Things To Do In Central Germany

What we call The Center might well be expected to straddle these two halves of Germany

, but the whole area actually lies north of the Great Sausage Divide. From a strictly geographical point of view, only our center's southernmost reaches, in particular the volcanic Vogelsberg plateau, really qualify as central territory. The Harz Mountains, to the east, were bisected for decades by a stretch of the Iron Curtain.

Between this range and the Weser river valley on the region's western fringe, forested uplands slope down gently from the Hessisches (Hessian) Bergland to the North German Plain. Hannover, Celie, and Braunschweig (Brunswick), near the plain's edge, are unmistakably northern cities where Hochdeutsch (High German), at its purest, is spoken.

Often enough, the center stage role this region has played has had more to do with politics than geography. During medieval centuries the Weifen, internationally known as the Guelphs, ruled large parts of it from their bases in and around Goslar, Braunschweig, Celie, and Hannover. Thanks to shrewd marriage policies, the dynasty managed to intertwine its lineage with that of the British Stuarts. In 1714 this led to the Hanoverian Elector Georg Ludwig, a Guelph descendant, succeeding Queen Anne as Britain's King George I. For the next 123 years Hanoverian monarchs heldsway simultaneously in Westminster and their home duchy (later kingdom).

At the time, this part of Germany was as close to the hub of British Empire affairs as many an English province. Though little Georgian prestige has lingered here, the region has not faded from the royal scene completely. Members of the House of Windsor, notably Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles, are regularly sighted on both official and informal visits to the land of their Hanoverian forebears.

Major trade routes have always crisscrossed the center region. In the days of the Hanseatic League, for instance, Goslar lay on the Hanse merchants' road from Lubeck to Padua, Italy. Walled little towns like Herbstein, much farther south, offered a safe night's sleep for long distance traders on their way from Leipzig to FrankfurtamMain. By the same token, today's truckers, en route from, say, Hamburg to Stuttgart, feel they are at the halfway point when they stop for a mug of Autobahn coffee just south of the steep Kasseler Berge.

by: Adrian Vultur

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