Overview

• According to the DSD, the annual Open Monument Day is Germany’s largest cultural event and has been coordinated nationally since 1993 under the Federal President’s patronage.
• NRW highlights include guided access to Aachen’s historic canal system (knee‑high rubber boots required), the last Middle Rhine eel barge in Bad Honnef, and the former Warnamt IV nuclear bunker in Meinerzhagen.
• Further NRW offerings feature insights into the Nazi‑era legacy at the Düsseldorf district government building with rides in the paternoster, multiple tours at Essen’s Wasserschloss Borbeck, and a façade‑focused walk at Münster’s town hall.
• In Duisburg, the North Rhine‑Westphalia State Archive hosts building tours of its 76‑meter former granary and offers workshops on reading and writing Sütterlin script.
• In Bavaria’s Aichach‑Friedberg district, Pöttmes/Gundelsdorf’s Heilig Kreuz and Friedberg’s St. Afra open with free, no‑registration tours, including a look at St. Afra’s 2021–2024 restoration and themed programs led by local experts.