Erfurt tips beyond Rick's radio show

Sometimes I can be a little hard on Luther for all of his faults, but I should recognize that the antisemitism in the region pre-dated his contributions by centuries -- the Erfurt Jewish quarter had been burned down and the residents lynched plenty of times before Luther took up that cause.

https://juedisches-leben.erfurt.de/jl/en/middle-ages/erfurt_treasure/history/index.html

Erfurt Oktoberfest has all the right pieces in a scaled down size.

In Erfurt, you can visit the memorial site at Topf & Sons, the company that set up the incinerators and the ventilation technology for the gas chambers.

"With this, the state capital Erfurt acknowledges its responsibility towards history and secures a historical place of learning and its irreplaceable potential for reflecting on ethical questions of work and business for the future."

The city has some very cool architecture, a merchants' bridge and (I think--it was 7 years ago) two historic churches. It's also a good base for visiting Eisenach (and Wartburg Castle) and Weimar (and the Buchenwald camp/memorial site). Those side trips were doable via public transportation in 2015.

I haven't listened to the Rick show mentioned. But the Alte Synagogue (not "Erfurt Jewish Museum") is much more than a Jewish culture site. It includes history on Erfurt's prosperity in the woad-dye trade. Because it was deconsecrated long before the Nazi rise, it's a unique time capsule. And the Erfurt Hoard is a treasure of history.

The medieval bridge in Erfurt has probably attracted as many day-trippers as has Burg Eltz! We happen to like public gardens, and EGAPark (which also counts as Ost-algia) was another high point of our daytrip.

I failed to learn of the important Schloss and historic baroque court theater in nearby Celle before that trip.

Erfurt is popular among Germans, but not so much among Americans. As CWsocial mentioned, Erfurt's Oktoberfest is great and very manageable. I was there in 2019. There is one large beer tent and lots of games/rides/food stands on Domplatz. The crowds at the Merchant's Bridge and throughout Erfurt were actually a lot thinner during Oktoberfest than they were in the DW travel episode about Erfurt. I would also endorse the memorial/museum at the old Topf and Sons manufacturing site.

As mentioned above, the architecture is great. I had planned to day trip to Eisenach one day while in Erfurt, but I enjoyed Erfurt so much, I just wandered around the town for an extra day instead of seeing Wartburg Castle. The RS walking tour in the Germany guide is good.

Anger 1 (Anger = "commons") is a shopping center in Erfurt located in a building that was completed in 1908 as the Jewish-owned department store Kafhaus Römischer Kaiser. The store was taken from its owners by the National Socialists in 1937 when it became "Aryan-owned." After the war, the department store was nationalized by the DDR, and then sold to a private department store chain after reunification.

A nice hotel near Domplatz is Hotel Domizil. Run by a mother/son team. Something like 11 rooms -- some with a nice view of the Dom. Prices were reasonable when I stayed there.