Germany's UNESCO World Heritage sites: the 55 on the list and the ones XTOUR covers

The short answer

Germany has 55 UNESCO World Heritage sites. That is the German Commission for UNESCO's count on its World Heritage page and in its July 2026 press release on that year's inscriptions, which added no new German site.[4][1] The Commission's own list marks 52 of them as cultural and three as natural, the Messel fossil pit, the ancient beech forests and the Wadden Sea, and flags eleven as transnational or transboundary.[2]

The first German entry was Aachen Cathedral in 1978, which the Commission says was among the first twelve sites on the UNESCO list.[1] The newest is the Palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria, inscribed in 2025.[15] In July 2026 the World Heritage Committee added the Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf to the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, an extension of an existing site rather than a new one.[5]

UNESCO's own World Heritage list pages (whc.unesco.org) refused XTOUR's requests on 9 October 2026, so XTOUR could not check the count, the years or the site boundaries against UNESCO's list. Every count and year here is the German Commission's except Dresden's, where two UNESCO pages that did answer are cited. Where the Commission's pages disagree with each other or with another source, that is stated. XTOUR claims no completeness beyond the Commission's list.

Where XTOUR has a guide

Seven of the 55 are the subject of an XTOUR guide. The Commission's portraits say what each inscribed site covers, which is not always what a visitor would assume from the name.

Museum Island, Berlin (1999). The site is the northern part of the Spree island and its five museum buildings, from the Altes Museum, built 1824 to 1828, to the Pergamonmuseum, completed in 1930; the Commission notes the Neues Museum was left damaged for decades, restored from 2003 and reopened in 2009.[7] Tickets and the individual museums are in Berlin's Museum Island museums and tickets.

Palaces and Parks of Potsdam and Berlin (1990, extended 1992 and 1999). This is not one palace but a spread-out ensemble across two federal states. The Commission's portrait names the Babelsberg observatory, the Belvedere on the Pfingstberg and the Alexandrowka Russian colony in Potsdam, the Neuer Garten with the Marmorpalais and Cecilienhof, and Glienicke Park with the Pfaueninsel in Berlin; it also calls the site the first all-German World Heritage site, in 1990.[8] See Potsdam's Sanssouci palaces and tickets and the Potsdam destination page.

Cologne Cathedral (1996). Built from 1248 to 1880; the Commission's portrait records that it was on the List of World Heritage in Danger from 2004 to 2006, over planned high-rise buildings that would have cut into its sightlines, and that those plans were ultimately stopped.[9] XTOUR covers it in Cologne Cathedral tickets, tower and treasury and in the cathedral workshops article, on the workshop that maintains it.

Hanseatic City of Lübeck (1987). The Commission says Lübeck was the first whole urban area in Northern Europe to be inscribed, and that the site is not the whole old-town island: it is three areas, leaving out the districts completely rebuilt after the Second World War.[10] See Lübeck's old town and the European Hansemuseum.

Historic Centres of Stralsund and Wismar (2002). One site in two towns, inscribed together; the portrait describes them as centres of the Wendish part of the Hanse and counts six monumental brick churches between them.[11] See Wismar and Stralsund's historic centres and, for the trading league behind Lübeck, Stralsund and Wismar, the Hanseatic League explained.

Upper Middle Rhine Valley (2002). A cultural landscape, not a castle: the Commission gives it as 65 river kilometres between Bingen, Rüdesheim and Koblenz, across Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate, with about 40 palaces, castles and fortresses built over roughly a thousand years. At the Loreley, the portrait says, the river narrows to 130 metres and reaches its deepest point in the valley, 20 metres.[12] Other official pages give the valley's length differently: the valley's World Heritage association says 67 kilometres and Rhineland-Palatinate's heritage agency 70.[14][13] Upper Middle Rhine Valley castles sets out those figures and who runs which castle.

The Palaces of King Ludwig II of Bavaria (2025). The site has four parts: Neuschwanstein, Linderhof, the Königshaus am Schachen and Herrenchiemsee. The Commission's portrait places the Schachen house above 1,800 metres and says it can be reached only after a climb on foot of several hours.[15] XTOUR covers the palaces in Ludwig II's palaces and the ticketing at Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau in Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau tickets. The Bavarian Palace Administration gives Neuschwanstein's address as Neuschwansteinstraße 20, 87645 Schwangau, and its page also states the 2025 inscription.[16] Füssen is the town XTOUR uses as a base for it, not the palace's location.

Inscribed sites in XTOUR destinations without a guide yet

Four more of the 55 have Commission portraits that set them in cities XTOUR treats as destinations, and have no dedicated XTOUR guide. The list is not exhaustive: XTOUR has not checked which components of the serial and transboundary sites, such as the Roman frontiers or the Wadden Sea, fall inside its destination cities.

• Old town of Bamberg (1993). The Commission's portrait says all three historic districts, the Bergstadt, Inselstadt and Gärtnerstadt, belong to the 142-hectare site.[17] See the Bamberg destination page.
• Old town of Regensburg with Stadtamhof (2006). The portrait names the Stone Bridge, the Porta Praetoria, the cathedral and the town hall among its buildings, and says that although Regensburg was heavily bombed in the Second World War, the core inside the medieval wall was left untouched.[18] See the Regensburg destination page.
• Speicherstadt and Kontorhaus District with Chilehaus, Hamburg (2015). Fifteen large warehouses on wooden piles, built 1885 to 1927 on narrow islands in the Elbe, and the neighbouring office district with Fritz Höger's Chilehaus.[19] See the Hamburg destination page.
• Berlin Modernism Housing Estates (2008, extended 2026). Seven estates now, the Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf, planned by Bruno Taut with Hugo Häring and Otto Rudolf Salvisberg and built 1926 to 1932, being the latest and the largest.[5] See the Berlin destination page.

Dresden: removed in 2009, and two different start dates

Dresden is not among the 55. The Commission's World Heritage list carries "Kulturlandschaft Dresdner Elbtal" under removals from the list, with the years "2006, gestrichen 2009", inscribed 2006 and struck off 2009.[2]

The city of Dresden's own archive gives a different start. Its press release of 2 July 2004 says the World Heritage committee, then meeting in Suzhou, China, had decided to inscribe the Dresden Elbe Valley as a cultural landscape, between the village of Söbrigen near Pillnitz Palace and Schloss Übigau.[20] UNESCO's own pages agree with the city. Decision 28 COM 14B.40 of the World Heritage Committee's 2004 session inscribes the Dresden Elbe Valley as a cultural landscape.[21] UNESCO's news release of 25 June 2009 on its removal says Dresden was inscribed in 2004, was placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger in 2006 because of the planned Waldschlösschen Bridge, and was only the second property ever removed from the list.[22] XTOUR therefore gives 2004 as the inscription year; the Commission's list gives 2006 without saying why. Dresden's Frauenkirche, Zwinger and Royal Palace are covered in XTOUR's Dresden guides on their own terms: see the Royal Palace, Green Vault and Zwinger and visiting the Frauenkirche.

Where the Commission's own pages give different years

The Commission publishes the list twice: on its website and in a 2025 flyer that numbers the 55 sites "sorted by the year of their inscription".[3] For four sites the two disagree, and the website's legend says its bracketed year is the year of inscription.[2]

The table restates the two publications as they read on 9 October 2026.[3][2] The last row is simply time: the flyer predates the 2026 extension.[5] The other three are all transboundary sites, and in each the flyer gives a later year than the website does.[3] The website's legend does not say whether, for a site shared across borders, the bracketed year is the site's first inscription anywhere or the year Germany's part joined, and its own list prints the Moravian Church Settlements between its 2023 and 2024 entries despite the bracketed 2015.[2] XTOUR does not resolve the difference; it uses the website list, which already includes the 2026 extension, for the table below.

All 55, by year of inscription

The table restates the Commission's website list, with its years, cultural and natural marks and transboundary marks; no German entry carries its endangered mark.[2]

What XTOUR does not know

XTOUR does not publish opening hours, prices or visitor rules for World Heritage sites in this article; where it covers a site, the guide linked above gives what the operator's own pages say. XTOUR has not read UNESCO's own list pages or site boundaries, and it does not know whether a given street or building lies inside an inscribed area beyond what the Commission's portraits name. Germany's living traditions on UNESCO's other lists are a separate programme, covered in Germany's intangible heritage; the country overview is the Germany country page.