Index
There is no such thing as standard “German cuisine“, rather several regional specialties ranging from smoked sprats from Kiel to white sausage with sweet mustard from Munich. Regional cuisine is also very important for Germany’s top chefs. In 2023 Michelin Guide awarded 334 German restaurants one or more of its coveted stars. Hamburg and Berlin are among the leading gourmet cities.
Meissen may well be a small town but, thanks to its porcelain, is as well known as the state capital Dresden and Leipzig, the trade-fair city. The Free State is one of the most dynamic economic regions in East Germany, in particular in IT; precision watch-making and car-making are typical of this new gearing, symbolized by the restored Frauenkirche in Dresden’s Baroque center. As in the past, Saxony’s culture is highly influential in the world of music, represented by the Semper opera house in Dresden and the 800-year old Thomaner Choir in Leipzig, where Johann Sebastian Bach was once a cantor. Is he the greatest Saxon ever? Bach at least has a serious rival – in the person of Richard Wagner.
Capital: Dresden
Population: 4,086,152
Surface area: 18,420 km2
German wines are produced in13 wine-growing areas in which, over an area of more than 100,000 hectares, a wide variety of typical regional wines are made. Apart from Saxony and Saale-Unstrut in the East, the German wine-growing areas are primarily in the southwest and south of the country. Although almost 140 types of vine are planted, only two dozen, primarily the white wines Riesling and Müller-Thurgau, have any real market significance. Of the wine produced in Germany two thirds is white and one third red. About 1 million of the more than 8 million hectolitres produced annually are exported, in particular to the USA, Great Britain and the Netherlands.