982), who are all Berlin-based, or Frankfurt-based Azad (b 1974). Deichkind, a foursome from Hamburg, has some of the best lyrics. Mannheim has produced a raft of rappers, including the soul-influenced Xavier Naidoo (b 1971), who began with Söhne Mannheims (Sons of Mannheim). Interestingly – and partly evident in his style of prose – writer Feridun Zaimoglu emerged from a small, ethnic-Turk rap scene in Kiel.
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‘Once every generation, a German band achieves worldwide success… Yes, it’s Nietzsche Rock!’
NME MUSIC MAGAZINE ON THE POPULAR METAL BAND RAMMSTEIN
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EXPLORING GERMAN MUSIC IN 10 ALBUMS
Stack your CD player with the following, sit back and take a whirlwind tour through German musical history:
Crusaders: In Nomine Domini & German Choral Song around 1600 by various composers (Christophorus label)
Brandenburg Concertos by JS Bach
Water Music by Händel
Beethoven: Nine Symphonies performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Tannhäuser und der Sägerkrieg auf dem Wartburg (Tannhäuser and the Song Contest of the Wartburg) by Richard Wagner
Brahms: Violin Concerto, Double Concerto performed by Anne-Sophie Mutter, Antonio Meneses and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Passport on Stage by Passport (live sax and jazzy stuff; 2008)
Tour de France Soundtracks by Kraftwerk (track nine is about a heart monitor)
Nomad Songs by Micatone (the third album from this Berlin nu-jazz band; 2005)
Soundso by Wir sind Helden (pop and rock with intelligent lyrics; 2007)
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Architecture
CAROLINGIAN TO ART NOUVEAU
Among the grand buildings of the Carolingian period, Aachen’s Byzantine-inspired cathedral Click here – built for Charlemagne from 786 to about 800 – and Fulda’s Michaelskirche are surviving masterpieces. A century on, Carolingian, Christian (Roman) and Byzantine influences flowed together in a more proportional interior with integrated columns, reflected in the elegant Stiftskirche St Cyriakus in Gernrode and the Romanesque cathedrals in Worms, Speyer and Mainz.
The Unesco-listed Kloster Maulbronn in Baden-Württemberg, built in 1147, is considered the best preserved monastery of its ilk north of the Alps.
Early Gothic architecture, slow to reach Germany from its northern-French birthplace, kept many Romanesque elements, as the cathedral in Magdeburg illustrates. Later churches have purely Gothic traits – ribbed vaults, pointed arches and flying buttresses to allow greater height and larger windows, seen in Cologne’s cathedral (Kölner Dom; ), Marburg (Elisabethkirche; ), Trier (Liebfrauenkirche; ), Freiburg (Münster; ) and Lübeck (Marienkirche; ). From the 15th century, elaborately patterned vaults and hall churches emerged. Munich’s Frauenkirche and Michaelskirche are typical of this late Gothic period.
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Pick up Der geteilte Himmel (Divided Heaven), by East German writer Christa Wolf, to discover the fate of a woman’s love for a man who fled to West Germany.
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The Renaissance reached Germany around the mid-16th century, bestowing Heidelberg and other southern cities with buildings bearing ornate leaf work and columns, while in northern