Germany’s newest opera house is located in Erfurt, the capital city of Thüringen. This is the only new opera house to have been built in Germany so far in the 21st century. (The last one in the 20th century was the one in Kaiserslautern that was completed in 1995, unless you Read More …
Erfurt’s original opera house, now the Alte Oper or Old Opera, was first built in the nineteenth century. It survived the Second World War intact and was used as an opera venue more or less continuously until 1997, when it was condemned as a fire hazard. Actually, they went on Read More …
In the summers from 1961 to 1966, and again every summer since 1994, the steps leading up to St. Mary’s Cathedral in Erfurt have been the venue for open-air theater, music and opera performances at the DomStufen Festspiele, the Cathedral Steps Festival. This is a festival I have never attended, Read More …
It used to be that when you come out of the central railroad station in Erfurt, the first thing you saw just across the square was an abandoned hotel called the Erfurter Hof. Just another empty building, except that in one window there was a large black and white photo Read More …
The river that flows through Erfurt is called the Gera, but the river that flows through the city of Gera, in the eastern part of Thüringen, is called the White Elster. So the city of Gera has nothing to do with the Gera River, and visa-versa. (Sorry, it took me Read More …
The Anger is one of Erfurt’s main squares. All the streetcar lines cross here, so you can change here to get to anywhere from anywhere else in Erfurt. The name Anger has nothing to do with the English word anger. (It’s even pronounced differently.) In German it is a regional Read More …