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Nuremberg is the capital of Middle Franconia and the center of many important events.
The city has a lot to offer its visitors and residents.
An overview of culture, leisure activities and sport.
Nuremberg – Of course, Nuremberg is best known thanks to its famous son, painter Albrecht Dürer, the world-famous Christmas market and the Nuremberg bratwurst.
For a long time, the city was overshadowed by its big sister, the state capital Munich. In the 1990s, the Franconian metropolis was even voted “the most boring city in Germany” - but it has now developed into a lively university and important business location.
Name of the city: |
Nuremberg |
|---|---|
Area: |
186.5 km² |
Population: |
541,133 (as of 2023) |
Height: |
302 m |
More than seven times as many people live in the Nuremberg metropolitan region as in the city
With its 500,000 inhabitants, Nuremberg is the second largest city in Bavaria - and is constantly growing.
Over 1.3 million people live in the entire metropolitan area, which also includes the neighboring cities of Fürth, Erlangen and Schwabach, and as many as 3.6 million live in the so-called Nuremberg metropolitan region (as of 2023).
Nuremberg as an important university and trade fair city
With the Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU) and the Georg Simon Ohm Technical University, the Franconian city is an important educational location in the region.
The Nuremberg Technical University is scheduled to open in 2025.
In the northeast, the Fraunhofer Institute operates a research facility for integrated circuits (IIS), a world-leading application-oriented research facility for
microelectronic and information technology system solutions and services.
The Federal Employment Agency also has its headquarters in Nuremberg.
As an important trade fair city, Nuremberg hosts international events on its exhibition grounds, including BioFach, the world's leading trade fair for organic food, which takes place annually in spring, and the world's largest toy fair at the end of January.
In autumn you can also find Consumenta there, a public trade fair for lifestyle, wellness, events, construction and living.
The Albrecht Dürer Airport and Nuremberg Central Station as the hub
The Franconian metropolis is well connected with the Albrecht Dürer Airport in the north of the city.
Before the corona pandemic and the global collapse of the travel industry, Nuremberg Airport recorded well over four million passengers annually.
The Albrecht Dürer Airport has now also recovered from this low blow: for 2023, the airport reported an annual passenger volume of more than 3.9 million people.
This means that it has returned to pre-pandemic levels more closely than other airports in Germany.
Nuremberg main station is also an important hub.
From here you can get to all of Germany's major cities, via the ICE route that opened in 2006 to Munich within an hour and even to the capital Berlin in three hours.
Largest tram project in Germany: the city-surrounding railway
The largest tram project in Germany is currently planned in Nuremberg: the city-surrounding railway is intended to connect the cities of Nuremberg, Erlangen and Herzogenaurach.
An eastern branch from Erlangen through the Schwabachtal is also being considered.
In the future, ten cities and communities are to be connected to the city-surrounding area along a route of 26 kilometers and 31 stops.
A referendum on the city-surrounding railway is scheduled to take place in 2024.
Biggest sights in the city of Nuremberg
Nuremberg's historic old town, rebuilt after the Second World War, with the imperial castle is a real postcard motif.
However, there are other Nuremberg sights.
A popular destination for tourists is the 19-meter-high “Beautiful Fountain” from the 14th century on the centrally located main market, which in December is also home to Germany's most famous Christmas market, the Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt.
The craftsman's yard in the so-called “Weapon Court” of the Frauentor also attracts numerous tourists with its ancient-looking architecture.
Nuremberg is home to numerous museums
Visitors also get their money's worth culturally: In addition to the Germanic National Museum, where you can get an overview of the cultural history of the German-speaking area from prehistory to the present, the Franconian city is also home to the Deutsche Bahn Transport Museum - one of the oldest technology history museums in Europe.
In addition, Nuremberg also has the Toy Museum, Albrecht Dürer Museum and the Nazi Party Rally Grounds Documentation Center.
Culture and leisure in Nuremberg: Rock im Park and 1. FC Nuremberg
Every June, thousands of music fans make a pilgrimage to the internationally famous Rock im Park rock festival, which takes place in the Volkspark Dürrenteich, part of the former Nazi party rally site.
The Nuremberg Bardentreffen, a three-day, free open-air music festival, also takes place annually in July.
Supporters of the Nuremberg club 1. FC Nürnberg are at home in the Max Morlock Stadium.
It can accommodate up to 50,000 spectators and is also a venue for concerts.
Just like the Nürnberger Versicherung Arena next door, which is home to Nuremberg's Ice Tigers ice hockey team.
Famous in Nuremberg and the world: painter Albrecht Dürer
Nuremberg's most famous son, the painter Albrecht Dürer, who lived and worked in the city from 1471 to 1528, left behind numerous paintings, woodcuts and engravings.
His self-portraits, the “Hare” and the “Rhinocerus”, are famous.
Today you can visit the Albrecht Dürer House, Dürer's former home and work place, which now houses a museum, on Nuremberg's pretty Tiergärtnertor Square below the Imperial Castle.
Culinary specialties: Nuremberg gingerbread, grilled sausages
In Nuremberg, gingerbread is not only available at Christmas time; you can buy it all year round in numerous gingerbread shops, which are located in the picturesque old town streets, among other places.
Bridges have also been part of the old town since the Middle Ages.
The Hangman and Chain Bridges and the Max Bridge are famous.
Culinary fame in Nuremberg is not only the sweet wafer pastries, but also the Nuremberg Rostbratwurst.
The small pork sausages are fried in packs of three and eaten as “Drei im Weggla” - i.e. in a roll -, served as a dish with sauerkraut or cooked in onion stock as “Blue Zipfel”.
The restaurants in the city on the Pegnitz don't just serve Franconian food: a total of around 141,713 people with a migrant background live in the Franconian city (as of 2023).
With 16,498 people, residents of Turkish origin make up the highest proportion of Nuremberg's population.
There are a corresponding number of Turkish restaurants in the city.
Not only is there the classic kebab there, but also falafel made from chickpeas, or dough pieces such as pide and börek taste particularly authentic there.
The city's dark past: Third Reich and the Nuremberg Trials
The atmosphere in the medieval hole prisons in the vaulted cellars of the Nuremberg town hall is dark.
From the 14th century onwards, they served as rooms for prisoner cells and torture chambers for the execution of sentences by the courts at the time.
The hole prisons can be visited using a media guide.
Another dark chapter in Nuremberg's past is undoubtedly the city's important role in the Third Reich.
From 1933 to 1938, the National Socialists under Adolf Hitler held their Nazi party rallies on the Nazi party rally grounds.
Today you can see the gigantic remains of stands, the never-finished Colosseum congress hall and the associated documentation center, which provides a comprehensive picture of the National Socialist tyranny and the history of the Nazi party rallies.
The city's National Socialist past also includes the Memorium Nuremberg Trials in today's Nuremberg-Fürth Regional Court, where the main war criminals of the Third Reich were tried at the Nuremberg Trials from 1945 to 1949 in jury room 600.
A permanent exhibition in the roof structure directly above Room 600 explains the course and aftermath of the court proceedings.
Nuremberg's friends and helpers are deployed across Bavaria
The Central Franconian Police Headquarters is responsible for the safety of Nuremberg residents, but it also carries out Bavaria-wide tasks.
The Police Headquarters also includes the North Bavaria Special Forces Police Inspectorate, which includes the Special Operations Commands (SEK) and the Mobile Operations Commands (MEK).
They are responsible for serious violent crime throughout Bavaria.
If there is a fire, there are 500 professional firefighters and even more active volunteers in the volunteer fire department in Nuremberg.
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