Every design for Gießen

On a weekday morning the streets around the Liebig-Museum fill with bikes and backpacks, because in Gießen students make up a large share of the town. The University of Giessen, named after Justus Liebig and founded in 1607, sets the rhythm, joined by several departments of the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen. Gießen sits on the Lahn about 50 kilometres north of Frankfurt am Main, the river dividing the town into a western and an eastern half, and its name goes back to Giezzen, a nod to its position between rivers, lakes and streams.

The Altes Schloss and the Stadtkirchenturm recall the older town. Gießen grew from a moated castle built by Count Wilhelm von Gleiberg, but heavy bombing in 1944 destroyed about 75 percent of it, and what rose afterwards is a practical, lively place rather than a museum piece. Its quirks are part of the charm: there is even a Gießkannenmuseum, a museum of watering cans, and the figures of Die drei Schwätzer.

The Mathematikum alone is reason to wear the town. Anyone who spent a rainy school afternoon there knows exactly why.