Germany's Medieval Heartland

Proud cathedrals and small country churches, defiant castles and peaceful monasteries – they all bear witness to the deep-rooted fear of God, yet also to the most mysterious eras in history: the medieval …

Passion Play 2010: Tickets for Sale

A play of life and death, promised in a moment of mortal threat - so began the history of the Oberammergau Passion Play in 1633. In the middle of the Thirty Years War, after months of suffering and death …

High Speed Mobility with ICE Trains

Germany certainly has not become smaller but distances between cities are shrinking fast – at least if you take the train. Due to extensive investments in railroads and tracks, new ICEs connect German Cities with a travel speed of up to 160 mph. With the German Rail Pass, the ICE offers high speed mobility at a very competitive price …

Historic Lodging

Muenster. Tipped off by a European Union investment scheme, 14 castles, monasteries and manor houses in North Rhine Westphalia have started to run Bed & Breakfast services – providing both, remarkable historical authenticity and a high grade accommodation.
Hotel-turned-castles include, amongst others, Schloss Diersfordt (built 1432), 14th century country house Hertefeld or Schloss Ossenberg with its unique Rococo style architecture. Vacancies can be checked by online booking requests…

Murnau. – When Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, together with Alexej Jawlensky and Marianne Werefkin came to Murnau in the summer of 1908, a new style of painting was created. No longer was painted true to nature as was the style up to this time, but the new way realized the subjective impression and completely left the former "impressionistic" style of painting behind.
Influenced by Murnau and its landscape and the folk-art behind-glass painting, the artists developed a style reduced to basic shapes, flat and refraining from anything irrelevant. Using unmixed, contrasting colours, intensity and a heightened figurative expression were created.
Since 1909, the exhibition forum for the new, expressive art was the "Neue Künstlervereinigung München" ( New Artists` Community Munich) which counted, among others, Paul Klee, August Macke and Franz Marc to its members. In December of 1911 Kandinsky, Münter, Marc and Kubin left the community, and, under the name of "Der Blaue Reiter" ("The Blue Rider"), staged their own exhibition in the gallery "Thannhauser".

Walking on the trails of the "Blue Rider"

In 1911/12, the almanac "The Blue Rider" was founded which became one of the most important programmatic publications for 20th century art. A great number of artists contributed with text and pictures representing the various fields of the Fine Arts, folk-art, music and theatre. A section of the Schloßmuseum is dedicated entirely to the "Blue Rider". Furthermore, the Tourist Office Murnau offers an interesting package: "Walking on the trails of the "Blue Rider".
Murnau is also known for its genuine traditions and special festivals like the Corpus Christi procession on lake Staffelsee, the lakeside festivals in July/August, the birthday serenade for King Ludwig II in August, the annual music festival “grenzenlos” in October, the Leonhardi Horse Parade on November 6th and the Christmas Markets in December. Moreover, some of Bavaria’s most known highlights as the King Ludwig castles are within easy reach and make Murnau an ideal destination for sightseeing.

Moreover, Murnau is an ideal starting point for sightseeing tours, for example to the nearby King Ludwig castles.