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Sights and landmarks in Göttingen

14 sights worth seeing in Göttingen: landmarks, galleries, monuments and viewpoints.

Ranked with the travel guide's picks and well-known places first.

Sights and landmarks in Göttingen

  1. See

    Vier Kirchenblick

    four churches view

    in front of the Altes Rathaus (James's, John's, Alban's, and Michael's). Mary's is also worth a peek inside.

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    Albanifriedhof

    One of the city's cemeteries, famous for Johann Carl Friedrich Gauss's grave.

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    Albanikirche

    St. Alban's Church

    Albanikirchhof. Built 1423-1467, St. Alban's stands on the site of an earlier mission chapel. Hans von Geismar painted the altarpiece in 1499, and he added himself to the scene of Mary's death as the 13th apostle.

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    Altes Rathaus

    old townhall

    Marktplatz. Built 1369-1444, the Altes Rathaus was the town hall until 1978, and it now houses the Tourist Office. The coats of arms of other members of the Hanseatic League are painted on the walls.

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    Botanical Gardens

    access behind the Auditorium at Weender Straße and Nikolausberger Weg. These gardens, established in 1736, are well worth a visit for plant-lovers. The former city wall around the Altstadt (old city) is also a circular green area, popular with joggers. Gauss's grave is on the southwest side.

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    Georg-August University

    The Georgia Augusta is the largest and the oldest (1737) university in Lower Saxony. Besides the University, several Max Planck Institutes and other important scientific institutions are also located in Göttingen. Due to the large number of Nobel Prize winners who studied, taught or did research in Göttingen, the city also gives itself the nickname of the city that creates knowledge. The university is spread out in many sections around the city, though you see a couple of its buildings (the Auditorium and Aula) on the self-guided tour. Former staff and students include Gauss, Riemann, Dirac, Bismarck, Oppenheimer, Born, Hilbert, Teller, and Weyl.

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    Gänseliesel

    goose girl

    Marktplatz. This fountain outside the Altes Rathaus is Göttingen's most famous figure. She is known as the "most kissed girl in the world" since every local student who receives a Ph.D. gives her a kiss (after being dressed up with a silly graduation hat and wheeled to the statue in a handcart).

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    Jacobikirche

    St. James's Church

    Jacobikirchhof and Weender Straße. Built 1361-1461, St. James' has the most interesting interior of Göttingen's churches, with fascinating original paintwork (not unlike that of a barbershop) and modern stained-glass windows. The Ott organ is also impressive. It is sometimes possible to climb the tower, although the last set of stairs to the view may be blocked off - ask before paying a euro.

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    Johanniskirche

    St. John's Church

    Johanniskirchhof. Built around 1200, St. John's is the oldest of Göttingen's churches. It was mostly rebuilt in the 14th century (the north-side doorway dates from 1245). The interior is plain, although one of the two towers can sometimes be climbed.

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    Marienkirche

    St. Mary's Church

    Neustadt and Groner-Tor-Straße. The church bell tower used to be the gate into the neighboring city Neustadt (new city), which Göttingen bought in 1319. St. Mary's is probably older than that; it used to be the church of the Teutonic Knights. The altar triptych was carved by Bertold Kastrop in 1524.

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    Nikolaikirche

    St. Nicholas's Church

    Nikolaistraße. An English Catholic mass is held here every second Friday at 19:00. The area around the church is also used for flea markets on weekend mornings in the summer.

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    St. Michael Kirche

    St. Michael's Church

    Kurze Straße. Built 1787-1789, St. Michael's was Göttingen's first Catholic church after the Reformation.

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    Stadtfriedhof

    Historic cemetery with graves of important scholars, including eight Nobel Prize winners: Max Born, Otto Hahn, Max von Laue, Walther Nernst, Max Planck, Otto Wallach, Adolf Windaus and Richard Zsigmondy.

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    Synagogue Memorial

    Obere-Masch-Straße and Untere-Masch-Straße. This memorial, designed by Corrado Cagli in 1973, stands on the site of a synagogue that was destroyed in 1938. The names of Göttingen's Jewish residents who were murdered during the "dark time" are listed below an abstraction of the Star of David.

Listings from the Wikivoyage guide to Göttingen (CC BY-SA 4.0).