The new “Marco Polo” trend guide for 2023 knows that Mannheim rarely makes it onto the ReiseBucketList. But he has reasons why he recommends the city for the coming year.
Mannheim (dpa / lsw) – You come to Mannheim with a crying eye, but you also leave there with a crying eye. The saying means that the square city is often underestimated and after a while it turns out to be a livable and lovable metropolis. Known more as an industrial city with high unemployment, the municipality is now attracting more attention. A new “Marco Polo” trend travel guide says: “2023 is the year to visit Mannheim.”
The trend guide from MairDumont, the largest German travel publishing group based in Ostfildern near Stuttgart, wants to present 40 exciting travel trends and destinations for the coming year.
“Monnem”, perhaps the most surprising destination, was primarily chosen because of the Federal Horticultural Show (April 14th to October 8th, 2023). Although Buga sounds “like tour buses and old-school staring at flowers”, it can mean so much more. After the Buga of 1975, Mannheim had about two large parks and a telecommunications tower.
Gregor Rummel, Head of Mannheim City Marketing, thinks that Mannheim already has a good reputation among business travellers. But city travelers would not have Mannheim with at least 312,000 inhabitants in mind. But the Buga is “a blessing”: 2.1 million visits to the Buga and around 200,000 additional overnight stays are expected. So far, Americans have accounted for the most overnight stays, followed by Dutch people. Before Corona, Mannheim marketing counted 1.6 million overnight stays.
But the city has more to offer besides the Buga. Pubs and restaurants attract party-goers to the Jungbusch. To ensure that everything runs smoothly in the amusement district near the Pop Academy, which is unique in Germany, the city was the first in Germany to appoint a night mayor. It should manage to reconcile the interests of residents, party people and law enforcement officers. If you are still looking for the right outfit for an evening stroll through the clubs, you can find what you are looking for on the main shopping mile Planken and its lively side streets.
Culture lovers have the choice between several outstanding museums: “The Normans” are currently being guest at the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museums. The art gallery promotes contemporary artists and presents almost forgotten painters of the past, such as the feminist graphic artist Hanna Nagel. The Technoseum illuminates the history of the industrialization of the German southwest.
Cinema fans can look forward to the International Film Festival in Mannheim and neighboring Heidelberg (this year November 17th to 27th). The city’s landmark, the 60 meter high water tower from the 19th century, is worth a flying visit.
The Mannheim National Theater, which is currently being renovated, where Schiller’s “Räuber” was first performed in 1782, offers traditional and innovative performances in four categories. Alternative venues will be used during the renovation, for example in a theater truck or in a former US Army cinema on the conversion site.
The Buga core site is also located on a former military site. The highlights here are a panoramic walkway, which provides a view of the entire Buga site and a near-natural floodplain, as well as a cable car that takes visitors to the Luisenpark with the new South America house and an expanded aquarium.
The Buga cultural program also includes a musical about the life of soul pioneer Joy Fleming, who died in 2017 and represented Germany in the 1975 Grand Prix (today the Eurovision Song Contest) with the catchy tune “A song can be a bridge”.
She also became famous nationwide in the 1970s with the hit “Neckarbrückenblues”, in which she set a musical monument to her hometown with the “Mannemer Neckarbrick”.
If you want to take a taste of the city home with you, you’ve come to the right place at the traditional café Herrdegen. Its founder, Carl Herrdegen, created delicacies from persipan, nuts, spices and lots of chocolate on top in 1862 – the “Mannemer Dreck”.
