Tübingen

Location

Tübingen developed around the base of the fortress Schloss Hohentübingen and of the St. George's Collegiate Church, and on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers.

Immediately north of the city lies the Schönbuch, a densely wooded nature park. The Swabian Alb mountains rise about 13 km (8 mi) (beeline Tübingen City to Roßberg - 869 m) to the southeast of Tübingen. The Ammer and Steinlach rivers are tributaries of the Neckar river, which flows in an easterly direction through the city, just south of the mediaeval old town. Large parts of the city are hilly, with the Schlossberg and the Österberg in the city centre and the Schnarrenberg and Herrliberg, among others, rising immediately adjacent to the inner city.

The highest point is at about 500 m (1,600 ft) above sea level near Bebenhausen in the Schönbuch forest, while the lowest point is 305 m (1,001 ft) in the city's eastern Neckar valley. The geographical centre of the state of Baden-Württemberg is in a small forest called Elysium, near the Botanical Gardens of the city's university.

History

The area was probably first settled in the 12th millennium BC. The Romans left some traces here in AD 85, when, in confrontation with the local Alamanni, they built a limes frontier wall at the Neckar River. The local castle, Hohentübingen, has records going back to 1078, when it was besieged by Henry IV, King of Germany.

In the middle of the 12th century, the local the Counts of Zollern were raised to Imperial Counts Palatine, with their seat in Tübingen. By 1231, Tübingen was a civitas, indicating recognition by the Crown of civil liberties, a market and a court system. In the later decades of the 13th century, the town saw the establishment an Augustinian, and a Franciscan, monastery, and a Latin school (today's Uhland-Gymnasium). In 1342, the town and castle passed to the Counts of Württemberg.

Coinciding with his expulsion of the town's Jewish community, in 1477 Count (later Duke) Eberhard V (Eberhard im Bart) founded the university. The university, for which St George's, built between 1430 and 1470, became the collegiate church (Stiftskirche), developed as one of the most influential places of learning in the Holy Roman Empire, particularly in theology. Today, the Eberhard Karl University is the largest source of income for the residents of the city and one of the biggest universities in Germany with more than 26,000 students.

Faced with a popular rebellion, in the Treaty of Tübingen 1514, Eberhard's successor, Duke Ulrich, was obliged to submit to co-governance with the assembled Estates (knights, clergy and burghers) and to concede freedom of movement, profession, and enterprise, achievements that were still being fought for in other German states in 1848. In recognition of the treaty, the town assumed the right to bear the Ducal stag antlers above its blazon on its coat of arms.

In 1535, after recovering his bankrupted Duchy from a prolonged imperial-Hapsburg occupation, Duke Ulrich declared for the reformed Lutheran faith and seized church property (the Augustinian monastery was converted to a Protestant seminary, the Tübinger Stift). The religious division in Germany contributed to the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) during which the town was successively occupied by the Catholic League, by the Swedes in 1638, and by the French, and was devastated by plague.

Overview

In 2020, the city had 90,000 inhabitants. Life in the city is dominated by its roughly 28,000 students rendering it the city with the youngest average population in Germany. In 1995, the German weekly magazine Focus published a national survey, according to which Tübingen had the highest quality of life of all cities in Germany. Factors taken into consideration included the infrastructure, the integration of bicycle lanes into the road system, a bus system connecting surrounding hills and valleys, late-night services, areas of the city that can be reached on foot, the pedestrianised old town, and other amenities and cultural events offered by the university.

Main sights

Unlike its industrial neighbour, Reutlingen, in World War II Tübingen was not a persistent target for Allied bombers. Visitors come to wander through one of the few completely intact historic Altstädte in Germany. The highlights of Tübingen include its crooked cobblestone lanes, narrow-stair alleyways picking their way through the hilly terrain, streets lined with canals, and well-maintained traditional half-timbered houses.

Old town landmarks include the Rathaus (Council Chambers or Town Hall) on the central market, Castle Hohentübingen, now part of the University, and the St. George's Collegiate Church from whose oldest feature, the clock tower begun in 1411, visitors have a panoramic views. Below the Rathaus is a quiet, residential street called the Judengasse, which was at the heart of the Jewish community in Tübingen until its expulsion in 1477.

The centre of Tübingen is the site of weekly and seasonal events, including regular market days on the Holzmarkt by the St. George's Collegiate Church and the Marktplatz by the Rathaus, an outdoor cinema in winter and summer, festive autumn and Christmas markets and what was for a time Europe's largest Afro-Brazilian festival. Additionally, Tübingen hosts a yearly Chocolate festival in December.

As it reaches the town's historic centre, the Neckar divides briefly into two streams, forming the elongated Neckarinsel (Neckar Island), famous for its Platanenallee, an avenue of plane trees accessed at its eastern end by a staircase down from the Neckarbrücke, the bridge leading into the old town.

During the summer, the Neckarinsel is occasionally the venue for concerts, plays, and literary readings. The island provides a view of the town's Neckarfront, a collection of historical buildings that includes the Hölderlinturm, the tower house in which poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin spent the last 36 years of his life, as he struggled with mental instability.

Controversially, the island retains a relic of the National-Socialist era, a memorial to the nineteenth-century composer and Volkslied collector, Friedrich Silcher. The authorities especially appreciated Silcher’s Soldatenlieder, or soldier’s songs, which were included in the songbook German soldiers carried in their backpacks during the war. War itself is a theme of the memorial: from behind the seated composer three soldiers advance toward the east, one already falling in battle, and a third locked in a farewell embrace with a woman beside whom marches a child with a rifle over his shoulder. In 2020 the monument was rededicated as a “memorial against the capture of the arts by racist and nationalist forces". A plaque provides historical context. Students and tourists also come to the Neckar River in the summer to visit beer gardens or go boating in Stocherkähne, the Tübingen equivalent of Oxford and Cambridge punts, only slimmer. A Stocherkahn carries up to 20 people. On the second Thursday of June, all Stocherkahn punts take part in a major race, the Stocherkahnrennen.

Government

Tübingen is governed by the mayor, elected by citizens every eight years, and by the municipal council, elected by citizens every five years. The current mayor is Boris Palmer, first elected in 2007 and, after the relatively conservative positions he had taken on a number of issues, including immigration, caused him to be dismissed by the Green Party, to a third eight-year term in 2022 with 52% of the vote as an independent

Tübingen's council decided that the city should be climate-neutral by 2030. In 2022, the city was the first in Germany to tax disposable food packaging. Restaurants in Tübingen are charged 50 cents per disposable cup and cardboard bowl, and 20 cents per piece of cutlery.

Regional structure

Tübingen is the capital of an eponymous district and an eponymous administrative region (Regierungsbezirk), before 1973 called Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern.

Tübingen and Reutlingen with a population of over 100,000 (about 15 km (9.3 mi) east) form a large centre of the Neckar-Alb region. Both cities are based on a different heritage and always belonged to different administrative entities. While they both had a long lasting rivalry they also complement each other. Reutlingen is more business oriented and industrialised and is successful in engineering and trade, while Tübingen excels in education and science, specialised health care and arts.

The double centre of Tübingen and Reutlingen is surrounded by smaller cities and connected to Albstadt, Balingen, Hechingen, Metzingen, Münsingen, Rottenburg, that each form middle centres and contribute to the high population density of the region.

Administratively, it is not part of the Stuttgart Region, bordering it to the north and west (Böblingen district). However, the city and northern parts of its district can be regarded as belonging to that region in a wider regional and cultural context.

Districts

Tübingen is divided into 22 districts, the city core of twelve districts (population of about 51,000) and ten outer districts (suburbs) (population of about 31,000):

Core city districts:

Outer districts:

Culture

Tübingen has a notable arts culture as well as nightlife. In addition to the full roster of official and unofficial university events that range from presentations by the university's official poet in residence to parties hosted by the student associations of each faculty, the city can boast of several choirs, theatre companies and nightclubs. Also, Tübingen's Kunsthalle (art exhibition hall), on the "Wanne", houses two or three exhibits of international note each year.

Events

There are several festivals, open air markets and other events on a regular basis:

January

Arab Movie Festival Arabisches Filmfestival

April

Latin American Movie Festival CineLatino (usually in April or May)

May

Internationales Pianisten-Festival (international festival of pianists)

Rock Festival Rock im Tunnel (usually in May or June)

June

Poled boat race (German: Stocherkahnrennen), second Thursday of June, 2pm, around the Neckar Island

Ract!festival, an alternative open air festival for free with music performances and workshops

Tübinger Wassermusik: concerts on Stocherkahn boats

July

Stadtfest: gastronomy and performances in the streets of the old town

Tübinger Sommerinsel festival: various restaurants serving special meals and associations offering activities on the Neckar Island

August

Tübinger Orgelsommer: organ concerts in the St. George's Collegiate Church

Sommerkonzerte in the former monastery of Bebenhausen (July–September)

Population

Population development

Since World War II, Tübingen's population has almost doubled from about 45,000 to the current 88,000, also due to the incorporation of formerly independent villages into the city in the 1970s.

Currently, Lord Mayor Boris Palmer (Green Party) has set the ambitious goal of increasing the population of Tübingen to 100,000 within the next several years. To achieve this, the city is closing gaps between buildings within the city proper by allowing new houses to be built there; this is also to counter the tendency of urban sprawl and land consumption that has been endangering the preservation of rural landscapes of Southern Germany.

Climate

Tübingen has an oceanic climate, Cfb in the Köppen climate classification.

Twin towns – sister cities

Tübingen is twinned with:

For their commitment to their international partnership, the Council of Europe awarded the Europe Prize to Tübingen and Aix-en-Provence in 1965. The city's dedication to European understanding is also reflected in the naming of several streets and squares, including the large Europaplatz (Europe Square) outside the railway station.

Infrastructure

By plane: Tübingen is about 35 km (21.75 mi) from the Baden-Württemberg state airport (Landesflughafen Stuttgart, also called Stuttgart Airport).

By automobile: Tübingen is on the Bundesstraße 27 (a "federal road") that crosses through Baden-Württemberg, connecting the city with Würzburg, Heilbronn, Stuttgart and the Landesflughafen (Stuttgart Airport) to the north and Rottweil and Donaueschingen to the south.

By rail: Tübingen Hauptbahnhof is the terminus of several train lines and a major railway hub. There is the regional train line Neckar-Alb Railway-Bahn (Neckar-Alb-Bahn) from Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof via Esslingen and Reutlingen to Tübingen. The average time of travel to Stuttgart is 1:01 hrs., with some trains taking only 45 mins. Other regional lines are the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn, connecting the city with Hechingen and Sigmaringen (so-called Zollernalb Railway), Zollernalbbahn and connections to Herrenberg (Ammer Valley Railway, Ammertalbahn) and Horb (Upper Neckar Railway, Obere Neckarbahn). Since 2009, there is also a daily direct Intercity link to Mannheim, Cologne and Düsseldorf as well as to Berlin.

Local public transport: The city, due to its high student population, features an extensive public bus network with more than 20 lines connecting the city districts and places outside of Tübingen such as Ammerbuch, Gomaringen and Nagold. There are also several night bus lines in the early hours every day. A direct bus is available to Stuttgart Airport (via Leinfelden-Echterdingen) as well as to Böblingen and Reutlingen.

Sport

Tigers Tübingen are the city's only professional sports team, playing basketball. They play in the Paul Horn-Arena. Women's Handball-Bundesliga team TuS Metzingen hosts its home games at the Paul Horn-Arena.

Education

Higher education and research

The Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen dates from 1477, making it one of the oldest in Germany. Including the university hospitals, it is also the city's largest employer. The town is also host to several research institutes including the Max Planck Institutes for Biological Cybernetics, Developmental Biology, Intelligent Systems, The Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the MPG, and the Max Planck Institute for Biology, the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, the Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and many others. A modern technology park is growing in the northern part of the city, where science, industrial companies and start-ups are conducting joint research, primarily on biotechnology and artificial intelligence. The university also maintains a botanical garden, the Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen. Furthermore, there is a Protestant College of Church Music.

Schools

More than 10,000 children and young adults in Tübingen regularly attend school. There are 30 schools in the city, some of which consist of more than one type of school. Of these, 17 are primary schools while the others are for secondary education: four schools are of the lowest rank, Hauptschule, three of the middle rank, Realschule, and six are Gymnasien (grammar schools). There also are four vocational schools (Berufsschule) and three special needs schools.

Alumni from the university

Johann Reuchlin (1455–1522), Catholic humanist and scholar of Greek and Hebrew

Philip Melanchthon (1497–1560), Lutheran reformer

Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), astronomer, mathematician, and astrologer

Wilhelm Schickard (1592–1635), professor of Hebrew and astronomy, inventor of the world's first mechanical calculator, lived and died here.

Gottfried Heinrich Graf zu Pappenheim (1594–1632), a field marshal of the Holy Roman Empire, studied here.

Rudolf Jakob Camerarius (1655–1721), botanist and professor, proved for the first time the sexual reproduction of plants.

Christoph Martin Wieland (1733–1813), classical writer of the Enlightenment

Sir James Steuart Denham, 8th Baronet (1744–1839), a Scottish soldier of the British Army, Uni attendance, 1757 to 1761

J. G. Friedrich von Bohnenberger (1765–1835), pioneer of a modern geodesy, inventor of the gyroscope

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831), philosopher of Idealism, studied here.

Friedrich Hölderlin (1770–1843), poet and philosopher, studied, lived and died here.

Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), philosopher of Idealism, studied here.

Friedrich List (1789–1846), economist, university professor