The charming villages still inspire artists today. When painters rediscovered nature as a source of inspiration, their style became freer and more expressive. Color, light and motion were captured as if in a snapshot. The works, which were very unconventional for their time, awakened the curiosity of many artists, who wanted to see the scenery and places that had inspired the pieces.

A group of like-thinking artists founded a colony in Ahrenshoop on the Baltic Sea. Others were drawn to the moors of Worpswede near the North Sea, where they founded an artists' colony in 1889. And the world-famous "Blaue Reiter" group was drawn to the unique light of Murnau in Bavaria.