What is Germany's Paris, Germany's London? Some would say Berlin. They might well be right - in a few years time at least, when Berlin, the capital of Germany, has also regained its status as its political and cultural centre.
But what about Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Cologne, Leipzig? That's the difficult bit - there is no obvious centre in Germany. Germany is a federally organised country for more that just political reasons. Germany is historically and culturally made up of many different provinces and regions known as Länder. The result is that Germany is 'provincial' in the best sense of the word. The provinces are themselves centres. Frankfurt is the centre for banking, Hamburg is the press capital, Munich has some of the most important music and theatre venues. Pina Bausch's famous Tanztheater is based in Wuppertal, the electronics trade fair Cebit is in Hannover, Leipzig too is a major centre for trade fairs and much more besides. There are significant museums and art collections in Berlin and Munich, but the centre for modem art is Cologne. And let's not forget Kassel, not only the venue every five years for the documenta, one of the biggest contemporary art exhibitions in the world, but also the location of one of the most significant collections of European painting.
The regional capitals used to be the residences of counts and kings. Bavaria and Prussia both had kings. Castles and palaces in the style of Versailles are to be every town has its theatre, every regional capital has a world class symphony orchestra. Germany boasts as many opera houses as the rest of the world put together.
Found in countless cities almost unknown abroad: Würzburg, Bamberg, Pommersfelden, Schleißheim, Brühl, Schloss Banz - the list goes on and on. And then there are the many universities, sometimes located in comfortably small places such as Marburg, Freiburg, Tübingen or Jena. Every one of them has established an international reputation in at least one specialist field.
So Germany is 'provincial' That is to say, it is fascinating wherever you go and you have to have seen a lot before you can say you have seen Germany, let alone say you know it.
It is precisely because Germany is so multifacetted, so federal, so 'provincial' that studying it from afar is not enough. You have to get to know the country, the Länder and their inhabitants for yourself, not forgetting the language, its dialects, and, of course, the cuisine.
If you thought you knew Germany think again!
