“…it is beneath the dignity of excellent men to waste their time in calculation when any peasant could do the work just as accurately with the aid of a machine.” — Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

Top Places in Germany

Uhldingen-Mühlhofen, Germany

Pfahlbaumuseum Unteruhldingen (Lake Dwelling Museum)

This museum tells the story of lake dwellers from 4000 BC to 850 BC, replete with stilt houses and goats.

47.7254, 9.2284

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Cuxhaven, Germany

Site of operation Backfire

WWII rocket launchpad in rural Germany and site of operation backfire.

53.8141, 8.6627

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Creglingen, Germany

The Thimble Museum

A collection of 4,000 thimbles that's more versatile than one might imagine.

49.4597, 10.0304

Added by pieofthemonth

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This marvelous adding machine was designed and built between in 1692 and 1694 by the brilliant German mathematician and philosopher Gottfried Leibniz. Two original machines were built, but this is the last remaining example of an original “Leibniz Calculator” as they were sometimes called.

Leibniz was inspired by Pascal’s design for an adding machine, known as the Pascaline, developed in 1642. Leibniz’s mechanical innovation, called the stepped cylinder, later inspired the miniaturized form of the Curta Calculator, designed in Nazi-occupied Austria during WWII.

Liebniz’s original is on display at the Niedersächsische Landesbibliothek (the National Library of Lower Saxony). A replica is on display at the Deutsches Museum in Munich.