19 Best Things to Do in Dusseldorf

Düs­sel­dorf is one of the rich­est cities and the eco­nom­ic cen­ter of Ger­many. It is inter­est­ing for its unique archi­tec­ture, which is char­ac­ter­ized by a mix­ture of dif­fer­ent styles.

What to do in Düsseldorf

Since Düs­sel­dorf was one of the most heav­i­ly dam­aged Ger­man cities dur­ing World War II, 80% of the build­ings had to be rebuilt from scratch, includ­ing most of the land­marks and mon­u­ments.

The favor­able loca­tion of the city along the Rhine makes the city attrac­tive for tourism and busi­ness. Here the tourist will see upscale shop­ping areas, end­less bars in the Old City, tem­ples and oth­er attrac­tions. The aura of Düs­sel­dorf is dif­fer­ent from oth­er cities in Ger­many — here the spir­it of adven­tur­ism and cre­ativ­i­ty is in the air.

Fans of art of the present and past cen­turies will find many inter­est­ing gal­leries, exhi­bi­tions and entire streets paint­ed by artists in Düs­sel­dorf. Fans of archi­tec­ture and reli­gion will be able to look into the numer­ous Chris­t­ian basil­i­cas, Protes­tant tem­ples, Luther­an church­es and medieval cas­tles.

The high­light of Düs­sel­dorf is the pic­turesque Rhine embank­ment, where locals like to walk in the evenings.

His­to­ry buffs will fol­low the Nean­derthal civ­i­liza­tion, assess the con­se­quences of the war in the mid-twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry, learn every­thing about the man­u­fac­ture of glass­ware and vis­it the city hall. Fam­i­lies with chil­dren should vis­it the zoo and walk through the for­est with tame deer.

Cultural attractions

Museum of Contemporary Art K20 and K21

Muse­um Kun­st­samm­lung Nor­drhein-West­falen, ded­i­cat­ed to con­tem­po­rary art, is divid­ed into two sep­a­rate build­ings — K20 and K21. The abbre­vi­at­ed names indi­cate the time inter­vals of the exhibits. The build­ings are locat­ed in dif­fer­ent parts of the city and present both per­ma­nent and tem­po­rary exhi­bi­tions.

• K20 invites you to take a look at the works of clas­si­cal artists of the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry: Paul Klee, Pablo Picas­so, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, as well as the work of famous mod­ernists.
• K21 intro­duces the art of the “new age” — from the 80s to the present. The expo­si­tion of the muse­um is con­stant­ly updat­ed. There are works by both Ger­man and for­eign artists, as well as many inter­ac­tive exhibits.

In the cen­ter of Düs­sel­dorf, on the Paul-Klee-Platz, a large, ceram­ic-tiled work of art is hid­den on the wall of a build­ing. The paint­ing was cre­at­ed and paint­ed by Amer­i­can artist and direc­tor Sarah Mor­ris. The con­cept is rem­i­nis­cent of origa­mi and tells about the artist’s view of the archi­tec­ture of a mod­ern city. Res­i­dents and vis­i­tors of Düs­sel­dorf con­sid­er the paint­ing an ide­al back­drop for pho­tographs and por­traits.

Art and Media Center Reinhafen

Famous Amer­i­can archi­tect Frank Gehry in 1999 designed the build­ings that have become the icon­ic sym­bol of Düs­sel­dorf. The cen­ter is locat­ed in the har­bor and con­sists of three white build­ings with curved walls. Near­by are two sim­i­lar build­ings, paint­ed in brown and sil­ver.

All build­ings are con­nect­ed into a sin­gle ensem­ble. These are tru­ly archi­tec­tur­al mar­vels and a must see for any­one vis­it­ing Düs­sel­dorf.

Art Museum

The muse­um hous­es a col­lec­tion of Euro­pean paint­ings, mod­ern works of art, works of the roman­tics of the Düs­sel­dorf school, Ger­man impres­sion­ists and expres­sion­ists.

In addi­tion to paint­ings, the muse­um hous­es an inter­est­ing exhi­bi­tion of glass­ware, which includes exhibits from all peri­ods of his­to­ry on all con­ti­nents. Also inter­est­ing is the sec­tion ded­i­cat­ed to the East and an exten­sive col­lec­tion of cre­ations by some of the world’s lead­ing design­ers.

Neanderthal Museum

Here are exhibits ded­i­cat­ed to human evo­lu­tion. For the con­struc­tion of the muse­um in 1996, the archi­tect was cho­sen at an inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion. The build­ing is locat­ed where the first fos­sils were found, so, in a sense, the muse­um has become a mon­u­ment to the first evi­dence of a Nean­derthal.

The expo­si­tion tells the sto­ry of the evo­lu­tion of ancient peo­ple. There are life-size copies of an ancient per­son, recre­at­ed rock paint­ings and oth­er fos­silized exhibits found at exca­va­tions. The four-sto­ry muse­um cov­ers all eras of the devel­op­ment of Nean­derthals — from anthro­po­met­ric fea­tures, mov­ing on to social norms and cus­toms of soci­ety at that time.

religious objects

Lambertuskirche

The Chris­t­ian church, locat­ed near the Rhine embank­ment, was built in 1394. But after the fire of 1815, it had to be recon­struct­ed.

The basil­i­ca has an unusu­al shape of a roof in the form of a twist­ed tow­er. Inside is a stun­ning altar, which hous­es the shrine with the relics of St. Apol­li­naris. On the facade of the build­ing there is a large sculp­ture of the cru­ci­fix.

Kreuzherrenkirche

The Goth­ic style church was built in 1445 but was used as a store­house and tax office. Nowa­days, the build­ing of the tem­ple was returned to believ­ers — now ser­vices are held here. Inside, you can admire paint­ings from the 15th cen­tu­ry and see the cap­stone.

Andreaskirche

The Andreaskirche is a Jesuit church in the Old Düs­sel­dorf, built in the late Baroque style in 1629. The inte­ri­ors are dec­o­rat­ed with amaz­ing stuc­co dec­o­ra­tions. Also in the basil­i­ca there is a mau­soleum in which the remains of the Elec­tors of the Pala­tine are buried.

The facade is paint­ed in bright yel­low, which makes the church rec­og­niz­able. The Andreaskirche is con­sid­ered one of the most beau­ti­ful and unique church­es in Düs­sel­dorf.

Neanderkirche

The ear­ly Baroque cathe­dral with a sim­pli­fied façade appeared in 1684 as the first Reformed church in the city. Much lat­er (in 1916) it was renamed in hon­or of Joachim Nean­der. Mem­bers of the Reformed move­ment won the right to their own church, but were not respect­ed by the towns­peo­ple. That is why the tem­ple was built in such a way that it was not vis­i­ble from the street.

Berger Kirche

The first Luther­an church was built in Düs­sel­dorf between 1683–1687. Like the Nean­derkirche, the tem­ple was small because of the reli­gious restric­tions placed on Luther­ans. Dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, the church was destroyed, and it was restored in 1960.

An exact copy of the tem­ple has risen from the ruins in red brick. The sim­pli­fied facade has fea­tures of the late Renais­sance, while the inte­ri­or is designed in the Baroque style. In 2003, the tem­ple was giv­en a mod­ern look accord­ing to a design project by Tobias Frank­furt.

Church of Saint Maximilian

The late Baroque parish church was used as a monastery by the Fran­cis­cans until 1804. Since 2006, the build­ing has housed the com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter of the Catholic Church in Düs­sel­dorf. Inside, you can see the choir built in the 17th cen­tu­ry, the organ, the high altar and the pul­pit of the 18th cen­tu­ry.

Johanniskirche

The Church of St. John the Evan­ge­list is the largest Protes­tant church in the city. It was built in the form of a round arch, has a nave 61 meters long and an 87.5‑meter tow­er. Dur­ing the Sec­ond World War, the church was destroyed, and in 1953 it was rebuilt.

The inte­ri­or of the cathe­dral is designed in a clas­si­cal style, dec­o­rat­ed with a large organ, which was restored in 2001, and a stun­ning altar. The façade is dec­o­rat­ed with two angels by sculp­tor Karl Hubert Müller. The stat­ues are locat­ed in front of the west­ern por­tal, and were pre­vi­ous­ly placed as guards on the ped­i­ments above the side entrances and the roof of the transept.

The sand­stone sculp­tures were cre­at­ed in 1878. Alas, one of them lost her head dur­ing the bomb­ing. The stat­ues were sal­vaged from the wreck­age dur­ing recon­struc­tion after World War II and were trans­ferred to the Kaiser­swerth in 1952, where they shel­ter at the bot­tom of a flight of stairs from the Kle­men­platz to the Kaiser­swert­er Mar­ket. In Novem­ber 1994, after restora­tion, the angels were returned to the facade of the tem­ple.

Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary

The Catholic Church was designed by the archi­tect Lud­wig Mainz and built between 1894 and 1896 in the cen­ter of Düs­sel­dorf. At first it was a three-aisled basil­i­ca with twin tow­ers. Like the Johan­niskirche, it suf­fered dur­ing World War II. Only in 1969 the church was restored by Josef Lem­brok.

Architecture

Benrath Castle

Sur­round­ed by gar­dens, the French-style château was built by the archi­tect Nico­las de Pigage for the Prince Elec­tor of the Palati­nate between 1755 and 1770. The lay­out of the cas­tle repeats the palace of Louis XV.

The apart­ments have retained their orig­i­nal, dis­creet Roco­co dec­o­ra­tion and are fur­nished with inte­ri­or items from the sec­ond half of the 18th cen­tu­ry. The two low­er wings house a muse­um ded­i­cat­ed to Euro­pean hor­ti­cul­tur­al art and a Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um.

Altstadt

This is the name of the old town on the banks of the Rhine. Locals call it the longest bar in the world, because there are more than 300 old tav­erns and pubs where craft beer is brewed accord­ing to a tra­di­tion­al recipe.

In addi­tion to drinks, the ancient spir­it of Düs­sel­dorf hov­ers in the old town. His pres­ence is betrayed by the unique atmos­phere of the build­ings, the medieval archi­tec­ture of the City Hall, the eques­tri­an stat­ue of Jan Wellem, the Mark­t­platz and the baroque sculp­tures next to the church.

On the busy pedes­tri­an Bolk­er­straße stands the birth­place of Hein­rich Heine and the stat­ue of the “Rad­schläger” under the plane trees. Hav­ing exam­ined the Alt­stadt, trav­el­ers go for a walk along the embank­ment.

Rainroom Tower

The Rein­trum, designed by the archi­tect H. Deil­mann, is the tallest build­ing in Düs­sel­dorf. The height of the TV tow­er is 241 meters. At the top there is an obser­va­tion deck with a pic­turesque panora­ma of the city. On the roof of the tow­er is the Lichtzeit­pegel, the world’s largest dig­i­tal clock.

At a height of 172 meters, a restau­rant is open, which rotates around its axis, mak­ing a com­plete rev­o­lu­tion in an hour. Dur­ing din­ner, guests here enjoy a mag­nif­i­cent view of the old town and the Rhine with bridges at the foot of the tow­er.

Burgplatz and castle

In the old part of the city on the banks of the Rhine, there is a 13th-cen­tu­ry square, on which the cas­tle of the counts of Berg used to stand. The palace was recon­struct­ed, acquir­ing fea­tures in the Baroque style, but did not last long — in 1872 the build­ing was almost com­plete­ly destroyed by fire.

Only one Schlossturm tow­er remained on the square, in which the muse­um of ship­ping and nav­i­ga­tion is now open. There is a panoram­ic restau­rant at the top of the cas­tle tow­er.

Burg­platz is rec­og­nized as one of the most beau­ti­ful squares in Ger­many of the post-war peri­od.

Dusseldorf City Hall

The build­ing was built in the 16th cen­tu­ry in a mix­ture of Ger­man Goth­ic, Roco­co and Renais­sance styles. Today, the town hall, which con­sists of three parts, hous­es the city par­lia­ment. Free guid­ed walks are orga­nized every Wednes­day. The tour includes a tour of the Coun­cil Room, Jan Wellen Room and the Lord May­or’s Recep­tion Room.

natural attractions

Grafenberg forest

The Grafen­berg­er Wald is the best place to observe for­est ani­mals in their nat­ur­al habi­tat. The 16-hectare Wildlife Park shel­tered many ani­mals, includ­ing red deer, wild boars, mouf­flons, fox­es, rac­coons and oth­er rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the local fau­na.

The reserve was opened in 1927. The ani­mals here roam freely between the trees and will­ing­ly approach vis­i­tors for a treat. The park also has a bee house and an anthill. On the shore of a nat­ur­al pond there is a play­ground for kids, lots of bench­es and tables.

Aquazoo-Lobbeck

The Düs­sel­dorf Insti­tute simul­ta­ne­ous­ly per­forms the tasks of a zoo and a muse­um of nat­ur­al his­to­ry. On an area of ​​6800 sq. m live 475 species of ani­mals. The muse­um dis­plays var­i­ous exhibits of nat­ur­al his­to­ry. Fas­ci­nat­ing corals and small fish, aquat­ic organ­isms of all shapes and sizes, as well as oth­er curiosi­ties will not leave any­one indif­fer­ent. This is a great place for both adults and chil­dren.