meltwaterfalls:
It seems like a pretty transparent fudge of trying to get yet another western European cathedral on the list, by calling it a CL.
That's also my impression. Originally, only the cathedral was put on the list. Later the title was changed and several rather mediocre secular and sacred buildings within a radius of about 10 km around Naumburg have been added.
The nomination website and a broschure provides short descriptions of the monuments (both in German):
http://www.welterbeansaaleundunstrut.de/de/antragsgebiet-copy.htmlhttp://www.welterbeansaaleundunstrut.de/media/hauptnavi/aktuelles/pdf/welterbe_brosch ur_web.pdfThe universal value of the landscape is said to be the "high density of preserved monuments from the High-Middle Ages (10th to 13th Century)" and the "still visible characteristics of the landscape in form of vineyards, traditional orchards, mills and irrigation."
Certainly, the 2000 pages of the nomination file will include a bulk of historical data to support the concept of a cultural landscape, but I doubt that it will be convincing.
In my opinion, the Hamburg nomination has the best chances for an inscription, both parts - Chilehaus and Speicherstadt - are outstanding.
The Erzgebirge has also good chances, I guess, 44 German and about 5 Czech locations represent mining activity over a period of several centuries: silver, tin, zinc, cobalt, nickel, copper, lead, and uranium. I've only visited the town of Freiberg many years ago, long before I began to tick off WHS. Thus, I can't say anything about the quality of the individual sites. But the description on the nomination website (German parts only) looks quite interesting - and it's a really nice landscape.
http://welterbe.wfe.eu/2_mp/k3/