Archives: Atlas Obscuras

Jewish Cemetery in Worms

Discover Jewish Cemetery in Worms in Worms, Germany: The oldest Jewish cemetery in Europe survived Hitler's Germany.

Museum of Sepulchral Culture

Discover Museum of Sepulchral Culture in Kassel, Germany: This German museum is devoted to all aspects of grave culture from headstones to coffins.

Spitzhäuschen

Discover Spitzhäuschen in Bernkastel-Kues, Germany: This 600-year-old home seems to defy physics.

World’s Largest Cuckoo Clock

Discover World's Largest Cuckoo Clock in Schonach im Schwarzwald, Germany: A Black Forest cuckoo clock theme park features one timepiece big enough to walk inside.

Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord

Discover Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord in Duisburg, Germany: This former steel and coal plant is now a neon-lit industrial fantasia.

Tieranatomisches Theater

Discover Tieranatomisches Theater in Berlin, Germany: Berlin's oldest surviving academic architecture hosted decades of animal dissections.

Hansa Studios

Discover Hansa Studios in Berlin, Germany: From Iggy Pop to David Bowie to Nick Cave, this regal music studio has served some of the all time greats.

Alexandrowka

Discover Alexandrowka in Potsdam, Germany: A quaint Russian village in the middle of a German metropolis.

Georg-von-Rauch-Haus

Discover Georg-von-Rauch-Haus in Berlin, Germany: Named after a militant urban guerilla, this famous former squat is a graffiti-covered stronghold of leftist culture.

Fliegeberg

Discover Fliegeberg in Berlin, Germany: This conical hill was built as a testing ground for an engineer known as the Glider King.

Bagger 258: The “Blue Wonder”

Discover Bagger 258: The "Blue Wonder" in Schipkau, Germany: The industrial monstrosity known as Bagger 258 is a colossal mining machine built in the DDR – but now left for dead in a German field.

Sanssouci Palace

Discover Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, Germany: The "Prussian Versailles" that is as glorious today as when it was built.

St. Nicholas’ Church

Discover St. Nicholas' Church in Hamburg, Germany: Once the tallest building in the world, this abandoned church is now a monument to the destruction of WWII.

Abandoned Iraqi Embassy

Discover Abandoned Iraqi Embassy in Berlin, Germany: When German-Iraqi relations broke down, this embassy was vacated post haste.

Viscardigasse

Discover Viscardigasse in Munich, Germany: Golden cobblestones remember a time when this small alley was used to avoid having to give a Nazi salute.

Tempelhof Airport

Discover Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, Germany: Berlin's old airport.

Berlin Radio Tower

Discover Berlin Radio Tower in Berlin, Germany: A restaurant and observation deck built in a unique broadcasting antenna.

Tropical Islands Resort

Discover Tropical Islands Resort in Halbe, Germany: It's always summer at the beach inside this former airship hangar.

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i
To represent a masterpiece of human creative genius. 261 ii
To exhibit an important interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape design. 480 iii
To bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared. 514 iv
To be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history. 642 ix
To be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals. 137 v
To be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change. 172 vi
To be directly or tangibly associated with events or living traditions, with ideas, or with beliefs, with artistic and literary works of outstanding universal significance. (The Committee considers that this criterion should preferably be used in conjunction with other criteria). 256 vii
To contain superlative natural phenomena or areas of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. 151 viii
To be outstanding examples representing major stages of earth's history, including the record of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features. 98 x
To contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity, including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value from the point of view of science or conservation. 168

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