Волфсбург

Wolfsburg is the youngest city in this book and the most single-minded: founded in 1938 to build a people's car, it became the world capital of Volkswagen — the vast factory's four chimneys are its skyline, the company's Autostadt its greatest visitor attraction, a landscaped automotive theme park where customers collect new cars from glass towers and children earn miniature driving licences. The city's biography is Germany's economic miracle in concentrated form: the Beetle that motorised a continent rolled from these halls by the million.

Aware that a company town needs a soul beyond the assembly line, Wolfsburg commissioned greatness: Alvar Aalto designed its cultural centre and a church, Hans Scharoun its theatre — three works by modern architecture's masters in one young city — and the Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg established itself among Germany's leading houses for contemporary art, its exhibitions of international rank. The Phaeno science centre, Zaha Hadid's concrete spaceship by the station, added a fourth architectural pilgrimage site and a hands-on temple of physics.

Football completes the civic religion — VfL Wolfsburg, the works club, took the Bundesliga title in 2009, its women's team ranking among Europe's best for years — while the Movimentos dance festival and the theatre's guest seasons import the performing arts. A city built around one idea, spending its dividends, with taste, on all the others.