Stage 1: Revolutionary Tour

World Heritage Card
Savers love the World Heritage Card. It is available for individuals or families, valid for 24 hours or 3 days and also as an online version. The 24-hour card, for example, costs 24.90 euros (children 12.50 euros). The World Heritage Card is valid for more than 125 tourist attractions, offers free admission or free guided tours in museums, parks, castles, churches or spas and a variety of other discounts.

The Luther Complex
The Black Monastery was built at Collegienstraße 54 in 1504, so called because of the black robes worn by the Augustinians. Martin Luther lived here as a monk from 1508. The monastery was dissolved during the Reformation. Luther was given the house in 1532, lived in it with his wife Katharina von Bora and used it as a meeting place for students, visitors and companions. It was not until around 40 years after Luther's death, in the 1580s, that the front building, known as the Augusteum, was built. The impressive building complex with courtyard and side wings is accessible. And you can still feel the magic of the place, even though the rear transverse wing, the actual Luther House with the famous debating chamber, is currently closed. The Augusteum is currently showing "Literally Luther. Facets of a Reformer" is currently on display. Tip: There are lovely places to sit and relax in the Lutherhof.

Special events 
The Luther museums and Luther towns offer events throughout the year for anyone who wants to learn more about Luther's life and work. These four events are particularly exciting: the Luther museums celebrate UNESCO World Heritage Day on the first Sunday in June and Open Monument Day in mid-September with events and special guided tours. The Luther Museums also celebrate their Advent Festival on the third weekend in Advent.

Reformation Day on October 31 is celebrated throughout the region with church services, festive concerts and lectures. Luther's wedding is also commemorated every year: In Wittenberg, there is always a big town festival with a medieval market in June. These events are the perfect opportunity to experience the history of the Reformation up close.

Cranach as Melanchthon's Guest
This is the name of the small cabinet exhibition in the Melanchthon House with selected pictures from the Cranach workshop, including the portraits of Luther and Melanchthon as reformers and the first Luther Bible illustrated and published by Cranach. Tip: With its herb beds, shady trees and fountains, the Melanchthon Garden invites you to linger and relax. Melanchthon was a great nature lover and knew his way around medicinal herbs.

Crime scene 1522
A different kind of exhibition: the September Testament, the first printing of Luther's German translation of the Bible, is missing from the library. But where has it gone? It's up to you to find out - families or groups can solve tricky puzzles from the past in the "Crime Scene 1522 " escape game.

Restaurant von Bora
The Restaurant von Bora in the side wing of the Luther House remains untouched by its renovation. Visitors can experience how Luther's hospitality is still practiced there today.

Cranach-Herberge
Schlossstraße 1 is the address of the Cranach-Herberge. You can spend the night in the hotel with a view of the historic market square or the idyllic inner courtyard. The family of painters once lived here. The pleasant "Hofwirtschaft" is located in the courtyard.

Futurea Science Center
What does brushing your teeth have to do with diesel exhaust fumes and hunger in the world?
In the Futurea Science Center on Wittenberg's historic market square, amazing connections are not only visible but also tangible. An interactive exhibition about modern chemistry, full of ideas and amazing in its presentation. Free of charge with the World Heritage Card.

360° panorama: Luther 1517
In a fascinating giant panorama by artist Yadegar Asisi, the market square in Wittenberg brings Luther's town at the time of Philipp Melanchthon, the two Cranachs, Katharina von Bora and, of course, Martin Luther back to life. Guests young and old experience a day-night rhythm and an impressive soundscape.

Costume Tours
A variety of city tours with historical figures in Lutherstadt Wittenberg offer you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the history of the city. Costumed guides take you through historically exciting locations, slip into the roles of Martin Luther and his contemporaries and bring the Reformation period to life.

City tour with the Altstadtbahn
Fancy discovering the highlights of Wittenberg in a compact and relaxed way? Then a ride on the Altstadtbahn is just the thing. The bright green street locomotive travels for an hour to all the important sights. These include Luther-related highlights such as his former home or the castle church, on the door of which his 95 theses are engraved. But also the Luther-Melanchthon-Gymnasium, whose building was designed by Hundertwasser himself. During the tour, you will learn important and funny facts about the highlights. The Bimmelbahn season runs from March to the end of October. In November and December, the trips are offered at weekends.

Gondolas and Ferries in Wörlitz Park
Gliding across Lake Wörlitz on a gondola is an experience not to be missed. The round trip from the gondola station at Wörlitz Palace across Lake Wörlitz to the small whale hole, through the Wolf Canal, past the Gothic House and back takes 45 minutes.
Three ferries - the Amtsfähre, Teelaubenfähre and Roseninselfähre - also connect the individual parts of the garden. They open up new lines of sight and make it easier to explore the extensive landscaped garden on foot. Gondola and ferry rides are free with the World Heritage Card.

Happy with the App
Mosigkau Castle is home to a unique collection of important paintings, mainly by Dutch and Flemish masters such as Anthonis van Dyck, Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder. An app guides visitors through the gallery and adjoining cabinets, garnished with entertaining stories on the subject.

Anhalt Picture Gallery Dessau in the Garden Kingdom
Over 600 years of art history are hidden behind the high palace walls: the newly renovated Anhalt Picture Gallery Dessau is located in the Georgium in Dessau. The gallery was founded almost 100 years ago and now houses the largest collection of old paintings and prints in the state. The more than 2,000 paintings and drawings are presented in ever-changing special exhibitions in the palace, the orangery and the Fremdenhaus. Fancy a stroll afterwards? Georgium Palace is embedded in a 20-hectare park. The museum is open Monday to Saturday.

Garden Kingdom Summer
Get your finest hat out of the cupboard, it's Garden Kingdom Summer time. The concert series takes place every year in the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz at ever-changing locations and is a great way to experience the World Heritage Site in a new way. In addition to the summer theater on Stein Island, the program includes concerts that take place in the palaces and gardens. At the so-called walking concerts, for example, you can walk through the park with a guide and listen to short classical music concerts in the most beautiful places. The Garden Kingdom summer season runs from May to September.

Winter Break
From November 1, the gondolas and ferries stop operating and the palaces are closed, with the exception of the Princess's House, which serves as an exhibition center all year round. The winter break ends in 2025 with the traditional "Spring Awakening" on March 21.

Refreshment in the parks
There are a whole range of cafés and restaurants in the vastness of the Garden Kingdom. Close to Wörlitz Palace, the restaurant in the kitchen building offers food and drinks in a sophisticated atmosphere and a large beer garden. In Luisium Park, halfway to Dessau, is the "Luise", a friendly café with an ice cream parlour. And next to Dessau Zoo, the pretty restaurant and café Am Georgengarten invites you to take a break.

Vacation apartments in the Garden Kingdom
The vacation apartments in the Garden Kingdom are a special treasure, from a little tower called the Elbe Pavilion to the garden houses in the Luisium and the Mosigkau Cavalier Pavilion. The style is sometimes princely, sometimes romantic or even rustic, as in the hunting lodge, close to nature without electricity and running water in the hunting lodge on the Rosenwiesche.

Hotel Elbebrücke
The Hotel Elbebrücke is a good starting point for your excursions to the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Kingdom, Lutherstadt Wittenberg or the city of Dessau. The Elbe cycle path passes close by. This makes this hotel particularly attractive for cyclists. The quiet location in Vockerode offers you relaxation and nature experiences and is still close to the sights.

Ringhotel Zum Stein in the Garden Kingdom
Looking for comfort and relaxation? The privately run 4-star Hotel Zum Stein is located in the heart of the Dessau-Wörlitz Garden Kingdom UNESCO World Heritage Site. Here you can spend your vacation in a mixture of luxury, nature and culture. Nestled in the landscape of Wörlitz Park, it is just a few meters from the lake of the same name.

Auenhaus
Here the staged nature of the parks, there an insight into untamed biotopes: the Auenhaus, information center of the UNESCO Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve, is located in the immediate vicinity of the Garden Kingdom directly on the B 107 from Oranienbaum to Dessau. Visitors can learn about the importance of the model region for sustainable development, visit a beaver lodge and immerse themselves in the Cape lowlands on one of the designated floodplain trails.

World Heritage candidate Pretziener Weir
Just under an hour's drive northwest of Dessau-Roßlau, technology and architecture enthusiasts can marvel at the Pretzien weir - the 160-metre-long 19th century structure still protects the region around Magdeburg from flooding on the Elbe.

Bauhaus Museum Dessau
In the glass shell of the Bauhaus Museum Dessau, experience the floating cabinet with the cabinet pieces of the designers - more than 1,000 exhibits from the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. From Marcel Breuer's famous armchairs to Oskar Schlemmer's Triadic Ballet.

Happy with the App
The free "Bauhaus Dessau" app uses an interactive map to guide you to the Masters' Houses, Walter Gropius' employment office and through the Bauhaus building. Rooms that are otherwise only accessible during guided tours can also be experienced with the app: 360-degree panoramas show the assembly hall with stage, the refectory, Walter Gropius' former director's room, a historic student room and the roof terrace of the studio building.

Bauhaus Bus
There are more than 300 Bauhaus buildings in Dessau. Line 10 of the Dessau public transport company stops at all the Bauhaus sights on the route from the Kornhaus to the arcade houses, including of course Bauhausplatz, the main railway station and the Bauhaus Museum.

Ise's Golden Twenties
Walter Gropius didn't show up for an appointment that evening! Where is he? Accompany his wife, the writer Ise Gropius, on a journey through Dessau at night in search of her husband. It's amazing what was going on here in the wild 1920s. Dates HERE.

Bauhaus anniversary "100 years of Bauhaus Dessau" 2025/26
Dessau is celebrating a double anniversary. Between September 2025 and December 2026, an extensive celebratory program will commemorate the arrival of the Bauhaus in 1925 and the opening of the Bauhaus building on 4 December 1926. The anniversary celebrates the past and spans the present and future.

Kornhaus Dessau
The Kornhaus is situated on the Elbe dyke with a view of the river. The restaurant was built in 1929/30 on the site of a former granary. Carl Fieger, a designer in Walter Gropius' studio, created a restaurant with a dance hall on the upper floor and a standing beer hall on the lower first floor in a mixed construction of brickwork and reinforced concrete columns.

Taking a Break in Style
The canteen and café-bistro in the Bauhaus building, the Trinkhalle at the Masters' Houses or the LOKAL/LOKAL in the Bauhaus Museum are also ideal places to take a breather.

Hotel Sieben Säulen
The Hotel Sieben Säulen is located directly opposite the Masters' Houses and within walking distance of the Bauhaus.

Stay overnight like the Bauhaus Members
The Atelierhaus, also known as the Prellerhaus, was completed in 1926 and was the home and workplace of famous Bauhaus artists. They lived and worked in the 28 studio rooms in the Bauhaus building, each with an area of around 24 square meters. Today you can spend the night there in re-enacted rooms from the end of February to the beginning of November.

Roßlau adventure pool
Looking for a refreshing dip or a place for the kids to run around? The Roßlau adventure pool with several swimming pools, a slide and an inviting, large paddling area is idyllically situated on the outskirts of the town. Admission is free with a World Heritage Card.

Museum of Technology
Dessau is considered the Silicon Valley of the 20th century. The city has a rich tradition in mechanical engineering, aeronautical engineering and vehicle construction. At the Dessau Museum of Technology, you can learn a great deal about the industrial and technical history of the city and gain an insight into the achievements that have shaped the region over the decades.

Anhaltisches Theater
Did you know that the Anhaltisches Theater, with its 1,100 square meter stage, is one of the largest theaters in Germany? The program includes opera, ballet and theater performances. With its historic stage and modern productions, the Anhaltisches Theater attracts a wide audience.

Kurt Weill Fest Dessau
A must, not just for classical music fans: the annual Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau-Roßlau. The Jewish composer was born in Dessau in 1900 and fled to the USA during the Second World War. The cross-genre event was created in his honor in 1993 and includes concerts, theater performances, lectures and exhibitions dealing with Weill's life's work.

Ferropolis
Marvel at the steel dinosaurs of lignite mining and even climb some of them: The Golpa Nord mining area near Gräfenhainichen, 25 kilometers southwest of Wittenberg, is an anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage. Surrounded by the newly created Gremminer See lake, Ferropolis is also located in a magnificent landscape.

There are several municipal parking spaces in Wittenberg city center, e.g. free of charge in Wallstraße or for a fee in the Arsenal parking garage.

In Wörlitz, the best place to park is in the large Wörlitz Park parking lot, from where you can access the northern part of the park.

In Dessau-Roßlau, there is a parking lot at the Bauhaus building, which is free of charge for visitors. At the Masters' Houses you can park along the street for 1 hour with a parking disc.
In the city center there is a public parking lot "Bauhaus Museum", or you can park in the Rathaus-Center for 2 hours free of charge with a museum ticket.

From the train station in Wittenberg to the Luther House is about a 15-minute walk. 
The distances from the train station in Dessau-Roßlau to the Bauhaus building, the Masters' Houses and the Bauhaus Museum Dessau are similarly long or even shorter.

To visit the Garden Kingdom of Dessau-Wörlitz , it is best to use the bus routes 304 and 310, which are marked as World Heritage Lines and connect Wittenberg, Wörlitz and Dessau-Roßlau every hour.