Discover German American Heritage

September 29, 2007 on 2:05 pm | In Adventure Travel, Alaska, California, Chicago, Denmark, East Coast, Florida, Germany, Great Lakes, Hawaiian Islands, Los Angeles, Miami, Midwest, New England, New York City, Orlando, Pacific Northwest, Plains States, Rockies, San Diego, San Francisco, Southwest, Texas, The Keys, The South, USA |

Come, See and Experience Germany as it was…and is today.

With the launch of its German American heritage website, www.germanoriginality.com, the German National Tourist Office and the German Information Center and their partners are riding the wave of heritage travel which is now at an all-time high. They are reaching out to German Americans, who at almost 15 percent of the U.S. population, make up the largest ethnic group in the United States.

The opening of two sophisticated heritage museums in Bremerhaven and Hamburg are highlights of any heritage trip to Germany. In Bavaria, the homes and museums dedicated to Levi Strauss (of Levis fame) and to Daniel Pastorius (the founder of Germantown) are must-sees. The nearby UNESCO heritage town of Bamberg and the towns of Fuerth and Regensburg are the birthplaces or erstwhile homes of Henry Kissinger, Sandra Bullock and Oskar Schindler. Further west, history comes alive in the town of Ulm, Einstein’s birthplace in Baden-Wuerttemberg. In and around the beautiful vineyards of the Palatinate, visitors can travel to a number of towns from where many Germans emigrated to America. Berlin offers a plethora of information and personalities on German American heritage especially in the 20th century.  

Famous German Americans or Americans of German descent are icons of American culture today from sports to show business and everything in between. Take Lou Gehrig for example or Babe Ruth. Then there is movie magnet Carl Laemmle who produced All Quiet on the Western Front; Marlene Dietrich and Kirsten Dunst have graced and still play on the stage and screen; Eberhard Anheuser, John Jacob Astor, Kurt Vonnegut, John Steinbeck, Maximilian Berlitz, Heinrich Steinway, Richard Hellman, and even Elvis Presley have German roots and are considered as every bit American as apple pie or beer and cars. Inventions from German Americans range from the theory of relativity to aspirin, air bags, the computer, tooth paste and even television. Read on and learn more at www.germanoriginality.com.

On the new website, you will find links to ancestry websites; the history of famous German Americans and inventions of German origin; German products; an emigration time line; an interactive map of important German American heritage places; as well as community features, including cooking ideas and recipes, German American festivals and events in the U.S. and travel tips and places to share your travel and heritage stories and photos.

In planning your trip to discover your German Origin(ality) first hand, there are new heritage tours to Germany which include those offered by General Tours and Globus and Cosmos. Even Burt Wolf, the producer and host of PBS’s Travel & Traditions has jumped on board with his own specialized heritage tours of Germany.

For more information on travel to Germany and special heritage offers, go to the website of the German National Tourist Office: www.cometogermany.com and for more current and historical information on Germany, go to the website of the German Information Center: www.germany.info

No Comments yet

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^