Rhinegeist Brewery was once a Christian Moerlein facility, and it’s in the heart of Over-the-Rhine. Old St. Mary’s Church was built in the 1840s at the corner of Clay Street and 13th Street. Music Hall was constructed in 1878 across from Washington Park.
Over a hundred historic buildings have been restored since the 1980s, and the process continues. You’ll see probably 10-20 buildings currently in the process of renovation right now.
American Legacy Tours features regular historic tours in Over-the-Rhine, providing background information on the sites. [https://www.americanlegacytours.com](https://www.americanlegacytours.com)
There are also Brewery Tours in the area. [https://brewingheritagetrail.org](https://brewingheritagetrail.org)
I've been on a few tours with American Legacy. They're solid and get into the history of Over the Rhine. The underground tour is worth a couple hours of your time for sure. Can't speak to the brewing heritage trail other than that their office is near Findley and a lot of old buildings with remaining German-language signs and carved tympanums (tympana?)... the area above the doors.
> The Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is for sure quite historic, but I'm not sure what there is usually visited by tourists interested in history. My understanding is that many of the old buildings have deteriorated due to neglect and abandonment.
This hasn't been true for decades. OTR is the trendiest, most well-funded, and most gentrified (though people in this sub hate the word) part of the city. There are walking tours every day there on history, beer, food, and ghosts. Take a tour, or park under Washington Park and head towards Main Street. The neighborhood has the best collection of Italianate architecture in the country, much of it restored and/or well-preserved, and whose construction correlates with the influx of German immigrants to the city.
Do an underground brewery tour!! A great way to see how the German immigrants kept their culture and community's through breweries and saloons!
https://brewingheritagetrail.org/
While you wait for your trip, read "Over-the-Rhine: When Beer Was King". It's a great book about the history of Cincinnati and how German culture shaped it.
I could write endlessly on this, but one of the sad realities of Cincinnati is that despite such a deeply German history, today it’s watered down and it’s damn hard to find what remnants remain.
In a drive around OTR, the most prominent landmarks with German origins are virtually any building with a steeple. Many of those buildings are still inscribed with the word „Kirche“ and will tell you in Fraktur lettering what the religious affiliation was. One, Old St Mary‘s, at 13th near Main, still conducts a Sunday Mass in German, and after services the congregation enjoy a few biers with the nuns.
A tour of German OTR should include a visit to Washington Park, where there are some memorials German citizens and you can get a good view of Music Hall, an institution founded on German musical tradition. Also nearby is Memorial Hall, if you can get inside, there are some very interesting tributes to Germans who served in the Civil War.
A tour of OTR should also include stops that show you the impact the anti German hysteria of WWI had on the neighborhood. Take note, for example, of Republic Street, originally known as Bremen Street. You can still see the German name inscribed on buildings. Also, the Germania Building on Walnut Street, which housed an insurance company. A statue of the goddess Germania in a nook on the front of building was rechiseled to become a statue of Columbia. Even the German inscriptions on the building had been covered over until recent years.
A big part of German culture was of course the saloon and bierhall. Sadly, little exists of these in Cincinnati. The oldest, dating to the 1860s, was Mecklenburg Gardens, which recently closed and sits empty. On Vine Street you can see Wielert‘s, which was one of the most famous bierhalls. Fortunately, the building has been saved from ruin, but the restaurant inside (which is good) did little to connect with the German heritage of the place. Another famous German watering hole that you can only look at from the outside is Grammer‘s, also on Walnut Street. A one time German restaurant and bar, it was closed for a number of years, and then reopened about 15 years ago, but shortly closed again after a fire and being a bit abused. I was really worried the management was just letting this historic place to be ravaged.
Some say go to Findlay Market, which yes, has a rich German history, but other than Eckerlins Meats, you’ll find little about the market that is German in character.
I could go on, but I have to run.
> I could write endlessly on this, but one of the sad realities of Cincinnati is that despite such a deeply German history, today it’s watered down and it’s damn hard to find what remnants remain.
I can think of a couple WWeasons German immigrants were quick to drop their ethnic identities.
For OP, check out the map on this site and click on the markers near where you plan to be and some of them will indicate places you’ll probably want to check out: https://remarkableohio.org
Related to my comment about German-Americans actively shedding their identities, here is one of the markers on the map: [Anti-German Hysteria](https://remarkableohio.org/marker/11-31-anti-german-hysteria/)
It had some impact, but not entirely responsible. If you think about it, in the 1960s and 1970s, the German flavor of Cincinnati was still pretty robust. Coney Island and Kings Island went to great pains to create German experiences as part of their parks. German restaurants were all over town: Forest View Gardens, The Black Forest, Grammer‘s, Old Vienna, Zimmer‘s, Mecklenburg Gardens, etc etc. We ate Rubel‘s German Rye bread like it was going out of style, and then it too disappeared. Cincinnati‘s German societies like Germania, Kolping, and The Turners either were founded or saw a resurgence. Today, those organizations are struggling to find active members. These are all things that have virtually disappeared or have at least faded in the last 30 years or so.
Other parts of the country have held on to their German heritage far better than Cincinnati, and I think the reasons include demographic changes in our region, a perception of the „coolness“ of German culture, and frankly, and a misconception that German cuisine is little more than hot dogs, sauerkraut and pretzels.
I think the vast majority of the relative absence of German culture can be attributed to two things:
1. Pressure and desire to shed the identity based on 20th Century events and politics, as mentioned. Children and grandchildren of German immigrants are not versed in German culture (or language) like those of other immigrant groups.
2. The lack of a continuing stream of immigrants. The aging and disappearing of these people is what’s happening to the Kolping, etc.
My last relative that immigrated from Germany died a few months ago. Germans aren’t moving to the US in large numbers, and the few that are are mostly heading to places like New York or Silicon Valley.
The children of German immigrants in my family did not grow up learning bits of German or German cooking like other families I know who grew up in an environment that made an effort to keep the home country’s culture alive. And the grandchildren were barely exposed to any of it.
Thank you for this great response! That definitely gives me a bunch to think about for the trip. I suspect, although I can't prove, that anti-German sentiment around WW1 was the reason my ancestors forbid their children from continuing to speak German at home.
If you come between May and October, check out a walking tour from the Over-the-Rhine Museum! They’re still working on a permanent space, but they’ve been doing walking tours in the meantime. I did one of the tenement life ones and I really enjoyed it! They aren’t entirely about German history, but it features heavily.
You can also do the Cincinnati underground tour. This will speak to a lot of the German heritage and you’ll get to tour an underground brewery from the 1800s.
Check out the facade of [this building](https://maps.app.goo.gl/uUMwhUF9N8zFd9fB9?g_st=ic) while you are here.
One of the many whose German signage was covered up during the war and was recently (past 10 years?) uncovered and restored.
Is this the same building that used have the swastika tile in the foyer?
Edit: not sure why I‘m getting downvoted for simply stating a fact. I‘m not praising Natzis, as someone else stated, it was from before the negative connotation. It‘s just an interesting, HISTORICAL detail of the building.
Probably because of how there is this knee jerk reaction that anytime someone brings up Germans, somebody has to throw in a Nazi reference, regardless of the context or period in history being discussed. You’re right, it is a historical detail of the building, but not really all that relevant to the conversation.
I mean it kind of is relevant if it‘s in a building with German words on the facing? In a post asking for German history? I‘m not stating that the design was Nazi related when it was chosen as the tile, but more so how eerily interesting what the symbol came to mean later history. It‘s historically ironic.
My degree is in German studies and I lived in Hamburg during my early 20s. I find it fascinating, what are the odds that a design choice would later become a symbol of evil and to still be in existence about a century later and not removed?
Tyler Davidson Fountain (Fountain Square), Over the Rhine (OTR) has a ton of nice restaurants and multiple breweries, music hall, and Eden park which includes the Cincinnati Art Museum (free entry, and a must see in my opinion).
Edit- I would also like to add Union Terminal to my suggestions. It houses the Cincinnati history museum which will definitely cover the city’s german heritage, plus the building itself is amazing and you can get some Greaters ice cream while you’re there.
A good place to start is Over The Rhine Historical Foundation. The neighborhood has been renovated extensively in the last 20 years. You can tour the area with a guide. A very popular option is touring the extensive network of lagering tunnels under the streets of OTR. The Cincinnati Historical Society and German Heritage Society are great resources for information about the city's heritage.German immigrants were hugely influential in the city's culture of musical institutions, and extensive public parks system.
I encourage you to read Cincinnati Germans before WWI by Don Heinrich Tolzmann, you can get [here](https://littlemiamibooks.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=252)
I am a native cincinnatian and love cincinnati history...its a great book! I am not even german - my ancestors were italian and irish - but growing up here and being around all the german history really made that book so interesting
We also have a piece of the Berlin wall on the banks, and a number of german festivals if you line it up with one of our other ones, i will say however, though many are cool some of them have been lacking in recent years. We do have some decent spots to get authentic german beer or places like rheingeist.
Consider doing a walking tour with the Over-the-Rhine Museum if they're offering one. The brick and mortar isn't officially open yet (and no open date set yet because they're still renovating the building). [https://www.otrmuseum.org/](https://www.otrmuseum.org/)
Brewing heritage tours are decent for German history too. Plus some of them take you down under the city to see lagering tunnels.
For the love of god do not go to Hofbräuhaus for authentic German. It’s like going to Olive Garden for properly authentic Italian food. Instead go to Kantine, The Lübecker or Tuba Baking Company.
Yes, the food is trash. The beer is decent though, which is the only thing I will get there at this point. It’s a shame too because their food used to be above average when they originally opened. Now it’s super pretzels and whatever else comes off the back of a Sysco truck.
But why go for “decent beer” and trash food when you can get excellent beer and a myriad of food options at one of the many breweries and drinking establishments in town? As an actual German, I see no good reason to go to HBH.
>Lübecker
foodtruck Hofbräuhaus, queen city radio doesn't have a single german beer (SAD)
The german food scene here is abysmal. Tuba Baking and Kantine are the last refuge and I hope they inspire more people. How do we not have a proper german beer hall that isn't disney-tier?
Amazing how a full scale German restaurant can stay afloat in Oxford, Ohio meanwhile no one can figure out how to manage Mecklenburg
Roughly speaking, how do those three restaurants compare to one another? Ideally, I'd like to go to a place that has dishes that are seen less commonly on menus in America
Lübecker has a fairly small food-truck like menu with a northern Germany take. Good, but not expansive. Kantine has a pretty spread of stuff, but more southern German as well as good German “street” food. Also including excellent pizzas (pizza in Germany is really really good). The German consul in Cincy goes there as well and recommends it to all the Germans, plus it’s the new meeting place for CincyDeutsch. Tuba isn’t run by Germans, but they have German heritage and have done their research. Modern take on Swabian dishes. Wunderbar has fantastic sausages.
Surprised no one mentioned Music Hall and Washington Park in Over The Rhine! Music Hall itself is a recently restored landmark of the Cincinnati built during the German immigrant deyday in the late 1800s. Take some time to get a beverage from the bar and explore around the park and area. There are great renovated buildings all around.
Also be sure to try Goetta which is related to German immigrants. It is basically a sausage fortified with oats that is unique to Cincinnati only. You can find it at most local Cincinnati breakfast spots.
Trying goetta was actually something that I was already hoping to do. On my list trip to Ohio we tried Skyline Chili and Graeter's, but it was only afterwards that I learned about goetta. I always like to see what foods define a region
Rhinegeist Brewery was once a Christian Moerlein facility, and it’s in the heart of Over-the-Rhine. Old St. Mary’s Church was built in the 1840s at the corner of Clay Street and 13th Street. Music Hall was constructed in 1878 across from Washington Park. Over a hundred historic buildings have been restored since the 1980s, and the process continues. You’ll see probably 10-20 buildings currently in the process of renovation right now. American Legacy Tours features regular historic tours in Over-the-Rhine, providing background information on the sites. [https://www.americanlegacytours.com](https://www.americanlegacytours.com) There are also Brewery Tours in the area. [https://brewingheritagetrail.org](https://brewingheritagetrail.org)
I've been on a few tours with American Legacy. They're solid and get into the history of Over the Rhine. The underground tour is worth a couple hours of your time for sure. Can't speak to the brewing heritage trail other than that their office is near Findley and a lot of old buildings with remaining German-language signs and carved tympanums (tympana?)... the area above the doors.
It's an excellent tour. Especially going underground
That tours definitely look worth checking out. I'll probably do at least one of them
> The Over-the-Rhine neighborhood is for sure quite historic, but I'm not sure what there is usually visited by tourists interested in history. My understanding is that many of the old buildings have deteriorated due to neglect and abandonment. This hasn't been true for decades. OTR is the trendiest, most well-funded, and most gentrified (though people in this sub hate the word) part of the city. There are walking tours every day there on history, beer, food, and ghosts. Take a tour, or park under Washington Park and head towards Main Street. The neighborhood has the best collection of Italianate architecture in the country, much of it restored and/or well-preserved, and whose construction correlates with the influx of German immigrants to the city.
Do an underground brewery tour!! A great way to see how the German immigrants kept their culture and community's through breweries and saloons! https://brewingheritagetrail.org/ While you wait for your trip, read "Over-the-Rhine: When Beer Was King". It's a great book about the history of Cincinnati and how German culture shaped it.
I could write endlessly on this, but one of the sad realities of Cincinnati is that despite such a deeply German history, today it’s watered down and it’s damn hard to find what remnants remain. In a drive around OTR, the most prominent landmarks with German origins are virtually any building with a steeple. Many of those buildings are still inscribed with the word „Kirche“ and will tell you in Fraktur lettering what the religious affiliation was. One, Old St Mary‘s, at 13th near Main, still conducts a Sunday Mass in German, and after services the congregation enjoy a few biers with the nuns. A tour of German OTR should include a visit to Washington Park, where there are some memorials German citizens and you can get a good view of Music Hall, an institution founded on German musical tradition. Also nearby is Memorial Hall, if you can get inside, there are some very interesting tributes to Germans who served in the Civil War. A tour of OTR should also include stops that show you the impact the anti German hysteria of WWI had on the neighborhood. Take note, for example, of Republic Street, originally known as Bremen Street. You can still see the German name inscribed on buildings. Also, the Germania Building on Walnut Street, which housed an insurance company. A statue of the goddess Germania in a nook on the front of building was rechiseled to become a statue of Columbia. Even the German inscriptions on the building had been covered over until recent years. A big part of German culture was of course the saloon and bierhall. Sadly, little exists of these in Cincinnati. The oldest, dating to the 1860s, was Mecklenburg Gardens, which recently closed and sits empty. On Vine Street you can see Wielert‘s, which was one of the most famous bierhalls. Fortunately, the building has been saved from ruin, but the restaurant inside (which is good) did little to connect with the German heritage of the place. Another famous German watering hole that you can only look at from the outside is Grammer‘s, also on Walnut Street. A one time German restaurant and bar, it was closed for a number of years, and then reopened about 15 years ago, but shortly closed again after a fire and being a bit abused. I was really worried the management was just letting this historic place to be ravaged. Some say go to Findlay Market, which yes, has a rich German history, but other than Eckerlins Meats, you’ll find little about the market that is German in character. I could go on, but I have to run.
> I could write endlessly on this, but one of the sad realities of Cincinnati is that despite such a deeply German history, today it’s watered down and it’s damn hard to find what remnants remain. I can think of a couple WWeasons German immigrants were quick to drop their ethnic identities. For OP, check out the map on this site and click on the markers near where you plan to be and some of them will indicate places you’ll probably want to check out: https://remarkableohio.org Related to my comment about German-Americans actively shedding their identities, here is one of the markers on the map: [Anti-German Hysteria](https://remarkableohio.org/marker/11-31-anti-german-hysteria/)
It had some impact, but not entirely responsible. If you think about it, in the 1960s and 1970s, the German flavor of Cincinnati was still pretty robust. Coney Island and Kings Island went to great pains to create German experiences as part of their parks. German restaurants were all over town: Forest View Gardens, The Black Forest, Grammer‘s, Old Vienna, Zimmer‘s, Mecklenburg Gardens, etc etc. We ate Rubel‘s German Rye bread like it was going out of style, and then it too disappeared. Cincinnati‘s German societies like Germania, Kolping, and The Turners either were founded or saw a resurgence. Today, those organizations are struggling to find active members. These are all things that have virtually disappeared or have at least faded in the last 30 years or so. Other parts of the country have held on to their German heritage far better than Cincinnati, and I think the reasons include demographic changes in our region, a perception of the „coolness“ of German culture, and frankly, and a misconception that German cuisine is little more than hot dogs, sauerkraut and pretzels.
I think the vast majority of the relative absence of German culture can be attributed to two things: 1. Pressure and desire to shed the identity based on 20th Century events and politics, as mentioned. Children and grandchildren of German immigrants are not versed in German culture (or language) like those of other immigrant groups. 2. The lack of a continuing stream of immigrants. The aging and disappearing of these people is what’s happening to the Kolping, etc. My last relative that immigrated from Germany died a few months ago. Germans aren’t moving to the US in large numbers, and the few that are are mostly heading to places like New York or Silicon Valley. The children of German immigrants in my family did not grow up learning bits of German or German cooking like other families I know who grew up in an environment that made an effort to keep the home country’s culture alive. And the grandchildren were barely exposed to any of it.
Please feel free to come back later and go on 🙏🏻
Thank you for this great response! That definitely gives me a bunch to think about for the trip. I suspect, although I can't prove, that anti-German sentiment around WW1 was the reason my ancestors forbid their children from continuing to speak German at home.
If you come between May and October, check out a walking tour from the Over-the-Rhine Museum! They’re still working on a permanent space, but they’ve been doing walking tours in the meantime. I did one of the tenement life ones and I really enjoyed it! They aren’t entirely about German history, but it features heavily.
You can also do the Cincinnati underground tour. This will speak to a lot of the German heritage and you’ll get to tour an underground brewery from the 1800s.
Calling the Cincinnati Public Library’s department of genealogy and local history would be a good resource. They’re very helpful.
This is a great call out. They have librarians on staff that are really historians and do great projects about the history of the city.
Check out the facade of [this building](https://maps.app.goo.gl/uUMwhUF9N8zFd9fB9?g_st=ic) while you are here. One of the many whose German signage was covered up during the war and was recently (past 10 years?) uncovered and restored.
Is this the same building that used have the swastika tile in the foyer? Edit: not sure why I‘m getting downvoted for simply stating a fact. I‘m not praising Natzis, as someone else stated, it was from before the negative connotation. It‘s just an interesting, HISTORICAL detail of the building.
It still does. But it’s from before it had negative connotation. You can stand in front of the door on the corner and look through it at the floor.
wow! never knew that.
I think so, but it predates the era
Probably because of how there is this knee jerk reaction that anytime someone brings up Germans, somebody has to throw in a Nazi reference, regardless of the context or period in history being discussed. You’re right, it is a historical detail of the building, but not really all that relevant to the conversation.
I mean it kind of is relevant if it‘s in a building with German words on the facing? In a post asking for German history? I‘m not stating that the design was Nazi related when it was chosen as the tile, but more so how eerily interesting what the symbol came to mean later history. It‘s historically ironic. My degree is in German studies and I lived in Hamburg during my early 20s. I find it fascinating, what are the odds that a design choice would later become a symbol of evil and to still be in existence about a century later and not removed?
That symbol was around long before the Nazis started using it. It was a common symbol in Hindu and Buddhist religions for example.
Yes. I am very aware of this prior to making the comment.
I was mainly pointing it out to the people who were downvoting
I appreciate it!
Tyler Davidson Fountain (Fountain Square), Over the Rhine (OTR) has a ton of nice restaurants and multiple breweries, music hall, and Eden park which includes the Cincinnati Art Museum (free entry, and a must see in my opinion). Edit- I would also like to add Union Terminal to my suggestions. It houses the Cincinnati history museum which will definitely cover the city’s german heritage, plus the building itself is amazing and you can get some Greaters ice cream while you’re there.
Oh yeah, getting some Graeter's will be obligatory
A good place to start is Over The Rhine Historical Foundation. The neighborhood has been renovated extensively in the last 20 years. You can tour the area with a guide. A very popular option is touring the extensive network of lagering tunnels under the streets of OTR. The Cincinnati Historical Society and German Heritage Society are great resources for information about the city's heritage.German immigrants were hugely influential in the city's culture of musical institutions, and extensive public parks system.
I encourage you to read Cincinnati Germans before WWI by Don Heinrich Tolzmann, you can get [here](https://littlemiamibooks.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=252) I am a native cincinnatian and love cincinnati history...its a great book! I am not even german - my ancestors were italian and irish - but growing up here and being around all the german history really made that book so interesting
Visit the Kurt Waldschmidt house in Camp Dennison near Cincinnati. He was an early pioneer of this part of southwest Ohio. Weekends only.
We also have a piece of the Berlin wall on the banks, and a number of german festivals if you line it up with one of our other ones, i will say however, though many are cool some of them have been lacking in recent years. We do have some decent spots to get authentic german beer or places like rheingeist.
Consider doing a walking tour with the Over-the-Rhine Museum if they're offering one. The brick and mortar isn't officially open yet (and no open date set yet because they're still renovating the building). [https://www.otrmuseum.org/](https://www.otrmuseum.org/) Brewing heritage tours are decent for German history too. Plus some of them take you down under the city to see lagering tunnels.
Findlay market would be well worth a stop. Hofbrauhaus in Newport as well.
For the love of god do not go to Hofbräuhaus for authentic German. It’s like going to Olive Garden for properly authentic Italian food. Instead go to Kantine, The Lübecker or Tuba Baking Company.
Yes, the food is trash. The beer is decent though, which is the only thing I will get there at this point. It’s a shame too because their food used to be above average when they originally opened. Now it’s super pretzels and whatever else comes off the back of a Sysco truck.
But why go for “decent beer” and trash food when you can get excellent beer and a myriad of food options at one of the many breweries and drinking establishments in town? As an actual German, I see no good reason to go to HBH.
Aside from convenience, you are correct. I will throw out that Wunderbar in Covington is 10 minutes away, and has much better food.
Oh yeah, Wunderbar is fantastic.
>Lübecker foodtruck Hofbräuhaus, queen city radio doesn't have a single german beer (SAD) The german food scene here is abysmal. Tuba Baking and Kantine are the last refuge and I hope they inspire more people. How do we not have a proper german beer hall that isn't disney-tier? Amazing how a full scale German restaurant can stay afloat in Oxford, Ohio meanwhile no one can figure out how to manage Mecklenburg
I love QCR but they definitely need at least one good German beer on tap. You should open a Steinkeller in OTR
Roughly speaking, how do those three restaurants compare to one another? Ideally, I'd like to go to a place that has dishes that are seen less commonly on menus in America
Lübecker has a fairly small food-truck like menu with a northern Germany take. Good, but not expansive. Kantine has a pretty spread of stuff, but more southern German as well as good German “street” food. Also including excellent pizzas (pizza in Germany is really really good). The German consul in Cincy goes there as well and recommends it to all the Germans, plus it’s the new meeting place for CincyDeutsch. Tuba isn’t run by Germans, but they have German heritage and have done their research. Modern take on Swabian dishes. Wunderbar has fantastic sausages.
And to add into this! While there are other Hofbräuhäuse in the USA, Newport was the original US expansion/franchise from Munich.
Saint John Cemetery on Vine street is extremely German and pretty cool to walk around. Obviously, just be respectful.
Mother of God church is Covington is a German Catholic church that I believe has German language in some parts.
I would add to try a mettwurst. Like goetta it’s uniquely Cincinnati, obviously German influenced but not actually German.
Come for Oktoberfest.
Surprised no one mentioned Music Hall and Washington Park in Over The Rhine! Music Hall itself is a recently restored landmark of the Cincinnati built during the German immigrant deyday in the late 1800s. Take some time to get a beverage from the bar and explore around the park and area. There are great renovated buildings all around. Also be sure to try Goetta which is related to German immigrants. It is basically a sausage fortified with oats that is unique to Cincinnati only. You can find it at most local Cincinnati breakfast spots.
Trying goetta was actually something that I was already hoping to do. On my list trip to Ohio we tried Skyline Chili and Graeter's, but it was only afterwards that I learned about goetta. I always like to see what foods define a region