Germany's Top Five

Stay up late, but don't party.

Visit a museum instead. In Düsseldorf's annual Night of Museums, the art-rich city keeps its museums open late into the night and invites visitors to experience all that its many collections have to offer in a festive atmosphere. Pioneered in Berlin, the idea of showcasing dozens of museums for one night a year spread to other German cities and Düsseldorf joined the pack in 2001. Visitors can roam the collections at will and move around freely using special shuttle buses. A varied group of specialist museums covering such topics as film and glass round out the selection. For the museum night, many venues organize thematic programs including films and music.

Buy your inner child some popcorn

at the Filmfest Dresden. Starting April 12 through April 17, venues all over the city will showcase animated and short films. Already active before German reunification, it has become one of the more popular festivals in the past few years and its prize-winning films have toured the country. Past festivals have included thematic overviews of current short films from Scandinavia as well as a retrospective of the golden age of the Georgian film industry. Local filmmakers from Saxony present their latest work to the festival audience alongside the official competition program.

There's more to Jackson Pollock than just drip paintings on canvas. For a look at the American artist's works on paper, visit the German Guggenheim Museum between now and April 17. The show, entitled "No Limits, Just Edges: Jackson Pollock Paintings on Paper" features some 40 artworks borrowed from international collections. The retrospective highlights the most important phases of Pollock's drawing, beginning with his early sketchbook studies based on the works of old masters and the Mexican muralists of the 20th century. Particular emphasis is given to drawings created between 1940 and 1950 that mirror the artist's development from surrealistic motives and techniques to the abstract compositions of his later years.

Sing "hallelujah" as as the three American "Wild Women" -- Linda Hopkins, Maxine Weldon und Mortonette Jenkins -- bring the house down once more when they do their jazz, blues and gospel thing in Hamburg. This time, they're appearing at the dinner-and-entertainment mega-venue Fliegende Bauten. Especially wonderful is 80-year-old blues and gospel legend Linda Hopkins, whose impressive and passionate voice shows no signs of age.

Baden-Baden plays host to the Brahms Days Festival, a music festival celebrating the German composer Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), with four days of concerts at venues across the spa town. In addition to live performances there is a lecture on the musician at the Brenner's Park-Hotel and the first day of the festival sees a opening session at the town's Kurhaus. Concerts take place at both venues and at the Festspielhaus. Baden-Baden is also home to the Brahmshaus, a museum in the composer's former holiday home. April 14 through 17.