From Bavarian-style villages in tropical climes to far-flung cities with deep-rooted European heritage, there are little pockets of Germany dotted all over the world. Whether settled by immigrants long ago or inspired by locals with a love of Teutonic traditions, here we round up unexpected places where German culture is flourishing.
Click through this gallery to see surprising German sights from across the globe...
Australia’s oldest German settlement exudes European charm. Set in the Adelaide Hills to the southeast of South Australia’s capital, Hahndorf dates back to 1839 when German Lutheran immigrants arrived fleeing religious persecution in Prussia. Originally a collection of small farmsteads set around the Lutheran church, today Hahndorf is a handsome country town with heritage architecture, galleries and a thriving food and wine scene.
Shops still sell traditional German arts and crafts, while many of the restaurants and pubs (including the German Arms, pictured) serve German-style craft beers and food specialities. St Michael's is Australia's oldest Lutheran church and the Hahndorf Academy tells the story of the town’s Prussian settlers. Anti-German sentiment set in during the First World War and the town was renamed Ambleside in 1917, but it switched back to Hahndorf in 1935 as part of South Australia’s centenary celebration.
With half-timbered houses, cinnamon-scented bakeries and a year-round Christmas shop, Helen has lashings of Germanic charm. The self-styled Bavarian town lies in Georgia’s Blue Ridge Mountains, along the banks of the Chattahoochee River. The town’s connection to southern Germany is tenuous – the concept was cooked up by some local businessmen in the 1960s as a way to get tourists to linger, with some similarities seen between its mountain valley setting and Bavaria.
It worked a treat, and Helen is now one of Georgia’s tourism hotspots. As well as twee shops and restaurants peddling platters of spaetzle, goulash and wursts, washed down with German beers and wines, Helen is also a big centre for outdoor pursuits. Tubing, fishing, zip-lining and hiking are all on offer. As you can imagine, Christmas is usually a big deal here. Fairy lights twinkle and the gluhwein flows during the town's annual Christkindlmarkt and holiday parade. The mountain town also usually hosts an Oktoberfest.
With crisp mountain air, towering snow-clad peaks and glacial lakes, the scenery around this small town in the foothills of the northern Cascade Range bears more than a passing resemblance to the Bavarian Alps. Much like Helen, Leavenworth’s buildings were given a Germanic makeover in a bid to attract visitors in the 1960s, after railroads were rerouted from the once-flourishing mining and logging town and the economy nosedived.
Today Leavenworth is a pretty place that straddles the line between twee and traditional. As well as German-style joints serving beers, bratwurst and schnitzel, the town has a museum dedicated to nutcrackers, a handful of craft breweries and an annual Oktoberfest extravaganza. Then there's the beautiful backcountry, where hiking trails lead to mountain lakes, such as Colchuck (pictured).
Love this? Follow us on Facebook for travel inspiration and more
Surrounded by lush tropical forest, this isolated mountain village in Venezuela is full of unexpected sights. It was founded by immigrants who arrived here from the Black Forest region in southwest Germany in 1843. They set about creating homes, churches and restaurants drawing on the traditions of their homeland. Today the town is an intriguing mix of German and Venezuelan culture.
Along with kitsch Bavarian beer houses, where Spanish-speaking waiters don lederhosen, there are several historically interesting buildings including the central wood-beamed church, which is said to be based on St Martin’s church in Endingen from where the original settlers hailed. Unsurprisingly this geographical oddity, dubbed 'the Germany of the Caribbean', has become a tourist attraction, especially on 8 April when the town celebrates its founding and during its lively Oktoberfest celebrations.
It’s a far cry from the snow-capped peaks of Bavaria, but this quirky cuckoo clock emporium in Queensland is at least surrounded by mountains. Located on Tamborine Mountain, a lush plateau in the Gold Coast’s hinterland, the German Cuckoo Clock Nest is housed in a wonderfully traditional alpine chalet. Run by a family with German heritage, the treasure trove has been luring clock enthusiasts through its doors for over 20 years with its impressive range, which includes artisan cuckoo clocks handmade in the Black Forest.
Another incongruous but authentic slice of Deutschland can be found in the mountains near Cordoba in Argentina. La Cumbrecita was the brainchild of the Cabjolsky family who transferred to Buenos Aires for work in the late-19th century. In the 1930s they happened upon this uninhabited valley and bought the land. Missing the mountains of Germany, they planted hundreds of spruce and pine trees in the sparse valley and set about building wood-beamed cottages and alpine-style lodges reminiscent of their homeland.
The family sold plots of land to friends and others in their community so they could also build summer houses, on the condition that the buildings would conform to the same alpine style. Today around 1,000 people call La Cumbrecita home. There are restaurants dishing up a taste of the old country and pretty German-style buildings, such as the wooden chapel which features a carving of Mary and the Child made in Bavaria.
Established by German settlers from the Franconia region in 1845, Frankenmuth is very proud of its European roots. Known as Michigan’s Little Bavaria, the cute town has quaint half-timbered houses, a host of speciality food shops and inns offering a taste of Germany, and St Lorenz Lutheran church. The Frankenmuth Historical Museum details the area's history and has also reconstructed an original log house built by the German settlers on the outskirts of town.
The Bavarian Inn Lodge's Holz Brucke (wooden bridge), which stretches across the Cass River between the inn and Heritage Park, is another local landmark. As with any Bavarian-style town worth its salt, Frankenmuth goes big on Christmas. It boasts the world’s largest festive store, Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, and is a pretty and often snowy scene during the holiday season. German-themed festivals are a big thing here too.
Kitchener was primarily settled by Mennonite immigrants of German descent who arrived from Pennsylvania in the early 19th century. It was called Berlin until 1916 – a time when German roots weren't something to shout about – and was renamed Kitchener after the British Secretary of State for War. But today the city wears its German-Canadian heritage with pride. The city has plenty of historic sites like the Waterloo Region Museum and the Waterloo Pioneer Memorial Tower, which pays tribute to the early German pioneers. The city also hosts one of the biggest Oktoberfest celebrations in the world.
One of the first settler families was the Schneiders, whose 1816 home is now a living history museum in the heart of Kitchener. As the oldest building in the city, the restored homestead gives a glimpse of what everyday life was like for this German-speaking community. Just to the city's north, the rural town of St Jacobs is the place to learn about the history and culture of the Mennonite people. Several Mennonite communities still live in this area of Ontario.
A delightful historic settlement in Texas Hill Country, Fredericksburg dates back to the 1840s when German immigrants set up home here. With old limestone buildings, miniature churches and a lovely Main Street lined with German-style bakeries, chocolate shops and bistros, it’s steeped in German culture and traditions. One of the best places to eat is Otto’s, where Dusseldorf native chef Henry Gutkin dishes up farm-to-table cuisine.
The city has a good mix of galleries and museums, including the Pioneer Museum and the Vereins Kirche Museum (pictured), with some lovely vineyards nearby. There are many Sunday haus-style cottages for rental – these little wooden cabins were used by early settlers when they came into town from their farms to shop and attend church on weekends. In true German tradition, the town's community comes together every year for a host of festivals including Saengerfest (a choral gathering) and Oktoberfest.
Once known as Germantown, Yorkville on the Upper East Side was home to a thriving immigrant community in the first half of the 20th century. The Manhattan neighbourhood had its own churches, dancehalls, cafes, butchers, bakeries and even a German-language newspaper. The main hub of the community was 86th Street, which was known as Sauerkraut Boulevard in its heyday. Sadly only a few remnants remain including old-school butcher and deli Schaller and Weber and Heidelberg Restaurant. New York’s annual German-American Steuben Parade, which began in Yorkville in 1957, still marches up Fifth Avenue to 86th Street.
It was actually the East Village where the first Germans settled in New York in the mid-19th century. Known as Kleindeutschland, by 1855 it was home to the third-largest German-speaking population in the world outside of Vienna and Berlin. However, the tight-knit enclave was struck by tragedy in 1904, as 1,000 women and children perished on a church-organised steamship outing to Long Island. Known as the General Slocum Disaster, it was the city's greatest loss of life before 9/11, and led to German residents dissipating through the city – many of them to Yorkville. A memorial stands in Tompkins Square (pictured).
Created by a German immigrant family in 1959, Fairy Park is Australia’s oldest theme park and remains an enchanting place for children to live out fairy-tale fantasies. Set to the west of Melbourne near Geelong, one of the charming park’s most beloved landmarks is its walled castle, a vision straight from the pages of a Brothers Grimm story. Its Fairytale Land area brings to life scenes from a range of classic German folklore tales in miniature.
With a mix of Namibian and German-influenced architecture and many place names of German origin, Windhoek has an interesting feel. But its buildings tell of a bloody past. Germany annexed a colony on the southwest coast of Africa in 1884 and settlers, drawn by diamond and copper mining and farming, systematically set about confiscating land and murdering tens of thousands of Indigenous people. They were forced out in 1915 during the First World War and Namibia passed to South African rule before gaining independence in 1990.
One of the city’s landmarks is the striking Christus Kirche, designed by a German architect and completed in 1907. The Alte Feste, a 19th-century fortress and one-time HQ of the imperial German Schutztruppe (military force), is another remnant of the city’s colonial past. The oldest building in Windhoek, it’s now home to the National Museum of Namibia. Tree-lined Independence Avenue is also dotted with German colonial buildings.
With beach bars peddling steins of German lager and rib-sticking cuisine, and colourful turn-of-the-century buildings built in the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) style, the laid-back coastal town of Swakopmund is one of Namibia's most Germanic settlements. It was founded in 1892 as the main harbour of German South-West Africa. Today the pretty port, which lies around four hours west of Windhoek, is a popular holiday spot thanks to its sandy beaches and proximity to Namibia’s dramatic Skeleton Coast.
At the turn of the century, around half of Cincinnati’s residents were of German descent. German immigrants began arriving in the city in the 1830s, many settling in the area now known as Over-the-Rhine. It got its name as many of its residents had to cross over the Miami and Erie Canal to get to work, so the canal was nicknamed the Rhine. Over the years a close-knit community grew up with churches, social clubs and beer houses. The district became the centre of Cincinnati’s booming brewing industry too until Prohibition put paid to it.
As anti-German feeling grew during the First World War, many place and building names were changed to hide the area’s heritage. But recent regeneration has seen the historic district embrace its roots and become one of Cincinnati’s hippest areas. The Brewery District, once the social heart and centre of the Cincinnati brewing industry, boasts the largest collection of pre-Prohibition breweries in the country. Rhinegeist is one of the most popular breweries, while Taft’s Ale House occupies a former German Protestant church.
Clinging to a rocky outcrop overlooking the Pacific Ocean, this grand turreted castle was the creation of a German immigrant. Gustav Wulff emigrated to Chile in 1881 and built his cliffside home on the coast of Vina del Mar, now a vibrant seaside city near Valparaiso, in 1906. Over the years he transformed it into the whimsical structure that attracts tourists today, adding parapets, turrets and a round tower at the end of a glass-floored bridge from which he could watch the waves crash below.
Many of Chile’s southern towns have strong German heritage too, visible in their architecture, language and even the food and drink. The South American country saw an influx of German immigrants in the mid-19th century, with many settling in its southern Lake District. Puerto Varas was built by a community of German settlers on the shores of Llanquihue Lake. This heritage is still obvious today, from the town's pretty red-and-white Sacred Heart Church (pictured) and colourful wooden cottages to its many cafes selling kuchen (cake).