Doing an online master was hard. I spent days sitting behind my laptop, reading articles and writing assignments. There were no classes. There was no building to go to. There was none of the stuff that usually makes studying more interesting. But I did get to meet a few fellow students through regular self-initiated calls to discuss study materials and, let’s face it, bitch about our grievances. One of them happens to also live in Berlin and the other moved to Magdeburg. High time to plan a visit to this city!
Together with my Berlin-based study buddy I drove down to Magdeburg in under 2 hours and we quickly found our hotel, which was right on the edge of the city center. It didn’t seem to be a super touristy place, more catering to business travelers perhaps. The spa was just closing for the weekend as we arrived, so we wrapped ourselves up to brave the chilly winds to see the city. We started our hunt for the old town. After walking around without a specific destination, we found out there’s a mixture of old buildings, churches, GDR flats and modern architecture. My sense of direction said we were in the Altstadt, or old town. Yet we didn’t see small little streets, or any smaller old buildings.
Where is the Altstadt?
As we walked, debating if we were in the old town, we saw the tourist office. It had a big map in front of it. Big letters proclaimed an Altstadt, Alte Neustadt and Neue Neustadt. It made me chuckle and wonder what follows the old town, old new town and new new town. The newest new town? We marked some of the street names of the old town in our brains and headed back in the direction of the hotel. Our mysterious old town was supposed to be hiding right behind it. I totally started doubting my sense of direction. In the old town we were in a residential area, surrounded by Plattenbau from the GDR times. If you would have told me I was in Berlin, I may have believed it. This neighborhood looked exactly like some in Berlin.
The next day we learned that Magdeburg, capital of Saxony-Anhalt, was bombed in WWII, leaving half of its city center in ruins. Some of the bigger or more important structures have been renovated and reconstructed. One of the churches clearly shows two different styles of towers. Along Breiter Weg our friend showed us a small exhibition that had photos of the city before and after the bombings. It was nice to get an image of the city as it was before.
City of the Ottos
The Dom, or cathedral, of Magdeburg is immense. There are a bunch of buildings off to its side as well. What we’d already noticed during the evening, was that its main doors were shut. The next day we found out why. Right after the main entrance lies the grave of Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and king of Germany more than 1000 years ago. Inside the church you can walk around and visit the cloister. Another famous Otto from Magdeburg is Otto von Guericke, a scientist who spent his time exploring the properties of a vacuum. Outside on the square, they were putting up an artwork with Christmas lights representing his experiments. There were two hemispheres, or two halves of a ball, out of which von Guericke pumped all the air, creating a vacuum. He had horses try to get the two halves apart again, but they couldn’t, thereby proving the outside pressure on the vacuum keeps the halves together. This Christmas the horses and hemispheres will be twinkling with lights in the darkness.
A building you may be tempted to lick
We found some really nice buildings and areas in Magdeburg. I enjoyed the square between the Landtag, the building housing the state’s government, and the cathedral. There were some more stately looking buildings just beyond that. A very special building is the Hundertwasser Grüne Zitadelle, or green citadel. Designed by the famous architect, it’s a building that, to me, looks like a gigantic cake. With its pink pastel color, ornamental columns and interesting shapes, it’s a sight to behold. It’s a residential building, with a garden on its rooftop, but houses some cafés, shops and other businesses on the ground floors. It’s nice to walk through the two courtyards and there are some really interesting souvenirs in the gift shop. You can even do a tour onto the roof, but we didn’t have time to do that.
Food and catching up
It was a rainy morning on Sunday, so it was good we were planning a big breakfast. After a few our at the café, we braved the weather, which luckily quickly improved. Eventually we made our way towards the Elbe river. There was a really cool and philosophical sculpture about time. A guy was staring at a clock, sitting on a big ball, with lots of clocks with times from different rivers around the world. It had to do something with the flow of rivers and passing of time. We crossed a bridge to get to the big park on the other side of the river. The bridge had plaques all over it with messages from people. They had all donated to the maintenance of the bridge. We had a hot drink at the park and I managed to get my first, and probably last, mulled wine of the year on the Xmas market. We spotted famous handball players. We enjoyed the blue sky. Although not the most obvious city for tourism, I had a great time in Magdeburg.
