Friday 23 March 2012

Osnabrück

Osnabrück, is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, some 80 km NNE of Dortmund, 45 km NE of Münster, and some 100 km due west of Hanover. It lies in a valley penned between the Wiehen Hills and the northern tip of the Teutoburg Forest. As of December 31, 2010, its population was 164,119, making it the third-largest city in Lower Saxony.


Main sights


Heger Tor ("Heger Gate"), a monument to the soldiers from Osnabrück who died at the battle of Waterloo (1815).
Bucksturm, the oldest tower in the city, and once part of the city walls. It was once used as prison for women accused of witchcraft.
Ruwe Fountain" (1985), created for the city's 1200th birthday.
Gladiator 2000 (1986), a gigantic painting (45 × 6 meters) by Nicolae Covaci.
Felix Nussbaum Haus, a Gallery and Museum dedicated to the Jewish artist and painter Felix Nussbaum, who died in the Holocaust. It was designed by the architect Daniel Libeskind.
Kalkriese Museum, situated on the battlefield of the Teutoburger Wald, in which German tribes under Arminius destroyed three Roman legions. It exhibits artefacts unearthed on the battlefield and tells the story of the battle.
Osnabrück Castle, nowadays the main building of the University of Osnabrück
Botanischer Garten der Universität Osnabrück, the university's botanical garden
Old town with its small streets with buildings from middle-age
Zoo of Osnabrück
Vitischanze - old time defence station at the north west point of the old city, has the only undestroyed bridge in Europe with a so called defence walk below the bridge's surface walk, faculty of the University of Applied Science of Osnabrück is installed within the Vitischanze, nearby a parking house called Vitischanze. Formerly Vitischanze was used as a casino
Haseuferweg
Katharinenkirche (St. Catherine's Church) that dates back to 1248 and is one of the 150 tallest churches in the world and the tallest medieval building in the state of Lower Saxony.
Hyde Park, a traditional music Hall since 1976, a location of pop music and youth culture


Famous people


Personalities from Osnabrück include the writer Erich Maria Remarque and the painters Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart and Felix Nussbaum. (For the Jewish painter Nussbaum the city erected a modern museum designed by Daniel Libeskind which opened in 1998 and resembles a scaled-down version of the same architect's well-known Jewish Museum in Berlin.) The poet and scholar Johann Ernst Hanxleden was born in Osnabrück, as was the former President of Germany Christian Wulff, and reggae musician Gentleman. Victory Records recording artists Waterdown are based in Osnabrück. Actress Birgitta Tolksdorf, who made a name for herself in American television in the 1970s, as well as German stage and screen actor Mathias Wieman (1958 recipient of the Justus-Möser-Medaille) (see German article Justus-Möser-Medaille) were born city. Friedrich Clemens Gerke (* 22 January 1801 Osnabrück was a German writer, journalist, musician and pioneer of telegraphy who revised the Morse code in 1848. (Gerke's notation is still used today.) Further former notable residents are Heinrich Abeken, a German theologian and Prussian Privy Legation Councillor in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, Justus Moser, a German jurist and political essayist and Hans-Gert Pöttering, former President of the European Parliament.




Two institutes of higher education exist in Osnabrück, the Universität Osnabrück (University of Osnabrück) and the Hochschule Osnabrück (University of Applied Science of Osnabrück). There also are all kinds of German grammar schools, including seven Gymnasien. As mentioned above, one of them, The Carolinum, may be the oldest school in Germany, which still exists today.


Transportation


The city of Osnabrück is connected by road to the A1, the A30 and the A33. It shares the Münster Osnabrück International Airport together with the nearby city of Münster.
The "Hauptbahnhof" (Main Station) of Osnabrück is an important railway station. Travellers from the Netherlands heading for either Hamburg and Denmark, or Berlin and Eastern Europe, often have to change here.
An extensive bus service operated by Stadtwerke Osnabrück provides transportation within Osnabrück and the surrounding region. The primary bus center is located at the Neumarkt shopping area, a short distance from the train station.

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