"Legend of Galactic Heroes" everywhere!

Another special treat for me on this trip was finding all sorts of references to names and places from my favorite anime science fiction series, Legend of the Galactic Heroes. In this show the Galactic Empire is a bit like 18^th century Prussia in space. The Empire is ruled by the Kaiser, Friederich IV, descendant of the first Kaiser Rudolf von Goldenbaum, from the Imperial Palace "Neue Sanssouci". Two of the main characters on the Imperial forces are Reinhard von Lohengramm and his aide Siegfried Kircheis.

The single most important Galactic Heroes related stop on my tour was a visit to the real palace of Sanssouci! As the basis for the Imperial Palace on planet Odin in the series, everyone should check my link to those pages, as well as the photos below.

Unfortunately one great LoGH place name I didn't get to take a photo of -- on the bus ride from Cologne toward Lübeck, we passed by an exit sign on the Autobahn indicating an exit for the real town of Iserlohn! I hadn't expected to see this at all and the bus had passed the sign before I had chance to get a photo. This was of special note because this is also the name of the Empire's greatest space fortress.

I also managed to get some photos of something in Berlin which, at the time, I didn't even realize was a Galactic Heroes reference. We visited the Pergamon Museum, home of the Pergamon altar. I only realized afterward that this is also the name of an Alliance battleship in LoGH.

The main focus of the pictures below was the appearance everywhere, on street signs and teacups, names of significance in the series.

Rein & Sieg teacups	Rein & Sieg piggybanks
Admiralty Street	Friederich Street
Ansbach Street	Grunewald station
Victory Column	Goddess of Victory