culture and recreation in franconia
- Erlangen: A 'green' and bicycle-friendly city
- Nuremberg: More than simply gingerbread and the Christmas Market
- A Paradise for Hikers
Erlangen: A 'green' and bicycle-friendly city
The student population of Erlangen and Nuremberg, which numbers just over 21,000, live lives full of hustle and bustle. Although the inhabitants of Erlangen numbered a mere 30,000 by the end of World War II, the move of the central administration of the Siemens-Schuckert concern from Berlin to Erlangen in 1948 saw a rapid increase in the population of the former Huguenot town. The city of Erlangen, which is committed to its motto 'Offen aus Tradition' (Open by Tradition) because of its granting of religious asylum to Huguenot refugees in 1688, still retains a number of popular customs. Notable amongst these are the so-called 'Erlanger Bergkirchweih', a beer festival which takes place each Whitsun on the Burgberg, and the University Garden Party (Schlossgartenfest), one of the largest of its kind in Europe and a highlight of the social calendar. Visitors from across the globe enjoy the wide variety of cultural activities on offer in Erlangen and Nuremberg, including the Comic Salon, the Puppet Theatre Festival, the International Week of the Young Theatre ARENA and the International Literature Conference Interlit, known to insiders as the literature world's answer to the Documenta, the well-known avant-garde visual arts exhibition in Kassel. In the course of the last few years Erlangen has also earned the title 'Green Capital of Germany' as a result of its commitment to ecological and environmental issues. And it is also well-known beyond the borders of the Federal Republic as a bicycle-friendly city, with 90,000 bicycles owned by its 100,000 inhabitants.
Nuremberg: More than simply gingerbread and the Christmas Market
The city of Nuremberg, which lost 90% of its historic centre to World War II bombing, is today a lively centre with far more to offer its population of approximately 500,000 and innumerable tourists than simply gingerbread, Franconian sausages, bullseye window panes and the Christmas market.
The National Germanic Museum boasts among its many treasures the famous globe of Martin Behaim, as well as masterpieces by Veit Stoß and Albrecht Dürer. With events such as Jazz-East-West, the International Week of the Organ and the 'Bardentreffen' (a festival similar to an Eisteddfod), the city has established a distinctive cultural life of its own. Football fans will undoubtedly have heard of 1. FC Nuremberg, often simply known as 'the Club'.
Between Erlangen and Nuremberg lies the so-called 'Garlic Country', an agricultural area comprising numerous small farms, where in the spring lettuce and raddish grow alongside the so-called 'Franconian Gold' - asparagus. And in the myriad ponds to be found to the east of Erlangen swims another of Franconia's culinary delicacies: the carp.
A Paradise for Hikers
Popular destinations await the holiday-maker and day-tripper only a few kilometers beyond the Nuremberg-Fürth-Erlangen conurbation.
Little Switzerland, as it is known, is above all a paradise for hikers and climbers, whilst the lowland plains of Franconia, with their recently formed lakes, are an El Dorado for water-sport fanatics.
The words which Johann Michael Füssel used in 1788 to describe Erlangen and its surrounding areas in his travel journal are still apt today: "One lacks for nothing hereabouts, whether in need of beneficial and charitable institutions or in pursuit of the opportunity to deepen one's knowledge of and take delight in the sciences, the arts and the customs of the local people."