I’m a WWII history nerd and will be in Germany in early November. Any recommendations for museums or sites focusing on WWII history that are either in Koln, Frankfurt or doable as a reasonable day trip nearby? I was absolutely enthralled by the Domumentationszentrum in Nuremberg and the sites close to Berchtesgaden. Unfortunately I won’t have a car this trip so public transport is my only option.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
17971 posts
I went to the US Cemetery a few weeks ago. Pretty interesting. Son arranged a guide who you would think knew every soldier and talked about them like they were her friends. Very touching. And Patton is planted there too.
Posted by
Paradise
6658 posts
I believe the previous post refers to the American cemetery in Luxembourg.
The Hürtgenwald German cemetery can be reached by train + bus in about 1.3 hours. Enter the destination below at the German Railways site for connections: https://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
Hürtgen Soldatenfriedhof, Hürtgenwald
The Museum Hürtgenwald 1944 is nearby, open Sundays; enter this destination:
Vossenack Kirche, Hürtgenwald
(From this bus stop it's a 5-minute walk to the museum.)
In Cologne visit the NS Documentation Center, located in the former Gestapo HQ.
In Remagen, south of Bonn, visit the "Peace Museum" at the site of the "Bridge at Remagen." You can walk there from the Remagen Railway station.
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Posted by
Atlanta
4862 posts
There is a site named thirdreichruins.com. that you should check out before you go. It shows photos of many places in the areas you will be visiting that were taken during or just after the war. It then shows photos of the same places taken in later years. We were able to go to the same places from which some of the photos were taken and found the contrasts to be interesting.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6572 posts
Yes, Patton is in the American cemetery in Luxembourg. It’s one of dozens of American cemeteries in Europe. Near it is the National Museum of Military History (MNHM) Asbl in Diekirch, 2 hours from Cologne. It focuses mainly on the Battle of the Bulge. There are some sites at Remagen.
Much of Operation Market Garden occurred near Eindhoven, NL. It’s only 1.5 hours from Cologne.
Posted by
Magyarország / Rep of Texas
17971 posts
Yes, and I visited from Frankfurt.
Posted by
771 posts
Highly recommend taking the 30-minute train ride from Koln to Bonn, and visiting the Haus der Geschichte, i.e. the museum dedicated to the history of Federal Republic of Germany. It is an outstanding history museum where the story begins with World War II, and moves forward until German reunification. It is a fascinating topic told extremely well by beautiful displays and moving artifacts. As a WWII buff, I think you'll appreciate how long the impacts of the War lasted in shaping German and world history. Afterwards, you might spend some time exploring a bit of Bonn, which I think is often overlooked.