TüBINGEN

'Tübingen', a traditional university town in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, is situated 30 kilometres southwest of Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.

Contents

History

Overview

Main sights

Culture

Famous residents past and present

Administrative districts

Historical population

Sister cities

Higher education

Schools

Gallery

References

External links

History

Tübingen itself dates from the 6th or 7th century, officially first appearing in records in 1191. By 1231, the city was a 'civitas' indicating recognition of civil liberties and a court system. Its name ends with the familiar 'ingen', indicating it was originally settled by the Alemanic tribes.
In 1342 Tübingen was purchased by count Ulrich III and incorporated into the County of Württemberg.
Although it is largely impossible to notice such things today, as recently as the 1950s Tübingen was a very socio-economically divided city, with poor local farmers and tradesman living along the ''Stadtgraben'' (City Canal) and students and academics residing around the ''Alte Aula'' and the ''Burse'', the old university buildings. There, hanging on the ''Cottahaus'' a sign advertises Goethe's stay of a few weeks while visiting his publisher. The German tendency to memorialize every minor presence of its historical greats (comparable to the statement "Washington slept here" in the United States) is parodied on the building next door. This simple building, once a dormitory, features a plain sign with the words ''"Hier kotzte Goethe"'' (lit.:"Goethe puked here").
In the second half of the 20th century, Tübingen's administrative area was extended beyond what is now called the "core town" to include several outlying small towns and villages. Most notable among these is Bebenhausen, a village clustered around a castle and Bebenhausen Abbey a Cistercian cloister about 2 miles (3 kilometers) north of Tübingen.

Overview

Tübingen functions as the seat of both the administrative district (''Kreis'') of Tübingen and administrative region (''Regierungsbezirk'') of Tübingen.
In 2002 the city had 82,885 inhabitants, including approx. 22,000 students. Tübingen is best described as a mixture of old and distinguished academic flair (including liberal politics and German-style fraternities) with rural, agricultural and typical Swabian elements. The city is home to many picturesque buildings from previous centuries and lies on the river Neckar.
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 town that can be reached on foot, the pedestrianised old town, other amenities and cultural events offered by the university.
Life in the city is dominated by its many students and Tübingen is the city with the youngest average population in Germany.

Main sights

In central Tübingen, the Neckar river divides briefly into two streams, forming the elongated 1500 meter-long "Neckarinsel" ("Neckar Island"), famous for its "Platanenallee" ("Planes Avenue") with high plane trees, some of which are more than 200 years old. Pedestrians can only reach the island via stairs on the narrow ends leading down from two bridges spanning the Neckar. During the summer, the Neckarinsel is occasionally the venue for concerts, plays and literary readings. The row of historical houses across one side of the elongated Neckarinsel is called the "Neckarfront" and includes the house with adjoining tower where poet Friedrich Hölderlin stayed for the last 36 years of his life as he struggled with mental instability. The Neckar is also the venue in summer for students and tourists to visit beer gardens or go boating on the river, sometimes in punts.
Tübingen's ''Altstadt'' (old town) survived the Second World War due to the city's lack of heavy industry. The result is a growing domestic tourism business as 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.
Landmarks include the ''Rathaus'' (City Hall) on ''Marktplatz'' (Market Square) and the castle, ''Schloß Hohentübingen'', now part of the University of Tübingen. The central landmark of Tübingen's old town is the ''Stiftskirche'' (Collegiate Church). Along with the rest of the city, the Stiftskirche was one of the first to convert to Martin Luther's protestant church. As such, it maintains (and carefully defends) several "Roman Catholic" features, such as patron saints. The centre of Tübingen is the site of weekly and seasonal events, including regular market days on the ''Holzmarkt'' by the Stiftskirche and the ''Marktplatz'' by the Rathaus, an outdoor cinema in winter and summer, festive autumn and Christmas markets and Europe's largest Afro-Brazilian festival.
Below the ''Rathaus'' is a quiet, residential street called the ''Judengasse'', the former Jewish neighborhood of Tübingen until the Tübingen's Jews were expelled from the town in 1477. On the street corner is a plaque commemorating the fate of Tübingen's Jews.

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 town 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.

Famous residents past and present

Famous Tübingen residents include the poet Friedrich Hölderlin, Alois Alzheimer from whom Alzheimer's disease takes its name, Friedrich Miescher who was the first to discover DNA, and Wilhelm Schickard who developed the first mechanical computer, was born in nearby Herrenberg. Hegel and Johannes Kepler studied in Tübingen, and Joseph Alois Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) held a chair in dogmatic theology at the University. Hermann Hesse worked in Tübingen as a bookseller trainee from 1895 to 1899. Tübingen also is the home of scholars of international renown such as the philosopher Ernst Bloch, the theologian Hans Küng, famous author Walter Jens, as well as Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, a Nobel laureate for medicine. Slovenian refugee protestant preacher Primoz Trubar published first two books in Slovenian language (Catechismus and Abecedarium] in Tübingen in 1550. Tübingen is also the hometown of former track and field star Dieter Baumann, winner of 5000 m at the 1992 Summer Olympics.

Administrative districts

★ Bebenhausen

★ Bühl

★ Derendingen

★ Französisches Viertel

★ Hagelloch

★ Hirschau

★ Kilchberg

★ Kreßbach

★ Lustnau

★ Nordstadt

★ Pfrondorf

★ Südstadt

★ Unterjesingen

★ Weilheim

★ Weststadt

★ Wanne

Historical population

Year Population 1871 16,176 1880 19,378 1890 20,913 1900 23,425 1910 28,499 1925 29,971 1933 34,112 1939 35,963 1950 44,221 1956 51,454 1961 58,768 1962 61,068 1963 61,484 1964 62,454 1965 63,450

Year Population 1966 64,886 1967 65,846 1968 67,054 1969 67,947 1970 66,788 1971 68,231 1972 69,650 1973 70,993 1974 71,175 1975 71,348 1976 71,558 1977 71,820 1978 71,193 1979 72,167 1980 73,132

Year Population 1981 74,500 1982 74,766 1983 75,013 1984 75,333 1985 75,825 1986 76,122 1987¹ 71,701 1987 72,936 1988 76,046 1989 78,643 2001 82,444 2002 82,885 2003 83,137 2005 83,496 2006 83,557

¹ census result

Sister cities

Tübingen is twinned with:

★ Monthey, Switzerland, since 1959

★ Aix-en-Provence, France, since 1960

★ Ann Arbor, USA, since 1965

★ Durham, United Kingdom, since 1969

★ Aigle, Switzerland, since 1973

★ Petrozavodsk, Russia, since 1989

★ Perugia, Italy, since 1994

★ Villa El Salvador, Peru, since 2006

★ Kilchberg, Switzerland, only district of Kilchberg, since 1956

★ Kingersheim, France, only district of Hirschau, since 1963
For their commitment to their international partnership, the Council of Europe awarded the Europe Prize to Tübingen and Aix-en-Provence in 1965.^[1] The city's dedication to a European understading is also reflected in the naming of several streets and squares, including the large ''Europaplatz'' (Europe Square) outside the railway station.

Higher education

The Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen dates from 1477, making it one of the oldest in Germany. The city is also host to several research institutes including the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, The Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the MPG, and the Hertie-Institute for Clinical Brain Research.

Schools

More than 10,000 children and young adults in Tübingen regularly attend school. There are 30 schools in the town, 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.
'Primary schools'

★ Freie Aktive Schule Tübingen

★ Grundschule Innenstadt / Silcherschule

★ Grundschule Weilheim

★ Ludwig-Krapf-Schule

★ Grundschule Hügelstraße

★ Französische Schule

★ Dorfackerschule Lustnau

★ Grundschule Hirschau

★ Grundschule Hechinger Eck

★ Grundschule auf der Wanne

★ Grundschule Aischbach

★ Grundschule Winkelwiese / Waldhäuser Ost

★ Grundschule Bühl

★ Grundschule Kilchberg

★ Grundschule Hagelloch

★ Grundschule Pfrondorf

★ Grundschule Unterjesingen
'''Hauptschulen'''

★ Dorfackerschule Lustnau

★ Mörikeschule

★ Geschwister-Scholl-Schule

★ Hauptschule Innenstadt
'''Realschulen'''

★ Walter-Erbe-Realschule

★ Albert-Schweitzer-Realschule

★ Geschwister-Scholl-Schule
'''Gymnasien'''

★ Carlo-Schmid-Gymnasium

★ Geschwister-Scholl-Schule

★ Kepler-Gymnasium

★ Uhland-Gymnasium

★ Wildermuth-Gymnasium

★ Freie Waldorfschule
'Vocational schools' (''Berufsschulen'')

★ Gewerbliche Schule

★ Wilhelm-Schickard-Schule

★ Mathilde-Weber-Schule

★ Bildungs- und Technologiezentrum

Gallery

References

1. Sister Cities. Universitätsstadt Tübingen. Retrieved on 8 May 2007.

External links

★ City's official website

★ City's official website

★ Eberhard Karls University

★ Tourism information

★ Tübingen page of German National Tourist Board

★ Tuebingen Insider Tipps

★ Tuebingen, city of culture

★ TÜzilla Tübingen Open Directory Project entry page

★ War and Holocaust memorials in and around Tuebingen at the ''Sites of Memory'' webpage

★ City Memorial Projects (Jewish and post-war history) website

★ Tourism Information of Tuebingen and the river Neckar