This is an excellent way to start if you know the region of your heritage in Germany and want to learn more about it and the tourism attractions in those regions.  Click on the following regions and find an abundance of information about your region such as Famous People from there; historical heritage sites you can visit, or how you can follow in the footsteps of historic events and personalities.

Click on the regions below or go to our interactive map

The rich cultural heritage of the days of the Hanseatic League is still visible in Hamburg and throughout the North. From the northern ports, mainly Hamburg, Bremerhaven, Cuxhaven and the lesser known Brake, many European emigrants left to come to the United States. The newly opened Ballinstadt Emigration Museum in Hamburg and the Deutsches Auswandererhaus (German Emigration Center) in Bremerhaven as well as the Steubenhoeft Museum in Cuxhaven allow visitors to retrace the journeys of their ancestors.

Without a doubt, Berlin can be considered the historical and cultural center of the entire region of eastern Germany. The legacy of the GDR, in addition to memories of John F. Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech and other historic events as well as the footsteps of famous German-Americans like Marlene Dietrich are still present in the streets surrounding the Checkpoint Charlie. Explore the other eastern states including, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Saxony and Thuringia, all of which boast beautiful castles, rolling hills, farmland, charming villages and fascinating history full of kings, queens, noblemen and dukes.

They traveled in groups. They came alone. From the earliest Protestant emigrants to the ancestors of Elvis and the Rockefellers, the Palatinate area in central western Germany was their point of origin. The town of Krefeld in the vicinity of Cologne was the home of the 13 pioneer families who founded Germantown, the first permanent German settlement in the US.

Discover German American heritage in museums such as the Hessenpark Open Air Museum or the Institute for Palatine History and Folklife Studies.

Know a neighbor who is German-American? There’s a good chance they came from the Black Forest or rural Bavaria. From Munich to Stuttgart, a visit to the south of Germany is a journey through a rich mix of cultural heritage.  Franz Daniel Pastorius, who led the first 13 German families to permanently settle in the US, lived in a little town called Sommerhausen.  And the inventor of blue jeans, Levi Strauss, grew up in Buttenheim in northeast Bavaria.  In the West, the city of Ulm is the birthplace of renowned scientist Albert Einstein.  Small museums in the area such as the one in Gutach exhibit rural traditions and invite visitors to travel back in time.