Sleep & Go Hotel Magdeburg

Plattenbau

by Kathrin_E

The DDR regime restored the Dom and a few other historical buildings but they did their best to turn Magdeburg into a socialist city. The typical residential blocks of prefabricated concrete pieces, known as Plattenbauten, were erected even in the heart of the town. Most of them have been renovated and altered after the reunification, some have been torn down, a few still look miserable. They still characterize the ambience of Magdeburg city.

The Catholic Cathedral of St Sebastian

by Kathrin_E

Magdeburg has two cathedrals and two Bishops, one protestant*, one catholic. According to Roman Catholic church law the “cathedral” is this one, the church of St Sebastian, not the now protestant Dom. The smaller church beyond Breiter Weg is the church of the catholic Bishop of Magdeburg, thus has the status of a cathedral, since the Bishopric of Magdeburg has been re-established in 1994.

The church was originally founded around 1015, then rebuilt and extended in the first half of the 14th century, and again in the 15th century. Like the rest of the town it introduced the reformation in the 16th century. From 1873 it was used by a Roman Catholic parish community.

*With the fusion of the church province of Saxony and the church of Thüringen in 2008, Magdeburg ceased to be the seat of the protestant bishop.

Hundertwasser Haus

by Gerrem

Green Citadel - is the name which Friedensreich Hundertwasser gave his last architectural project. The famous artist worked on the design until his death in the year 2000. The Green Citadel of Magdeburg will house offices and apartments. A unique exhibition will be set up by the end of this year which will be permanently housed in the ground floor of the building. The interesting documentation describing the building process is expected to become a major attraction. Visitors will be treated to guided tours of the building sites where they can inform themselves on the actual building phase in an exhibition next to the site itself. The exhibition will also provide the opportunity to visit the Hundertwasser shop where visitors can find unique gifts and participate in special activities which will be organised around the Hundertwasser house:
- documentation of the building process from mid 2004
- guided tour of the building site
- art and culture on the building site - "My stone" in the Green Citadel of Magdeeburg
- tree planting project " A hundred trees for Magdeburg"

When I visited Magdeburg the house wasn't finished, but now:
The ''Grüne Zitadelle'' has been opened recently.

New Shopping Malls: Allee-Center and City Carré

by Kathrin_E

Global investors and chain stores have invaded Magdeburg soon after the reunification. Along Ernst-Reuter-Allee two new shopping malls have been built: Allee-Center on Breiter Weg and City Carré next to the train station. These indoor malls – Allee-Center is the better of the two – have plenty of shops of all kinds and food stalls like everywhere, good to grab a quick bite. However, the mall looks like any other mall and the shops are the usual chain stores you find everywhere. There are hardly any locally owned businesses in these malls, except maybe the butcher and baker.

Magdeburg überrascht - Magdeburg Surprises!

by hunterV

"Time Flies"

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ "Magdeburg überrascht" -
"Magdeburg Surprises!" /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ - this is a modern travel slogan of this city.
Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance of revisiting this city since my first trip.
I only have memories of my stay there in the "good old times". In 1981 when I was a student of the foreign languages college in Horlivka, Donetsk region, Ukraine, I was selected to be a member of a Soviet group of students who had a German language seminar in Magdeburg.
That city was a county center at that time.
So it was my first trip abroad in my life that made me happy , of course, for a long time.
Now the city is the capital of Sachsen-Anhalt, one of the country's sixteen federal provinces.
The city must have changed a lot!
However, the main sites in the city center have remained as they were.
I am sure they have been restored and renovated to make the city look still more beautiful.

"Lots of Sites"

We, the thirty members of the Soviet students' group, stayed in Magdeburg for about a month.
We studied German at Erich Weinert Pedagogical College and stayed at a dormitory at its campus.
It was in August and September, a fine season and a good opportunity to browse the city's central streets and to visit its architectural gems: the Cathedral,
the Liebfrauenkirche (the Church of Our Dear Lady),
the City Park called Rotehorn located on the opposite bank of the Elbe. I liked to browse Marx Street, Otto von Guericke Street, Pieck Avenue and Friendship Promenade in the city. The city park attracts the visitors by its promenade, sculptures, City Hall and a good view of the cathedral and the church.

"My City Visits"

Of all the monuments of the city I was deeply impressed by is The Knight of Magdeburg, a bronze copy of the stone original that is kept in the city history museum.
The monument belongs to the oldest knight images in Germany. It represents a splendid figure of a horseman with a lady on each of his sides. The idea of the monument remained obscure for a long time. One of the interpretations says the monument embodies the idea of spiritual and secular character of emperor's power. I also visited the Botanical Gardens and was impressed by the collections.
Since I was an ardent cinemagoer, I also visited several city cinemas and could improve my listening comprehension skills by seeing several films in German, which was not possible at home at that time. Now I would have understood much more of their content!
As a matter of fact I could travel around the city quite freely either on foot or by tram just using the city map and without having to ask the way! We also paid a visit to the Harz, a highland region to the south of Magdeburg and, of course, Dresden. So the hosts carefully planned our weekends and we could explore quite a lot during our stay there. Besides, everybody, even students who used to study Russian, spoke only German with us for us to practise it.I still have the picture album with autographs of our teachers presented to the members of the Soviet group that was received in the best traditions of the inviolable Soviet-German friendship.
So much time has passed! I wish I could visit this city again and I wonder if I will find my way there. After that first trip to Germany I went there again and again and have already visited it nine times all in all, among them five times as an interpreter and I hope that is not the limit! I also have several black-and-white pictures and postcards.