Traveling across Germany: Most beautiful sights in photos

For decades, this sight was off-limits: The Brandenburg Gate was located directly on the East German border strip, along the Berlin Wall, and was therefore heavily secured. When the wall fell in 1989, people flocked here from East and West Berlin to celebrate freedom. A German emblem that had been secluded through the partition of the city became a symbol of reunification.

The most famous city gate in Germany can be found in Lübeck: Holsten Gate is the landmark sight for the medieval old district of Lübeck. GDR citizens could not visit it, as it was on the other side of the Iron Curtain for decades. When the wall fell, many Germans could finally travel throughout the country freely and discover German cultural heritage sites.

To many Dresden locals, this church was reminiscent of dark times. The Frauenkirche burned down in the flames of World War II and was not reconstructed, as in the GDR, the church ruins served as a memorial against war. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, a local initiative for the reconstruction of the church was founded. In 2005, the Frauenkirche reopened to the public.

Cologne Cathedral is to Cologne what the Frauenkirche is to Dresden. It's located in the far west of Germany, in the federal state North Rhine-Westphalia. At 157 meters (515 feet) in height, this Gothic cathedral is the third-highest church in the world. While large parts of Cologne were destroyed during World War II, the cathedral miraculously remained undamaged.

The city of Quedlinburg is known as a "medieval jewel" due to its many half-timbered houses. During GDR times, however, the city had a gloomy image, as there weren't enough funds or material for renovation works. After reunification, the government set up a large-scale restructuring program for East Germany. Today, Quedlinburg is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Rothenburg ob der Tauber is the West German equivalent to Quedlinburg. The town is a tourist magnet, especially for guests from the US and Asia. With its many half-timbered houses, towers and gates, the Middle Ages really come to life here. The city wall is still completely intact, and visitors can walk around the entire old district.

This small rococo palace next to a vineyard is part of the palaces built by Prussian rulers in and around Berlin. The Berlin Wall also divided this ensemble of buildings: one part stood in the East, while others were located in the West. The buildings have been reunited for the last 35 years. The small summer palace Sanssouci was built by Prussian King Frederick the Great in the 18th century.

Neuschwanstein Castle was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in 1869. Unlike the Prussian kings, Ludwig II had a reputation of being unfit to govern and wasteful. His many palace projects drained huge sums of money. Sanssouci and Neuschwanstein Castle are just two of many castle stories in reunified Germany.

The small city of Weimar was Germany's intellectual hot spot around 1800. It became known as "the city of poets and thinkers" thanks to luminaries such as Goethe and Schiller. This important location in German history wasn't freely and easily accessible to West Germans before reunification: They had to fill out visitor applications, and go through passport and luggage checks.

Tübingen, in the southwest of Germany, is most renowned for its university which was founded in 1477. Famous names have studied and taught here, including Kepler, Hegel, Schelling, among others. The famous poet Friedrich Hölderlin also studied in Tübingen and lived here for the last few years of his life.

This is probably East Germany's most beautiful mountain and river landscape: the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, also known as Saxon Switzerland. This picturesque landscape with rocks and mountains on both sides of the Elbe River begins just beyond Dresden. The landscape isn't restrained by political borders, and stretches further south into the Czech Republic.

The part of the Rhine River between Bingen and Koblenz is known as Romantic Rhine, and it fully deserves its name. This stretch of just 60 kilometers is lined with many castles, vineyards and little towns just waiting to impress new visitors. Tourists come here from all over the world, as well as the many visitors from other parts of Germany since reunification.