What to See in Duisburg, Germany: Free Audio Guide

Duisburg is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia shaped by trade, industry and its position where the Ruhr meets the Rhine. The best things to do in Duisburg include exploring historic churches, museums, former industrial districts and distinctive local landmarks. Neywo offers a free audio guide for Duisburg with 109 narrated places, available in 11 languages.

What to See in Duisburg

From the old city centre to Ruhrort and the outer districts, Duisburg’s sights reveal different chapters of the city’s history. These are some of the places worth including in your visit.

Haniel Museum

The Haniel Museum occupies Ruhrort’s oldest building, the former Ruhrorter Packhaus, built in 1756 for mayor Jan Willem Noot. In 1772, Jacob Wilhelm Haniel established the family’s first trading house here.

The museum extends across almost the entire building, apart from the ground-floor reception rooms. Its exhibitions cover inland and maritime shipping, Ruhrort, the Haniel family, pharmacy, mining, iron and steel production, offices and domestic life in the nineteenth century. The building itself is part of the experience: the museum developed gradually from former office rooms, with its early focus on inland shipping and the Haniel shipping company.

Church of Our Saviour

The Church of Our Saviour, or Salvatorkirche, is one of Duisburg’s most important historic landmarks. The late Gothic church stands on Burgplatz and was built from the fourteenth century onward, replacing an older palatine church.

Together with Wesel’s Willibrordi Cathedral, it is regarded as one of the most significant late Gothic churches on the right bank of the Lower Rhine. The building suffered extensive damage during the Second World War and was rebuilt afterward, apart from its spire. Its present appearance therefore reflects both medieval construction and twentieth-century reconstruction.

Kreuzeskirche

Kreuzeskirche is an evangelical church in Duisburg’s Marxloh district. Its surroundings reflect the industrial character of the Hamborn-Marxloh area, while the church stands with a listed parsonage on the Kircheninsel, or “church island”.

Architect Heinrich Behrens designed the church, which was built between 1903 and 1905. Kreuzeskirche has been protected as a heritage building since 1985.

Theater Duisburg

In the city centre, Theater Duisburg is a neoclassical opera house and one of the two venues of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein. It is also home to the Duisburg Philharmoniker, making it an important part of the city’s musical life.

Martin Dülfer designed the original building, constructed between 1911 and 1912. The theatre has 1,117 seats and has been protected as a listed monument since 1985. The original building was destroyed during the Second World War and rebuilt in 1950. Duisburg and Düsseldorf joined their theatrical activities in 1956 to form the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Liebfrauenkirche

Liebfrauenkirche stands at König-Heinrich-Platz in the city centre. Once a parish church, it is now an independent cultural church. The building was consecrated in 1961 and served the Roman Catholic Liebfrauen parish until its deconsecration in 2010.

Since 2005, Liebfrauenkirche has been protected as a listed monument. Its changed role illustrates how religious buildings can acquire a new place in contemporary city life.

Haus Angerort

Haus Angerort is a medieval moated castle and fortress in Duisburg’s Hüttenheim district, near the boundary with Wanheim-Angerhausen. It stands beside the Angerbach stream, whose position helped shape the setting of this former fortified water castle.

Karmelkirche

Karmelkirche has connections with the Carmelite nuns and with an earlier church on the same site. It was once the church of the Carmelite order and was rebuilt after the Second World War on the foundations of the former Minorite church.

The building consequently brings together several layers of Duisburg’s religious history.

St. Michael in Meiderich

St. Michael, also known as Sankt Michael, is a Roman Catholic church in Duisburg-Meiderich. It serves as the parish church of the St. Michael parish in the Diocese of Essen.

St. Norbert

St. Norbert is a protected Roman Catholic church in Obermarxloh, part of Duisburg’s Hamborn district. The church belongs to the Diocese of Essen and provides a quieter local landmark away from the main city centre.

St. Michael in Wanheimerort

A second church named St. Michael can be found in Duisburg-Wanheimerort. It is a church building in this part of the city and forms part of the district’s local character.

Mercatorbrunnen

Mercatorbrunnen is a fountain and local landmark in Duisburg. It is included on the historic city-centre route, close to Burgplatz and other central sights.

Radiomuseum Duisburg

The Radiomuseum Duisburg, in Ruhrort, explores the story of radio through a private collection. The museum was founded in 1994 through a private initiative and opened in the district where its history began.

It adds a technological and cultural perspective to a neighbourhood strongly associated with shipping and trade.

Sankt Peter

Sankt Peter, or St Peter’s Church, stands in Marxloh. This Roman Catholic church is one of Duisburg’s notable church buildings and the city’s second-largest church.

When it was completed, it was the largest church in the then-independent city of Hamborn, to which Marxloh belonged as a district. Today, it serves as a branch church of the abbey church of St Johann.

Haus Hartenfels

Haus Hartenfels is a castle-like country estate in Duisburg’s Stadtwald. Surrounded by forest, it has a different atmosphere from the city’s industrial and urban landmarks, with its setting closely connected to the woodland landscape.

Bienenmuseum Duisburg

The Bienenmuseum Duisburg is a small natural history museum devoted to beekeeping. It is housed in a pavilion on the grounds of the Albert Einstein Gymnasium in Rumeln-Kaldenhausen.

Its exhibition space covers around 400 square metres and presents objects from the history of beekeeping and bee research. The museum also looks at other hymenopterans, including wasps and ants, explaining how these animals differ and how their ways of life compare.

Explore Duisburg with a Self-Guided Audio Tour

A Duisburg self-guided walking tour is an easy way to connect the city’s historic centre, Ruhrort and its cultural quarter without joining a group. Neywo’s free audio guide tells the story of each place as you reach it, at your own pace, with no group and no schedule.

Its Duisburg tours include:

• Old Town Duisburg: Gates, Gothic Spires and Grain Mills — a 2.87 km walk lasting 116 minutes, with 12 narrated stops.
• Ruhrort: Where the Ruhr Meets the Rhine — a 2.24 km walk lasting 87 minutes, with 9 narrated stops.
• Art and Stage Quarter: Lehmbruck, Theatres and Dellviertel — a 2 km walk lasting 74 minutes, with 9 narrated stops.
• From Ruhrort to the City Centre by Cycle Lane — a 7.5 km bike route lasting 38 minutes, with 3 narrated stops.

The routes include places such as the Haniel Museum, Radiomuseum Duisburg, Karmelkirche, Church of Our Saviour, Mercatorbrunnen and Theater Duisburg. Together, the three walks and one bike route provide different ways to experience the city.

Download Neywo for Duisburg

Download Neywo to explore Duisburg with a free audio guide covering 109 narrated places. Choose one of the three walking tours or the bike route, reach each stop at your own pace and let the app tell you the story when you arrive. With narration in 11 languages, Neywo lets you explore without a group or a fixed schedule.

Duisburg is a good starting point for discovering North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany. You can also continue your journey through nearby cities such as Düsseldorf, Cologne or Essen.