High­lights 2024

800th birthday of the city of Siegen
Germany’s greenest city, with the planted ratio of the city area reaching almost 86 percent, is celebrating its anniversary, offering a particularly large number of reasons to drop by. For its 800th anniversary, the city of Siegen is to turn into a stage, starting with a New Year’s concert of the Philharmonie Südwestfalen and continuing through an XXL city festival on the last weekend of August until culminating in a great laser show for New Year’s Eve to illuminate the historical old town. The city area on either side of the river Sieg is also offering many cycling and hiking options year-round, among other things to the eight mountains on which Siegen is built.
www.siegen800.en

650th birthday of the city of Solingen
Solingen is known world-wide as the “City of Blades”. It remains the centre of Germany’s knife and cutlery industry to this day and is the home of the Deutsches Klingenmuseum (German Blade Museum). Count Wilhelm von Berg granted a letter of freedom to the city on 23 February 1374, bestowing city rights on Solingen. That anniversary is reason for celebration with local quarter festivals spread out across the year as well as a great party to mark the middle of the year.
https://solingen650.de/

75 years of democracy made in Bonn
Two basic pillars for democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany were laid in Bonn 75 years ago: The German Constitution was declared on 23 May 1949, and the first German Bundestag had its constituting session on 7 September in that same year. A number of anniversary events, including a great festival with “Open House Day” at the Bonn office of the Federal President, an opportunity to visit the Bundesrat and the former plenary hall of the Bundestag in the building that is now the WorldCCBonn is supplemented by history to be experienced up close and hiking offerings year-round. The “Weg der Demokratie” (path of democracy), for example, is leading through the Federal quarter, passing by about 20 historical sites where political history was once written. The round tour starts at the Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (house of history of the Federal Republic of Germany) and can also be completed in an extended version that includes sites relevant for political history outside of the government quarter as well.'
www.bonn-region.de

25 years route of industrial culture
400 kilometres, 27 anchor points, 17 vantage points, and 13 settlements are witnesses of a century and a half of coal, steel, and history in the Ruhr area that are worth visiting. They form the backbone of the Route der Industriekultur. For a quarter of a century, brown signs with white text have been pointing the way here. The marked route on the streets is supplemented by a bicycle route of 700 km that leads past highlights of industrial-culture such as the Gasometer Oberhausen, Zeche Zollverein in Essen, and the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord. A bicycle summer of industrial culture with a festival to launch the cycling season is planned to mark the anniversary.
www.route-industriekultur.ruhr
 

The National Park’s 20th and the Eifelsteig’s 15th anniversary
The Eifel has double reason to rejoice as two popular destinations are celebrating big anniversaries this year, along with some great success. Diversity of species has clearly increased in the protected area since the National Park was founded: starting out, 230 endangered species were known to be living there. Today, more than 2,600 species on the Red List have been documented. All in all, more than 11,300 different species have gotten comfortable in the area, including beavers, kites, wild cats, black storks, and wild daffodils. The Eifelsteig trail has been taking hikers through North Rhine-Westphalia’s only National Park for 15 years. The total route of 313 kilometres between Aachen and Trier break down into 15 day segments between 15 and 28 kilometres in length.

Climate experience world in Oerlinghausen 
The new climate experience world is to render the subject of climate change and ways to adapt to it vivid and tangible in future, with buildings illustrating climate-adapted construction using sustainable materials and energy generation. The content will focus on redesigning personal living environments and future-oriented agriculture and forestry, among other things.
www.kreis-lippe.de
 

MoorErlebnisWelt in Bad Driburg
A trip into the moor without getting your feet wet? This is an option available in the MoorErlebnisWelt Bad Driburg, an interactive experience exhibition centred on the moor as a habitat and a witness of our history, from October 2024 onwards. Interactive offerings in the Moorwunderkammer and the MoorLabor invite visitors to touch and immerse (their hands). https://www.moorerlebniswelt.de
 

Experience paths around the river Weser
Nature around the river Weser can be experienced on new paths. Nine newly designed hiking and cycling trails make treasures of nature visible and tangible. Six short walking paths and three longer cycling trails share background information on natural and cultural peculiarities by the wayside, including the waterway crossing in Minden and a boulder forest in Petershagen. An app is pointing the way, including some additional offerings such as audio stories and augmented reality.
weser-erfahren-natur-erleben.de
 

Wissenswerkstadt Bielefeld
An innovative hot spot for exchange between research and publicity can be found at the core of Bielefeld’s inner city. Its primary target is that of being fun for everyone. The Wissenswerkstadt is going to make exciting research matters tangible and comprehensible for everyone in experimentation labs, exhibitions, maker spaces, and seminar rooms once it opens on 6 september 2024.
https://wissenswerkstadt.de