Germany's Top Five

Even if you're not buying, it's fun to look. ART COLOGNE, Germany's leading annual art fair, will be in new, more modern digs this year. But the mix of around 250 galleries -- from brand new to well-established -- will offer art lovers the same comprehensive overview of 20th and 21st century works that it has for the past 38 years. The primary focus is on classic, post-war and contemporary art. An integral part of ART COLOGNE is "open space", a curated open exhibition area for contemporary art. Last year some 70,000 visitors attended.

The Comedian Harmonists were a singing sensation of the 1920s and 30s in Germany, an elegant vocal sextet known for close harmonies delivered with humor and style. But several of the members were Jewish and many of their songs were written by Jews, and the music was denounced as Marxist noise by the Nazis. The group was outlawed in 1934, its members scattered to the winds. A must-see revue at the Nationaltheater in Mannheim covers their story and music. Saturday nights through November.

Do soccer and art mix? True, the pair aren't usually considered bedfellows, but the Round Leather Worlds exhibit in Berlin aims to connect the sport and modern art in an "aesthetic interaction." The show, at the Martin-Gropius Bau, shows paintings, video installations, drawings, sculptures and photographs by internationally renowned and young artists, all dealing with the world of soccer. It is the most comprehensive -- though perhaps only -- exhibition on the subject of art and football to date. Bound to appeal to appeal to art lovers and soccer fans alike.

Federweisser is best drunk fresh, and in good company. The best place to do this is in the picturesque town of Rüdesheim on the Rhine, where the vintners and the wine amateurs can hardly wait to tap the yeasty, not-yet-fully fermented, new wine from the barrels. This weekend, the whole town turns out for the annual Federweisser festival, featuring local foods and wines as well as entertainment.

The show Driving Forces of the Earth at the Pinakothek der Moderne Kunst in Munich features 50 paintings of vegetal forms and metamorphic concepts done in 1944 by Franz Mark, Fritz Winter, Josef Beuys and Per Kirkeby. They were originally understood as a symbolic representation of an "inner emigration," a persistent silence by regime-hostile artists and intellects in fascist Germany. The exhibition supplements this with contemporary works, exploring the relationship between vegetation, growth and transformation; the idea of "driving forces." From Oct. 27 through Jan. 15.