Gießen

Gießen is a 89,802 inhabitants city by river Lahn in the western part of Hesse, Germany, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen and the 7th largest city in the federal state. Giessen is also home to the University of Gießen.

 

How do I arrive to Gießen?

 Gießen is very well connected with other cities in Hesse and other states.

• Train: there are often trains to other destinations within Hesse like Wetzlar (aprox. 10 minutes), Marburg (aprox. 15 minutes), Butzbach (aprox. 20 minutes), Braunfels (aprox. 25 minutes), Herborn and Weilburg (aprox. 30 minutes), Limburg an der Lahn (aprox. 50 minutes), Frankfurt am Main (aprox. 55 minutes), Alsfeld (aprox. 1 hour) and Kassel (aprox. 1 hour 20 minutes). There are also trains to destinations in other federal states such Siegen (aprox. 55 minutes) in North Rhine-Westphalia. 
• Bus: there are buses to many cities in Hesse and neighbouring states such as Alsfeld (aprox. 55 minutes), Frankfurt am Main (aprox. 1 hour 10 minutes), Darmstadt and Siegen (aprox. 1 hour 30 minutes); Cologne, Göttingen and Heidelberg (aprox. 2 hours 30 minutes), or Erfurt (aprox 2 hours 50 minutes).
• Car: there are often trains to other destinations within Hesse like Wetzlar (aprox. 17 minutes), Butzbach (aprox. 20 minutes), Marburg (aprox. 25 minutes), Herborn and Braunfels (aprox. 30 minutes), Weilburg (aprox. 35 minutes), Alsfeld (aprox. 37 minutes), Limburg an der Lahn (aprox. 40 minutes), Hanau (aprox. 45 minutes), Frankfurt am Main (aprox. 50 minutes), Bad Hersfeld and Wiesbaden (aprox. 1 hour), Fulda (aprox. 1 hour 10 minutes) and Kassel (aprox. 1 hour 30 minutes). There are also trains to destinations in other federal states such Siegen (aprox. 1 hour), Bonn (aprox. 1 hour 35 minutes) or Cologne (aprox. 1 hour 50 minutes) in North Rhine-Westphalia. 

History

The history of the community in the northeast, in today's suburb called Wieseck, that dates back to 775 but it came into being as a moated castle in 1152 built by Count Wilhelm von Gleiberg, receiving town privileges in 1442. The town became part of Hesse-Marburg in 1567, passing to Hesse-Darmstadt in 1604 with the University of Gießen (founded in 1607). Giessen was included within the Grand Duchy of Hesse when it was created in 1806 (being the capital of the new province of Upper Hesse), during the Napoleonic Wars, being later part of Prussia. After the First World War, Gießen was part of the People's State of Hesse. During the Second World War, a subcamp of the Buchenwald concentration camp was created here and the city of Gießen resulted to be very damaged (around 75% of the old town was destroyed) because of heavy bombing. After the Second World War a U.S. military base was placed in Gießen (later converted into a German Army Air Field). The city became part of the modern state of Hesse after the war and in 1977 it was merged with the neighbouring city Wetzlar to form the new city of Lahn (although it was later reversed).

What can I visit in Gießen?

  Gießen doesn't have a beautiful Alstadt, unlike many other places in Hesse, but it has some things to do. These are Gießen's main attractions:

• Upper Hessian Museum (10-16 Tue-Sun; free): museum that has its main collection placed in Gießen Old Palace (Schloss built around 1350 as an extension of the city fortifications, being the second seat of Landgrave Heinrich II of Hesse), and displays a collection of paintings and an exhibition on handcrafts (like wooden sculptures from the 14th to 16th centuries), old furniture and coins. The other two seats of the museum are Leib'schen Haus (four-storey half-timbered house built in 1350), with a collection on the history of Gießen, exhibitions on folklore, regional handicrafts and Gießen's industrial history; and Wallenfels'sche Haus, whose collection is more focused on regional prehistory and early history of the region (although it has ancient finds from Rome, Troy, Etruria, Greece and a collection on the culture and religion of Tibet).
• Water Can Museum (17-19 Tue, 11-13 Wed, 15-18 Fri, 12-15 Sat, 15-17 from Apr to Oct; 11-13 Wed, 15-18 Fri, 12-15 Sat from Nov to Mar; free): museum with worldwide watering cans and other irrigation instruments, unique in its kind in Germany.
• Botanical Garden of the University of Gießen (8-19 Mon-Fri, 8-18 Sat-Sun from Apr to Oct; 8-16 Mon-Fri, 8-15:30 Sat-Sun from Nov to Mar; free): small botanical garden, one of the oldest of its kind in Germany (founded in 1609), that belongs to the University of Gießen. It contains around 8,000 different plant species and today is used for research and teaching for students of biology, agricultural sciences, geography, medicine and veterinary medicine.
• Gießen Church Tower: 50 m high tower that comes from the Romanesque period, originally installed in another church which was demolished in 1530, but was rebuilt in the 19th century. From its top there are nice views of the city
• Elefantenklo: pedestrian overpass over a street crossing built in the 1960s, nicknamed as elephant toilet (it received this nickname because of its exaggerated size and the three large openings above the intersection, which are reminiscent of an oversized outhouse). Today it is regarded as a disruptive factor in the architectural proportionality in relation to the cityscape and as a symbol of a failed city and traffic planning.
• Mathematikum Gießen (10-18; 9€/ 6€  adults/ reduced): interactive museum founded by the Giessen mathematics professor Albrecht Beutelspacher, being the the first museum of its kind in Germany and in the world. Its aim is opening mathematics for people of all ages, educational backgrounds and all genders through sensual experiences and by trying out and experimenting, complex mathematical relationships are made unconsciously and simply "understandable" for the visitors.
  
• Liebig Museum (10-18 Tue-Sun; 7€/ 5€  adults/ reduced): natural science museum focused on the work of the chemist Justus von Liebig, who lived and worked in the University of Gießen (1824-1852), being one of the most important museums on chemistry in Germany. It shows the working conditions and tools used on von Liebig's times.
• Old Cemetery of Gießen: interesting cemetery where some well-known people are buried, like Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (first Nobel laureate in physics). It has a nice chapel too.
  

Elefantenklo

Upper Hessian Museum at
Gießen Old Palace

Wetzlar Cathedral

Only 17 km west it can be found Wetzlar (52,955 inhabitants), a city by river Lahn, part of the German Timber-Frame Road, that gained the seat of the Imperial Supreme Court Reichskammergericht. It main sightseeing poing is  Wetzlar Cathedral, Dom (although it's only a large church because it has never been a bishop's seat) whose construction began in the 13th century, that combines Romanesque, Gothic and Baroque architecture because of its long period of construction and is still unfinished. It was damaged by bombs in WW2 (losing its precious stained glass windows and the organ). Since the 16th century it has been used as a simultaneum by both Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Old Town is full of half-timbered houses and stone buildings from Romanesque to Baroque with great squares like Buttermarkt/Domplatz, Fischmarkt, Eisenmarkt, Kornmarkt or Schillerplatz.

Jerusalemhaus

Some of its most beautiful houses are: Lottehaus (10-17 Tue-Sun from Apr to Oct; 11-16 Tue-Sun from Nov to Mar; 3€/ 2€  adults/ reduced), house that was first owned by the Teutonic Order and was the birthplace of Charlotte Buff, inspiration for the novel The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe, one of his most important works; Jerusalemhaus (14-17 Tue-Sun; 3€/ 2€  adults/ reduced), house-museum that displays Goethe-Werther Collection, a museum that honours Karl Wilhelm Jerusalem (who shot himself here in 1772 inspiring Goethe's novel, The Sorrows of Young Werther); Römische Kaiser, Alte Münze or Papius Palace (10-17 Tue-Sun from Apr to Oct; 11-16 Tue-Sun from Nov to Mar; 3€/ 2€  adults/ reduced), Palais named after Johann Hermann Franz von Pape (assessor at the Reich Chamber of Commerce) that has one of the world's most important collections of historical furniture from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The city has other nice churches such as Franziskanerkirche (Lutheran church from a former monastery founded in 1263) or Hospitalkirche (Rococo style Lutheran church from then 18th century).

Wetzlar Old Town

It can also be visited the Reichskammergericht Museum (10-17 Tue-Sun from Apr to Oct; 11-16 Tue-Sun from Nov to Mar; 3€/ 2€  adults/ reduced), museum that shows the history of one of the highest judicial institutions in the Holy Roman Empire, founded in 1495 by the Imperial Diet in Worms, where all legal proceedings in the Holy Roman Empire could be brought to the Imperial Chamber Court (except for having the privilegium de non appellando or criminal law). There's a combined ticket for all the museum and houses in Wetzlar (6€/ 4€  adults/ reduced). The town has a beautiful 13th century bridge that crosses river Lahn, Alte Lahnbrücke.

Herborn Palace

Continuing on the German Timber-Frame Road there's the 20,543 inhabitants town of Herborn (Hesse), a picturesque town by river Dill with many half-timbered houses. The main square is Marktplatz, where it's located Herborn Town Hall (16th century building that has in its frieze the local family coats of arms), and close to it can be found Herborn Lutheran Church, a 13th century church in Gothic style that belonged to the Teutonic Order until 1578 nad was the most important church in the Nassau royal seat of Herborn. By the river lays Dillturm, one of the towers that remains of the city wall. It can also be nice to visit Herborn Palace, 13th century Schloss that the Counts of Nassau received from the Landgrave of Hesse, renovated in the 14th century into a manor house and where John VI, Count of Nassau-Dillenburg, founded Herborn Academy (a Calvinist-Reformed institution of higher learning, center of encyclopaedic Ramism and the birthplace of both covenant theology and pansophism, from 1584 to 1817). Today it hosts the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Church in Hesse and Nassau.

Markuskirche

Driving 23 km south, towards Frankfurt am Main, there's Butzbach (26,432 inhabitants), a town in the center of Hesse keeps traditional houses from the 16th to 18th centuries, mainly around the square Markplatz, like Butzbach Town Hall (a 16th century late-Gothic Rathaus that is one of the most important German half-timbered town halls, a combination of stone architecture and timber construction. The town has also a nice 15th century church in Gothic style, Markuskirche, that has a Romanesque font from the first half of the 13th century, the landgrave's crypt from 1620–1622 and the organ prospectus by Georg Wagner (second oldest preserved in Hesse, from 1614). Other nice churches are Wendelinskapelle (oldest half-timbered church in Hesse, built around 1440) and Komturkirche (13th century church that belonged to commandery of the Order of St. John, located in the district of Nieder-Weisel). To get more information about the local history the visitor can go to Museum of the Town of Butzbach (14-17 Fri-Sun; 3€/ 2€  adults/ reduced). Another landmark of the town are Butzbach Landgrave Castle (medieval Schloss that was expanded and rebuilt  by landgrave Philip III of Hesse-Butzbach in the 17th century as Renaissance residence) and Sols Castle (late-Gothic Schloss built around 1481 that has a magnificent Renaissance staircase from 1588 and that was the seat of Butzbach District Court from 1879-2004).

Where can I eat in Gießen?

 Gießen has nice places to eat such as the cafe Vanilla (Goethestraße 56), the Vietnamese restaurant Zum Stern (Friedberger Straße. 1, Hungen), News Cafe (Plockstraße 1-3), the ice-cream dealer Eiscafé Venezia (Bahnhofstraße 17), the German restaurant Badenburg Ritterkeller (Inselweg 122) or the restaurant of Hotel am Kurpark (Am Kurpark 19-21).

Posted in: Europe,Germany,Hesse