location

The city seen from the West, 2011

Heidelberg lies partly in the Upper Rhine lowlands, mainly on the left bank of the Lower Neckar before its flow from the Odenwald in a long, upstream valley floor surrounded by Königstuhl (568 m) and Gaisberg (375 m). The river Neckar flows from east to west here, on the right bank of the Neckar the Heiligenberg (445 m) rises. The Neckar flows approximately 22 kilometers northwest, measured from the end of the valley floor, into the Rhine in Mannheim. The villages built in the 20th century pass through the Neckar Valley into the mountain road that runs along the edge of the Odenwald. The city is located in the metropolitan area of Rhein-Neckar, a compaction area of 2.35 million inhabitants, comprising parts of South Hessen and the Rheinland-Pfalz Forest in Baden-Württemberg, the two districts of Mannheim and Heidelberg, as well as the western and southern municipalities of the Rhine-Neckar district.

area

According to data from the National Statistical Office, as at 2015

flora and fauna

Because Heidelberg is located in one of the warmest regions in Germany, some special features are flourishing here for central European conditions, such as almond and fig trees - planted in gardens outside the country - or even olive trees. The "balcony" of the city is formed with many exotic growth of the Philosopher Trail opposite the old town. In 2000, wine growing was again successfully started there.

In Heidelberg there are also populations of free-living necklaces whose ornithological name is Psittacula krameri, as well as a free-living population of Siberian swan geese, which can be found mainly on the Neckar Island near Bergheim and on the Neckar meadows. In many cases, however, the issue of naturalization of alien species (neobiota), which have usually been derived from escaped zoo or domestic animals (prisoners), is also referred to as a matter of nature conservation.

nature

NSG Russenstein on the right bank of the Neckar (turned. 2016)

The following five nature reserves exist in the Heidelberg area. This means that 85.4 hectares of the urban area are protected by nature, or 0.78%.

1. Former Buntsandstein quarry at the Neckarhalde: 13.4 ha; Ziegelhausen
2. Rocky Sea, Rusenstein, Michelsbrunnen Natural Park: 11.2 ha; Gemarken Heidelberg
3. Leimen quarry 22,0 ha (of which 4,0 ha in the Heidelberg district); Gemarken Heidelberg
4. Lower Neckar: Altneckar Heidelberg-Wieblingen: 45.2 ha; Wieblingen
5. Lower Neckar: Altneckar Wörth-Weidenseedeck: 16.7 ha (of which 11.6 ha in the Heidelberg district)

administrative structures, region

Situation in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area

Heidelberg is the seat of the regional council of the Rhine-Neckar district. The city itself is free from the surrounding area of the district of Karlsruhe. Heidelberg belongs to the compaction area Rhein-Neckar, which includes parts of South Hessen and the "Anterior Pfalz" in Rheinland-Pfalz in Baden-Württemberg, the two municipalities Mannheim and Heidelberg as well as the western and southern municipalities of the Rhine-Neckar district. It forms the economic area known as the Rhine-Neckar triangle with a large number of other municipalities. In 2005, the Rhine-Neckar triangle became the European metropolitan area.

Within the Rhine-Neckar region, Heidelberg forms a conurbation next to Mannheim, of which a total of 14 are designated for the whole of Baden-Württemberg according to the 2002 regional development plan. The Oberzentrum Heidelberg also takes over the function of a medium area within the administrative structures of the Land for the surrounding municipalities of Dossenheim, Schriesheim, Wilhelmsfeld, Heddesbach, Heiligkreuzsteinach, Schönau, Neckargemünd, Wiesenbach, Bammental, Gaiberg, Leimen, Nußloch, Sandhausen and Eppelheim.

neighboring communities

The following towns and municipalities are adjacent to the town of Heidelberg, starting in the west clockwise: Eppelheim, Plankstadt, Mannheim, Edingen-Neckarhausen, Dossenheim, Schriesheim, Wilhelmsfeld, Schönau, Neckargemünd, Bammental, Gaiberg, Leimen, Sandhausen, Ogansheim (except for the city of Mannheim all belonging to the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis).

View from the castle to the old town of Heidelberg

View of the Neckar from the Old Bridge at dusk

View of Heidelberg from the Königstube at night

border courtyard

city

The city of Heidelberg is divided into 15 districts and 47 districts. These include seven former neighboring villages that were built up until 1975. In some districts there are other small, separate living spaces and farmhouses.

Heidelberg district

transfer year places increment in ha 1891 new home 497 1903 glove 1546 1920 Wieblingen 966 1920 church 1375 1927 pipe 1140 1920/35 border 445 January 1, 1975 brick house 1475

• city

One of the oldest districts in Heidelberg is the old town, the historic center of the city, located between Neckar and the Royal Chair. There you will find most of the sights such as the Heidelberg Castle. Because of its rich cultural heritage, Heidelberg applied in 2004 and 2007 for recognition of the old town as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. This part of the city also includes the more remote areas such as the whey cure, the coal yard and the Speyerer Hof. Along with the old town, the Bergheim, located west of the old town, forms the city center. The former village is older than the old town. The remains of human settlement can be traced back to the early Stone Age. Bergheim was first documented in the Lorscher Codex in 769. In 1392, the village of Bergheim was dissolved and the inhabitants forced to move to the rapidly growing residential town of Heidelberg. During industrialization at the end of the 19th century, when the city expanded to the west, the area was repopulated.

• center

Just south-west of the center of Heidelberg you will find the western town, which in the south passes into the southern city. These districts were formed by the rapid population growth of Heidelberg during the industrialization of the city as a business district (western town) and after the Second World War (southern city). The southern city includes the Mark Twain Village and Campbell Barracks, where US soldiers and their families were housed until the official US withdrawal in 2014. At the moment (January 2016) a new use is being sought in a conversion project.

To the west is a new district bordering Bergheim and the West Town: The so - called railway city is still under construction, but only the western third of the master plan is missing. In July 2014, a first phase of construction was inaugurated. One of the largest passive houses in the world is to be built on the site of the former freight and marshaling station.

• south

Further south lies the Rohrbach district with the Hasenleiser and the beer hero Hof. To the south-east Heidelberg is completed by the two still young districts of Boxberg and Emmertsgrund.

• west

The largest and oldest part of Heidelberg is Kirchheim. There were already settlements in the present community at the Bronze Age. Several Carolingian tombs found during excavations on the spider in the 1970s bear witness to the importance of Kirchheim as an important junction between the monasteries Lorsch and Mainz. Kirchheim forms the southwestern part of Heidelberg and was founded in 1920. Kirchheim is also home to the Kurpfalzhof, Kirchheimer Hof, the Patrick Henry Village (a US Army settlement founded in 1947, which, after the withdrawal of troops in 2014, is still being used as a temporary shelter for refugees (as of 2016). Patrick Henry Village is also the first reception and coordination and distribution center for refugees.), the Pleikartsförster Hof and Neurott.

On the edge of the west town towards Kirchheim lies the Residential area Im Mörgelgewann. The lodging is secluded from the social and visual worlds; it can only be reached via a runway. It was originally built to house the refugees after World War II. In 2008, about 300 people were living here, who were sheltered as homeless by the city of Heidelberg.

On the western edge of Heidelberg is the Pfaffengrund. It can be divided into an industrial area to the north and a residential area to the south. The name Pfaffengrund derives from the medieval name of the land, the area itself used as arable land until 1920.

Further north is Wieblingen with the border station and the Ochsenkopf. Like Kirchheim and the Pfaffengrund, Wieblingen became a district of Heidelberg in 1920. It was first mentioned in the Lorscher Codex in 767.

• north

In front of the city center, on the northern bank of the river Neckar, is the Neuenheim district. The development of Neuenheim began in the pre-Roman period. It was the first district in Heidelberg to become part of the city area in 1891, when it was incorporated into the city. The new campus of Ruprecht-Karls-Universität is located in the Neuenheimer Field.

Further north is the Gschuhsheim, which was conurbated a few years after Neuenheim, in 1903. The name glove's home probably originates from a landowner in the early Middle Ages, whose coat of arms depicted a hand or a glove.

• east

Schlierbach lies to the east, on the south side of the Neckar. It was first documented in 1245. The area is one of the high residential areas of Heidelberg.

Briegelhausen with the district of Peterstal is located on the other side of the Neckar. Ziegelhausen was documented in 1220, a few years before Schlierbach. The area was probably already settled in Roman times. In 1975, despite the will of the vast majority of its inhabitants, Ziegelhausen was moved to Heidelberg.

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The Neckar crosses Heidelberg. Panorama from the Theodor-Heuss bridge. On the left side Neuenheim with a meadow in Neckar, on the right side of the Old Town.

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Heidelberg Castle: Panorama with view of the castle terraces and the old town.

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Panorama view from Heidelberg Castle to the Old Town with sanctuary over the Neckar

climate

The climate in the region in the protected location between the Palatinate Forest and the Odenwald is mild all year round and 65% is determined by the supply of maritime air masses from the west. Compared to the nearby Rhine plain, Heidelberg's position at the exit of the Neckartal valley causes an above-average frequency of winds from the east. The slopes of the Odenwald forest encourage cloud formation and rainfall. Between 1971 and 2000, the DWD climate station in Heidelberg had an average temperature of 11.1 °C and a precipitation rate of 745 mm per year. The warmest month is July at an average temperature of 20.1 °C, the coldest in January at 2.5 °C. Temperatures above 30°C are not rare in the summer. Most precipitation falls in July, and the driest month is March .

The town of Heidelberg was founded in the 12th century; Its history goes back to Celtic and Roman times. From the 13th century to the year 1720 Heidelberg was the residence of the Palatinate Counts near the Rhine and the capital of the Kurpfalz.

history

reconstruction of the lower jaw of wall

Near Heidelberg, in the municipality of Mauer, in 1907 a sandpit found the lower jaw of a primal man (lower jaw of wall), one of the oldest finds of the genus Homo in Europe. This extinct hominid species Homo heidelbergensis (Heidelbergmensch) originates from the Neanderthal.

Celtic

from approximately 500 %. c. The Celts founded a larger fortified settlement on the Heiligenberg. Their double ring wall, designed to protect against the penetrating Germanes, is still visible. 200 years later, this facility was abandoned for unexplained reasons.

Roman

Heidelberg was a Roman town from the 1st to the 3rd century AD. c. At 70. c. The Romans founded a camp in the present-day Neuenheim, which was replaced by two stone castles around 90. A wooden bridge led across the Neckar and a stone-piled bridge from about 200. A temple of Mercury was created at the top of the Heiligenberg, and the cult of Mithras was also spread in Heidelberg. In Roman times, the main town of the region was the neighboring Lopodunum (now Ladenburg), but also around the military camp in Heidelberg (whose Latin name is unknown) a thriving pottery center developed.

After 260, the Romans had to withdraw to the Rhine before the Roman tribe of the Alamannas, which had broken through the Limes and invaded Roman territory. The victory of the Merchandise King Chlodwig I. Heidelberg finally became part of France over the Alamannas in 506, and the area was also Christianized.

medieval

In 870 the Michaelskloster was founded at the summit of the Heiligenberg instead of the old Mercury temple as a branch monastery of the Lorsch monastery, which at that time had the Bistum Worms for the dominance of the region. Later on, another branch, the Stephanskloster, and the monastery of Neuburg, followed.

The oldest written mention of Heidelberg dates back to 1196. However, it can be assumed that the town was built in the course of the 12th century. At that time, Heidelberg was owned by the Bistum Worms and consisted of the Upper castle on the whey cure on the slope of the royal chair and a Burgweiler in the area of the St. Peterskirche at the foot of the mountain. Many of the present districts of Heidelberg date back to villages dating back to the Frankish period in the 6th century. Some of them were first documented in the Lorscher Codex, Neuenheim and Gloe House in about 765.

The witch tower in the inner courtyard of the New University is the only remnant of the medieval fortifications

The predecessor building of the Heidelberg Castle was built on the Jettenbühl in the 13th century. At the same time, the city was planned in the area between the Royal Chair and Neckar with a square plan and the marketplace in the center. This city center took the eastern part of the present old town to the Grabengasse. It was surrounded by a city wall, and a bridge led across the Neckar River.

Emperor Friedrich I In 1156, Barbarossa appointed his half brother Konrad as a pastor near the Rhine. The Palatinate was ruled by the Wittelsbacher dynasty and developed into a larger territorial entity within the Holy Roman Empire. In 1225, the Palatinate near Rhine received the former Wormser Heidelberg as Lehen. In 1356 the Palatinate near Rhine was awarded the "Kurwould" in the Golden Bulle. From then on, they were known as the princes of the Palatinate and their territory was called the "Kurpfalz". Initially, the Palatinate councilors did not have a permanent residence but stayed in various places within their area of jurisdiction. As early as the 13th century, Heidelberg had developed the character of a residential town. In the 14th century, when the reign was abandoned, the city was able to prevail against Neustadt an der Haardt and became the capital of the Kurpfalz.

In 1386, Ruprecht I founded. the University of Heidelberg as the third university in the Holy Roman Empire (after Prague and Vienna). She is the oldest university in Germany. In 1392 Heidelberg was extensively extended, the city area nearly doubled and corresponded to the present old town. Heidelberg benefited from the reign of Ruprect III, which was elected Roman-German king in 1400, through the construction of the Holy Spirit Church. His successors made the University of Heidelberg a stronghold of early humanism towards the end of the 15th century.

current

engraving of Heidelberg by Matthäus Merian from 1620

Intake of Heidelberg by the troops of Tillys. See also: siege and administration of Heidelberg in 1622

view of the castle, 1645

In the first half of the 16th century, Martin Luther's reformatory ideas had spread in southwest Germany. The population decided in 1545/1546 to accept the new faith, the introduction of which Paul Fagius was commissioned by Friedrich II. should be prepared. The Reformation was finally introduced in the Kurfürst Ottheinrich (1556-1559). After the transition to Calvinism, Heidelberg attracted students and scholars from all over Western Europe and was considered the third Geneva after suffering. In 1563 Heidelberg published the Heidelberg Catechism and in 1572 the first German translation of the Institutio Christianae Religionis, the main work of Johannes Calvin. Towards the end of the century, a large number of magnificent Renaissance buildings were built in Heidelberg, all destroyed in the Palatinate War of Succession - only the facade of the house to the Knights survived the devastation. The castle was then extended considerably and transformed from a medieval castle into a modern residence.

In order to be able to offer his wife, the English king daughter Elisabeth Stuart, a standard living, Kurfürst Friedrich V. (1610-1623) redesign the Heidelberg castle by building the Hortus Palatinus. On political terrain, Friedrich, as leader of the Protestant Union, was entangled in the turmoil of the Thirty Years' War when he was elected Bohemian king in 1619. In 1620 he was defeated in the Battle of the White Mountains in the battle of the Catholic Emperor. Because of his short rule, he entered history as a winter king. In the first weeks of September 1622, Tilly successfully besieged as the leader of the Catholic League of Heidelberg. Heidelberg was taken on 16 September. Like all the Kurpfalz in the right - Rhine region, the city remained occupied by Bavaria until the peace agreements of Muenster and Osnabrück (while the Kurpfalz in the left - Rhine region became Spanish). However, the city was repeatedly conquered and occupied by Swedish troops between 1632 and 1634. During this time, Herzog gave Maximilian I. from Bavaria the Bibliotheca Palatina Pope Gregor XV. It has since been held in the Library of Vaticana (and in this way has the subsequent destruction of Heidelberg by the troops of Louis XIV. in the Palatinate hereditary war). Heidelberg was severely hit by the war and the population suffered great hardship. In the Peace of Westphalia, which ended the Thirty Years War in 1648, the Kurpfalz was restored, but it lost much of its political weight.

Karl II. In 1685 the line Pfalz-Simmer of the House of Wittelsbach passed away without children, and the Kurfürstendamm moved to the Catholic parapet Pfalz-Neuburg. From the inheritance claims made by the French King Louis XIV. now raised with reference to his sister-in-law Elisabeth Charlotte (better known as Liselotte of the Palatinate), the Palatinate hereditary war resulted. In the course of this war, Heidelberg was seized twice, in 1688 and 1693, by French troops and was completely devastated. After the war of succession in 1697, the destroyed "Heidelberg" in the Baroque style was rebuilt on a medieval ground. The now Catholic Kurfürst settled in the city of Jesuits.

The castle of Heidelberg was uninhabitable after the destruction by the French, but it was no longer in keeping with the baroque style of the times, which favored generous castle facilities along the lines of Versailles. Plans to build such a residence in the plain near the present district of Bergheim failed in the resistance of the Heidelberg citizenry, and so Charles III decided. Philipp 1720 after a dispute with the Protestants of Heidelberg over the Protestant Church of the Holy Spirit, which the Catholic Kurfürst claimed to transfer his residence to Mannheim. In the square town, which was much more in keeping with the Baroque zeitgeist and the representative interest of the Kurfürst than the medieval Heidelberg, he had the magnificent Mannheim Castle built. Heidelberg lost its position as a political center of power and also suffered economically from the departure of the court state. But Heidelberg also benefited from the reign of Kurfürst Carl Theodors (1743-1799) through the construction of the Old Bridge and the Karlsstore. The restoration of the castle was stopped in 1764 after a devastating lightning strike.

1803 to 1933

The Kurpfalz was dissolved in 1803 in the Reichsdeputationshende, and the right-wing Rhine regions and thus Heidelberg were beaten up to the soon-to-be-Grand Duchy of Baden. The Grand Duke of Baden, Karl Friedrich (1771-1811), made the university a state-funded educational institution and helped it to become a renowned educational establishment. In honor of him and the founder of the university, Kurfürst Ruprecht I., the University of Heidelberg received the new name "Ruprecht-Karls-Universität".

At the beginning of the 19th century the town of Neckar became one of the most important places of the German romantic, favored by the beautiful landscape and the picturesque castle ruin. The work of poets such as Friedrich Hölderlin, Ludwig Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano and Joseph von Eichendorff was known as the "Heidelberger Romantic". Arnim and Brentano published a collection of German folk songs in Heidelberg between 1806 and 1808 under the title Des Knaben Wunderhorn. A circle of artists around the painters Carl Philipp Fohr, Carl Rottmann and Ernst Fries was also created in Heidelberg.

During the previous March, national, liberal and democratic ideas were disseminated at Heidelberg University. On March 5, 1848, liberal and democratic politicians from south-west Germany gathered for the Heidelberg Assembly, which provided decisive impetus to the subparliament and thus to the constitution of the Frankfurt National Assembly. After the failure of the National Assembly, the May uprising in Baden was crushed by Prussian troops called to help. In Heidelberg, too, there were fights against liberal free - shakers.

The industrialization passed without much trace at the Neckar city. Tourism became an important economic factor in Heidelberg from the early 19th century, especially since the city was connected to the railway network in 1840, and the number of students, many of whom were connected to the student network, also increased. Joseph Victor of Scheffel's poem Alt-Heidelberg, you fine (later in the toned version a popular student song) and the play Alt-Heidelberg, which was performed in 1901, made Heidelberg a symbol of student life in the 19th century.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, Heidelberg experienced a rapid expansion when the city area was enlarged by numerous municipalities. The population of Heidelberg rose from 20,000 in 1871 to 85,000, more than four times, in 1933. At the same time, the infrastructure was expanded with the introduction of the tram and mountain railway and the channeling of the Neckar (in the 1920s). In 1930, generous donations from influential US citizens made it possible to build the New University's classroom building at University Square. The Chrysler family is one of the names of a commemorative plaque inside the auditorium building.

In Heidelberg, the results of the NSDAP elections were mostly higher than the average in the empire or in Baden: In the Reichstag elections on 20 May 1928, 2.6 % in the Reich, 2.9 % in Baden and 4.4 % in Heidelberg; 18.3 % in the Reichstag elections on 14 September 1930, 19.2 % in Baden and 30.2 % in Heidelberg.

• The Heidelberg Castle in front of the Rhine plain, Carl Rottmann, 1815

• The Heidelberg castle was destroyed by the French in the Palatinate Succession War. Paintings by Carl Blechen, 1829

• exit of a train from Heidelberg railway station, lithography from 1842

• The Kornmarkt market with horse carriages and statue of the Virgin Mary, 1881

National Socialism and World War II

After the transfer of power to the NSDAP on January 30, 1933, one of the city's darkest chapters began, organized discrimination against Jews and other "non-aristans." The NSDAP was voted 45.8 % of the votes cast in the Reichstag elections of 5 March 1933 (Reich: 43,9 %; bathing: 45.4 %) is the strongest party in the city. In April 1933, all "non-Aryan" civil servants were forced to leave, until 1939, the University of Heidelberg lost more than one third of its teaching staff for racist or political reasons (in 1930, 9% of the teaching staff of Jewish confession). During the Reichspogromnacht night on November 9, 1938, Heidelberg National Socialists burned the synagogues in the old town and in Rohrbach. At the same time, they destroyed the Betsaal in Plöck 35 and raided and looted numerous shops and apartments of Jewish citizens in front of the public and the police. The next day, 150 Heidelberg Jews were kidnapped into the concentration camp Dachau for the purpose of supposed protection in order to compel them to emigrate and to secure their assets. On October 22, 1940, in the "Wagner-Bürckel-Action", more than 6,000 Badian Jews, including 280 from Heidelberg, were deported to the internment camp Camp de Gurs in southwest France. Few survived.

A visible architectural legacy is the Thingstätte on the Heiligenberg, an open-air stage built between 1934 and 1935 by the ReichsArbeitsdienst and Heidelberg students. In 1934, the Cemetery of Honor on the Ameisenbuckel was also built by the Reich Labor Service. In 1935 the Reichsautobahn Heidelberg-Mannheim was inaugurated, now known as the A 656, and at both ends, in Mannheim and Heidelberg, the B 37 was reduced to the federal level. Until the late 1990s, the A 656 led directly to Mannheim and Heidelberg.

Heidelberg, one of the few major German cities, was almost intact during World War II. The first air attack was carried out by the Allies on the night of the 19th century. 20. September 1940, when bombs hit the Pfaffengrund district. 23. In September 1940, a German air raid on Cambridge was launched in retaliation for the attack on Heidelberg. Smaller air strikes in 1944 and 1945 caused only minor damage. Of the 9,129 residential buildings in Heidelberg, a total of 13 were totally destroyed (0.14%), 32 were severely damaged (0.35%), 80 were medium (0.87%) and 200 were slightly damaged (2.19%). Of 25,933 dwellings, 45 were totally destroyed (0.17%) and 1,420 were damaged (5.47%). The total loss of housing caused by air strikes was 0.8 %. Freight station and Tiergarten were severely damaged by bombs or artillery fire. A total of 241 people were killed in air strikes in Heidelberg.

Why Heidelberg was almost spared is not entirely clear. Numerous contemporary witnesses from the old town, the west town and the Pfaffengrund report that, a few months before the US invasion, leaflets were dropped in Heidelberg with the inscription "Heidelberg we want to protect, because we want to live in it ourselves"; only the exact wording slightly varies according to the report. The announcement of sparing and liberation was discarded by all contemporary witnesses, so no copy could be archived to this day.

The Wehrmacht exploded in its retreat on March 29, 1945. a. the Old Bridge. On March 30, the American troops marched to the 63rd Infantry Division of the 7th. US Army without any significant resistance. They could take over many buildings in the city for their purposes, including: a. the large German barracks, which has since been called Campbell Barracks. By the end of the war, the German infantry group 110, the 33, was stationed there. Infantry Division and from the end of 1940 the 112. subordinate to the Infantry Division and was used in the French and Russian campaigns.

• The Thingstätte on Heiligenberg, built in 1935

• View from the Old Bridge to the castle, 1939

• View from the main road to the castle, 1939

After World War II

Heidelberg in the 1950s

After World War II, the intact Heidelberg attracted many bombed and displaced Germans. Heidelberg became part of the American occupation zone and site of high command posts of the US Army and later of NATO. The American authorities expropriated property for this, which initially caused discontent. From 1948 to 2013, the Campbell Barracks in Heidelberg was the headquarters of the United States Army Europe (USAREUR), the former 7th. US Army. Until 2013, the city was also home to the NATO headquarters in Central Europe.

In October 2009 it was announced that USAREUR headquarters would be moved to Wiesbaden. In August 2011 the traditional V left. U.S. Army Corps Heidelberg moved to Wiesbaden. In September 2013 the Campbell Barracks were officially closed by the US Army. In 2013, the 65-year history of the USAREUR - and American troops in general - ended with the move to the new headquarters in Wiesbaden-Erbenheim in Heidelberg. In 2008, American forces had occupied almost 200 hectares of land, including two barracks, two residential settlements, and a military hospital (news barracks). In 2010, approximately 16,000 Americans lived in Heidelberg; So the Americans had a 10 percent share of the Heidelberg population at the time.

In January 1946, the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität took up the teaching business again as the second West German university after Göttingen. Even before the war, some of the university's facilities had been moved from the old town campus to Neuenheim on the other side of the Neckar. From 1951 onwards, a completely new campus, the Neuenheimer field, was built on the western outskirts of the city. In the mid-1970s, the expansion of the 120 hectare site was essentially finished. In 1955, the main railway station was moved to its present location approximately 1.2 kilometers west of the old site. The area released was used for the construction of numerous administrative buildings on the Kurfürstenanlage. In the 1960s and 1970s, two completely new residential areas were built in the south of the city with Boxberg and Emmertsgrund to accommodate the growing population of Heidelberg.

The expansion of Heidelberg was completed in 1975 when the municipality of Ziegelhausen, located in the Neckartal, was incorporated into the city. During the term of office of Mayor Reinhold Zundel (1966 to 1990) the old town was renovated, the main road 1.6 kilometers long was transformed into one of the longest pedestrian areas in Europe and the Bismarckplatz became its present form.

In the 1970's and 1980's, the terrorist organization RAF carried out two attacks against American military installations in Heidelberg. On May 24, 1972, a bomb attack on the US headquarters of the 7. US Army in Campbell Barracks the American soldiers Clyde R. Bonner, Charles L. Peck and Ronald A. Woodward was killed and five more people were seriously injured. The assassination of General Frederick James Kroesen, commander-in-chief of the US military forces in Europe, on 15 September 1981, with a Soviet-type RPG-7 tank box at the Karlstor in Heidelberg, failed as the LKA Baden-Württemberg recently gave him a armored Mercedes-Benz liousine after suspicious persons had been observed during Croatian surveillance.

A request for the castle and the old town to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List was rejected in 2005 and 2007.

religions

madonna

Jesuit Church in the Merian Road

religious statistics

According to the 2011 census, 31.7% of the population were Protestant, 26.9% were Roman Catholic, and 41.4% were non-religious, belonging to another religious community or did not make any claim. The number of Protestants and Catholics has fallen since then. At the end of 2019, Heidelberg had 148,365 inhabitants, of which 26.6% Protestants, 23.2% Catholics and 50.1% have either a different or no religion. A year earlier, 23.8% of the inhabitants of the Roman Catholic Church, 27.3% of the Protestant faith, and 48.9% were dissociated or had any other religion. In 2017, 24.2% of the population was classified as Roman Catholic and 27.7% as Protestant.

For the last time, the 2011 census gave accurate figures on other religious communities (besides the two local churches): At the time, 1.7% of the population were Christian Orthodox, 1.2% were members of a Protestant Free Church and 3.2% were members of other public religious communities recognized in Baden-Württemberg (such as Old Catholics and Jehovah's Witnesses).

In 2015, about 20,000 Muslims lived in Heidelberg, which represented 12.9% of the population.

In 2019, 413 inhabitants (0.3% of the city’s population) belonged to the Jewish Cultural Community of Heidelberg.

Christianity

After the first beginnings under the name of Kurfürst Friedrich II. from 1556, Kurfürst Ottheinrich introduced the Lutheran Reformation in the Kurpfalz. His successor, Friedrich III. tended more towards a Calvinist direction of the Reformation. In 1563, the pioneering "Heidelberg catechism" was established in Heidelberg. After a short Lutheran interplay under Louis VI. Heidelberg and the Kurpfalz remained reformed for a long time. Attempts to re - catholicize the population of Bavaria and Spain during the Thirty Years' War were a temporary episode. It was only in 1685 when the Prince Charles II died. The reformed line Pfalz-Szimmer was abandoned and the Kurpfalz passed to the Catholic line Pfalz-Neuburg, and the recatholzation of Heidelberg began. To this day many statues of the Virgin Mary, like the Kornmarkt Madonna, bear witness. The Catholic princes settled in Jesuits, especially for the reorganization of the university. The unspoiled Carmelites also lived in Heidelberg for a long time, until in 1803 the Order had to leave its monastery - which at the time occupied the territory of today’s Karlsplatz - during the secularization. Although, despite these measures, the reformed commitment remained dominant, the Catholic population gradually accounted for almost a third of the total population. In general, the frequent change of religion is a special feature of Kurpfälzer and Heidelberg’s religious history.

The fate of the Church of the Holy Spirit is an example of the sectarian division of Heidelberg. From 1706, it was divided by a wall under the so-called religious declaration: The reformed, later evangelical, community belonged to the church ship, the choir belonged to the Catholic, from 1874 the Old Catholic Church. The attempt by the prince Karl Philipp to make the whole church a Catholic church led to a crisis of the whole country. Only in 1936 did the entire Holy Spirit Church move to the property of the Protestant State Church in Baden, which led to the destruction of the church wall.

In 1821 the Union was established in the Grand Duchy of Baden between Lutheran and reformed municipalities. Today, if the Protestant communities are not part of a free church, they belong to the decanter of Heidelberg within the church circle of the northern baths of the Protestant state church in Baden. The Roman Catholic communities belong to the Dekanat Heidelberg-Weinheim of the Archdiocese of Freiburg.

In addition to the large churches, there are many other Christian religious communities, e.g. B. the Old Catholic Church and the Anglican Church, the Brotherhood, Mormones and Jehovah's Witnesses.

The New Apostolic Church is represented in Heidelberg with five municipalities. In 1963, the Baptists built a church on the Feuerbachstraße, which has been bearing the name of the Church of Hope since 1988. Since 2009 there is a Coptic Orthodox community in Heidelberg St. Mary and St. Josef, who for some time in the church of St. Albert (Bergheim) celebrates her services on the first three Sundays a month. The Romanian Orthodox community "Hl. "Trinity" continues the religious practice of Orthodox faith in Heidelberg, which began in the 19th century, and since 1997 celebrates the Johannes Chrysostomos - Liturgy every second Sunday of the month in the Chapel of St. Anna in the village, old town.

Judaism

The first synagogue in Heidelberg was expelled by Ruprecht II in 1390. mentioned. It was located in the lower street/corner of Judengasse (now threeking street) in the old town. It was only after 1740 that the Jewish community was able to buy a house in the Jakub Gasse and use it as a synagogue. In 1875 this synagogue was demolished and replaced by a new building in 1878. This synagogue, however, was destroyed, as was an Orthodox synagogue in the Plöck during the Reichspogromnacht night.

The Jewish inhabitants of the city were subjected to occasional attacks even before the time of Nazism, e.g. B. 1819, on riots. A new Jewish cemetery was built with the mountain cemetery, which, unlike the synagogues and many private houses destroyed in 1938, also survived Nazism. In 1933, 1102 Jewish citizens lived in Heidelberg. At the beginning of World War II in 1939, it was only 483, and in 1946, it was only 196. On 22 October 1940, 282 Heidelberg Jews were also taken to the internment camp Camp de Gurs in France as part of the Wagner-Bürckel operation, in which more than 6000 Jews were deported from Baden and the Saarpfalz to France. Most of Heidelberger's deportations were subsequently murdered in Auschwitz.

Since 1990 there has been a synagogue of a liberal reform community in the city. In 1994 a new synagogue with community center was completed on the site of the old town house. The local Jewish community now has 482 members (as of 2010) and is a single community based on the Orthodox rite, but welcomes Jews of all religious backgrounds.

In addition to the university and its affiliated institutions, there has been a university for Jewish studies in Heidelberg since 1979. It offers a wide range of subjects for both Jewish and non-Jewish students with ten chairs. Among other things, it enables the training as a rabbi. In 2009 a spacious new building was opened. In October 2010, stumbling blocks were first laid in the city.

other

There is also a greater number of Muslims in Heidelberg, for whom there are two mosques: a free mosque at the Kurpfalzring (Pfaffengrund district) and a DITIB mosque at the Rohrbach Süd industrial estate. There is also a Buddhist and a Bahai community.

development

population development of Heidelberg. Top from 1439 to 2017. Below is an excerpt from 1871

In 1946, Heidelberg's population crossed the 100,000 border, making it a major city. It is a city with an international population, 38.0% of the city's population have a migrant background (status: 2016). In Germany, above-average numbers come from Arab countries, Iran, and East Asia. In addition, the city had one of the largest U.S. municipalities outside North America, owing to the university that was already connected to the U.S. during the interwar period, the city's romantic reputation and the US soldiers stationed there, the latter being not included in the Heidelberg population statistics. In 2013, Heidelberg (excluding the soldiers and employees of the US Army and their relatives, a total of around 20,000 persons) was officially updated to have 152,113 residents - an all-time high. In 2015, 156,267 inhabitants were registered. In 2017, it was more than 160,000.

The following table shows the population figures according to the respective area. By 1833, the estimates were mostly, followed by census results (¹) or official updates from the respective statistical offices or the city administration itself. From 1843 onwards, the data refer to the ‘resident population’, from 1925 onwards to the resident population and since 1987 to the ‘population at the place of the main dwelling’. Before 1843, the population was determined by inconsistent survey methods.

¹ census result

With a birth rate of 1.1 children per woman in the district of Heidelberg in 2008, the lowest fertility rate was in Baden-Württemberg.

municipal council

The Heidelberg municipal council consists of 48 volunteers and elected members; The mayor, as the chairman with voting rights, will join in. The Council shall be elected directly for a period of five years. The task of the municipal council is to decide together with the mayor on all matters of the city. The Council controls the city administration and monitors the implementation of its decisions.

The 2019 municipal elections resulted in the following results (in parentheses: difference from 2014):

Heidelberg City Hall with Herculesbrunn

city head

The town council in Heidelberg was headed by the city council for a long time by the city council, which has been the city director since 1717. After the transition to Baden, the city's head of state held the title Oberbürgermeister, first mayor from 1819 onwards and, from 1875 onwards, new mayor. Since 2006, the non-partisan Eckart Würzner has been the Mayor of Heidelberg. A list of all mayors since 1701 can be found in the list of Heidelberg personalities.

Other bodies

county councils

Since the 2014 election, 15 district councils have expanded the representation of the districts. Members shall be appointed proportionately by the political groups of the municipal council. You will be informed and involved by the city administration in questions related to the district. The county councils have a consultative role for the municipal council of the city and meet regularly at least three times a year.

For all 15 districts, the city council has initiated a framework planning for the districts. This document contains a comprehensive list of all the important urban districts in the city, a development concept and proposals for measures from both the city administration and the civic participation. This provides relatively up-to-date information packages for those interested and the local councils.

Aliens Council/Migration Council

Since 1989 the Council on Foreigners/Migration has met. The Aliens Council works with all foreign and German-foreign associations of the city of Heidelberg. Since 2003 he has also been responsible for migrants, which is reflected in the name extension. The Council of Foreigners/Migration Councils represent the interests of foreign residents vis-à-vis the municipal council and the city council.

youth council

In November 2005 the Heidelberg Youth Council was elected for the first time. It consists of a total of 30 students from Heidelberg schools and is chosen by all Heidelberg students for a period of two years. Members may not be older than 19 years at the time of election. The seats are distributed among the types of schools as follows: five primary or secondary pupils, five secondary pupils, ten high school students and ten vocational students. The JGR has consultative members in the Committee on Youth Aid, Culture, Sport and Urban Development. The youth council replaced the existing youth council, which was founded in 1999 and was previously exclusively elected by the students of Heidelberg. The initiative to further develop the Heidelberg Youth Council model project and to establish a youth council was initiated by the members of the Youth Council itself. They therefore sought greater cooperation in the municipal council and its committees.

ombudsman

The fourth Ombudsman is Gustav Adolf Apple. Heidelberg is the only city in Germany to have a volunteer ombudsman (ombudsman) completely independent of the administration. The Ombudsman may require the administration to supply information and access to files and documents in ongoing administrative proceedings. The Ombudsman cannot intervene in legal proceedings.

Regional bodies

The city belongs to the Neighborhood Association Heidelberg-Mannheim, which produces the land use plan on behalf of its 18 member municipalities. It covers about 488 km² in northern baths with a population of about 666,000.

citizenship

The Local Alliance for Family is still running in 2008 as one of several model projects in Germany. It is intended to promote families and civic engagement in cooperation with politicians, administrations, citizens, educational institutions and associations.

In 2009 the Bürgerstiftung Heidelberg was founded. The idea of the foundation is that citizens get involved in shaping the future of their city. The foundation was supported by the association Bürger für Heidelberg, which has been active in the field of urban planning since 1972.

Foundations named Heidelberg

The non-profit foundation Stadt-Heidelberg-Stiftung was founded in 1986 by the City of Heidelberg to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the University of Heidelberg and is intended to consolidate the links between the University and the citizenry of Heidelberg. It is a community foundation of civil law. Its purpose is to promote the spiritual and social science projects of the University of Heidelberg and its students, doctoral students and young scientists. The Foundation favors projects that inform the general public about the activities of the University of Heidelberg. For example, grants will be awarded for public lectures, exhibitions, staff resources for scientific projects and public event fees.

The second foundation Heidelberg has in its name is the Bürgerstiftung Heidelberg, mentioned above in the section on Citizenship already mentioned. Here citizens invite their neighbors and the city's friends to promote the city's reputation through personal commitment. It is a foundation of civil law and is to bring together donors, donors and volunteers. Their support will be concentrated on education and integration.

There are also the University of Heidelberg Foundation and the Heidelberg Foundation for Surgery.

The SRH (Stiftung Rehabilitation Heidelberg) is a private, non-profit foundation of civil law based in Heidelberg-Wieblingen. Since 1966, it has been committed to the development of education and health systems and to promoting scientific projects. It operates private universities (e.g. a. SRH Hochschule Heidelberg), educational centers, rehabilitation facilities, schools and hospitals. In 2013, SRH founded the first German-speaking university in Paraguay, the Universidad Paraguayo Alemana (UPA), in Asunción.

town

The offices of the city council are grouped into five departments. Each decree is headed by a full-time mayor, one of whom is the first mayor of the Mayor's Deputy Mayor, who, in December 1996, was appointed Mayor of the City of London. a. fire brigade, public relations and personnel. In addition to the Mayor of Eckart Würzner, there are currently First Mayor Jürgen Odszuck (December II, Bauen and Transport), Joachim Gerner (December III, Family, Social Affairs and Culture), Wolfgang Erichson (December IV, Integration, Equal Opportunities and Civil Services) and Hans-Jürgen Heiß (December V, Conversion and Finance).

coat

bond issued by the Municipality of Heidelberg on 2 June 1903 with Pfälzer Löwen in the Vignette

The coat of arms of the city of Heidelberg shows in black on a green triangle the red, red-toned and red-crowned golden curvy lions screaming to the right. The coat of arms was adopted by the city in its present form in 1898 and has been used in the present form, which has been very styled by Ludwig Peinecke since 1969.

The lion is taken over as the coat of arms of the Palatinate Counts, because Heidelberg was a long residence of the Kurfürsten near Rhine. The triangle is probably a reference to the name of the city and is thus a so-called talking symbol. At times this tribe was not represented in the coat of arms. The lion's tail is not divided here.

• city coat of arms in the form of 1898

• Today's highly styled variant (1969)

logo

In addition, since 1994 there has been a modern sign for the urban corporate design used since 1995: On a white square (picture mark) there are three striking lines for the Heidelberg Castle, the Neckar and the "Old Bridge" (Karl-Theodor Bridge), in black, blue and red (design by Erwin Poell). The signature was first developed for the anniversary "800 years Heidelberg". Later it was further developed and used as a city logo.

Since the introduction of a new uniform corporate design and the revision of the urban Internet site in September 2013, the city of Heidelberg has been using a logo consisting of the original image brand Poells and the word brand "Heidelberg". Both in the color "blueberry". The modernized corporate design conveys the positioning of the city of Heidelberg as a traditional city of tourism, but also as an important scientific, economic and conference location with a high quality of life.

• Corporate Design logo (1994)

• logo of the city of Heidelberg (2016)

town twinning

Heidelberg has a town twinning with the following cities:

• Montpellier, France, since 1961
• Cambridge, United Kingdom, since 1965
• Rehovot, Israel, since 1983
• Bautzen, Germany, since 1991
• Simferopol, Ukraine, since 1991
• Kumamoto, Japan, since 1992
• Hangzhou, People's Republic of China, since 2017
• Palo Alto, United States, since 2017

In October 2006, Mayor Beate Weber signed a friendship treaty ("Charter of Friendship") with the city of Heidelberg (Gauteng), South Africa.

Friendly relations also exist with the cities of Jelenia Góra (Poland) and Mostar (Bosnia-Herzegovina). Relations with Calamba City (Philippines) are being established.

In Heidelberg there is also the American House (German-American Institute) and the Montpellier House, located in the old town in the Chain Gasse. There is a Maison de Heidelberg in Montpellier. The university is a partner of a Confucius Institute.

neighborhood association

Heidelberg belongs to the Neighborhood Association Heidelberg-Mannheim, whose task is to draw up the regional land use plan.

The city as a name

Because of its historical significance, the city of Heidelberg often serves as a name. In its history, Lufthansa named four planes after the town of Neckar: Last Airbus A320-200 in 1990 for 139 passengers. An ICE train from Deutsche Bahn is also called Heidelberg.

An approximately 600,000-year-old lower jaw of a previously unknown ancestor of man was found in 1907 in the land of the municipality of Mauer near Heidelberg. The new species was named Homo heidelbergensis, corresponding to the region and the research site (University of Heidelberg) of the naming researcher Otto Schoetensack.

In several colonized countries, cities were named after Heidelberg, such as Heidelberg (Victoria) in Australia or Heidelberg (Texas) in the USA, and also in South Africa. A Heidelberg group of researchers named an island in the Antarctic as a heath mountain island.

economy

For centuries Heidelberg was a "residence of the mind". Today, the university town is still the service and science center of the Rhine-Neckar region. Following the trend of most German cities, tertiary education has grown in recent decades. In 2013, 83.8% of all people worked in the services sector, while only 16.1% worked in manufacturing. In the Future Atlas in 2016, the district-free city of Heidelberg occupies 14 of 402 districts and urban districts in Germany, making it one of the regions with "very high prospects for the future".

In 2014, 69.4% of the approximately 85,600 jobs were taken by commuters.

In 2016, Heidelberg achieved a gross domestic product (GDP) of €8.391 billion within the city boundaries, ranking 42 in Germany's cities according to economic performance. GDP per capita was €53,079 in the same year (Baden-Württemberg: €43,632, Germany €38,180), well above the regional and national average. In 2016, the city’s economic performance recorded nominal growth of 3.1%. The unemployment rate was 3.6% in December 2018, among the lowest in Germany's major cities.

Print Media Academy: office and training building of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG at Heidelberg headquarters. In the foreground is the "S-Printing Horse".

The largest employer in Heidelberg is the University of Heidelberg with its university hospital, which provides more than 15,000 jobs. International companies such as ABB Stotz-Kontakt, Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, HeidelbergCement, Henkel-Teroson, Lamy, Prominent Dosing Technology, Rockwell Collins, SAP and SAS Institute are based in the city.

In 2007, Heidelberg had the highest density of doctors among the districts of Baden-Württemberg, according to the Department of Statistics. In Heidelberg there was a medical doctor with 272 inhabitants, whereas the national average was 646.

In the banking sector, Sparkasse Heidelberg, Heidelberger Volksbank eG and Volksbank Kurpfalz eG have their head office in Heidelberg. There are also branches of cross-regional credit institutions.

Tourism is an important economic factor. In 2014, 11.9 million tourists and 1.12 million business nights generated a gross turnover of EUR 535 million. In 2017, the number of business nights increased to 1.44 million.

traffic

road

connection

Heidelberg is bordered by the A 5 in the west, which links the region north with Frankfurt am Main and south with Karlsruhe. The A 656, which starts west of the city center and lies between two sections of the B 37, connects Heidelberg to Mannheim. Both motorways meet in Heidelberg city area at the junction of the motorways in Heidelberg. The A 656 meets at the junction of the Autobahn Mannheim with the A 6, which links Heidelberg to the east and west with the south of Germany.

In the north-south direction the city passes the B 3 (Frankfurt am Main-Karlsruhe) and in the east-west direction the B 37 (Mannheim-Eberbach). Both meet in the city center at Bismarckplatz. The B 535 starts in the south of Heidelberg and leads to Schwetzingen.

There were plans to transfer the B 37 in the area of the inner city of Heidelberg to a tunnel on the banks of the Neckar. However, these are currently not being followed up (2019).

environment and quality of life

On 1 January 2010 an environmental zone was introduced in Heidelberg. It includes the districts of Gschuhsheim, Neuenheim, Bergheim, Altstadt, Weststadt, Südstadt and Rohrbach. Since 2013 only vehicles with at least group 4 pollutants (green plaque) are allowed to drive because of the fine dust pollution in Heidelberg.

Since 2008, a project called "Town to the River" was planned to relocate the 37 national road to a tunnel over a distance of 2.2 kilometers. The goal is a traffic-calmed riverbank for the old town and the possibility of a new tramway as a "campusline". The current state of affairs was mentioned above.

tourist roads

Heidelberg is located on four holiday roads:

• mountain
• Bertha Benz Memorial Route
• Burgenstrasse
• Road to Democracy

bridge

In Heidelberg the following five bridges of the Neckartal valley are important for road traffic:

• Old Bridge (officially Karl-Theodor Bridge) - links the old town and Neuenheim
• Theodor Heuss Bridge - connects Bismarckplatz in the Bergheim district with Neuenheim
• Ernst-Walz Bridge - connecting Bergheim and Neuenheim
• Neckarbrücke Schlierbach-Ziegelhausen - connects the above districts
• To the north of Wieblingen, the A 5 runs across the Neckar

There are also three footbridges leading over the Neckar, in connection with the use of weapons. The Roman bridge was located between the Theodor-Heuss bridge and the Ernst-Walz bridge.

The Czernybrücke, which runs over the railway tracks at the main station, is also important for traffic. It was named after the surgeon and cancer researcher Vincenz Czerny and connects the districts of Bergheim and the railway city. The Montpellier Bridge named after the French partner city also passes the railways and is located in the western city.

shipping

The Neckar has been used for transport and transport since time immemorial. In 1920, the Reichstag decided to build the Neckar Canal. On June 15, 1925 the Wieblingen-Schwabenheimer Hof dam was put into operation. In October of 1928 the shipping route Heidelberg-Neckargemünd was completed and on 19 December 1929 the pontoon via the dam Hirschgasse was opened for general traffic. In 1935 the Mannheim-Heilbronn shipping line was 113 km long and on 12 December 1954 the Ziegelhausen-Schlierbach bridge was inaugurated.

In 2007, around 7.5 million tons of goods were moved on the Neckar.

Today, especially during the summer season, there are numerous small and medium-sized excursion boats in the tourist industry. Most of them visit the city panorama in shorter journeys. Other journeys include: B. up the Neckar mountain, across the villages of Neckargemünd, Neckarsteinach, Hirschhorn to Eberbach. On special trips you can reach Heilbronn or Stuttgart. To the west, the Rhine is via Ladenburg and Mannheim; Special trips to the Middle Rhine are very popular. One attraction since June 2004 has been the catamaran "SolarSchiff", a solar boat that offers almost silent gliding for 110 people, but can only be used when the current is low.

In the Neckar there are numerous structures on the Heidelberg market which regulate the river. These are: the side channel Wieblingen, the Stauwehr Wieblingen and the Heidelberg dam.

rail

long distance

Heidelberg can be reached by long-distance train with ICE trains on the lines Basel-Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart-Cologne, Zurich-Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart-Hamburg, as well as by EC/IC trains on the lines Salzburg-Frankfurt, Stuttgart-Dortmund and Karlsruhe-Stralsund. Since 2017 Heidelberg can also be reached via the Flixtrain line Stuttgart-Berlin.

local traffic

terminal of the cable car at the Königstube

tram line 24 in Rohrbach

line network of the Heidelberg tram

The most important public transport hub in Heidelberg is Bismarckplatz. There are several main roads in the city, and one of the longest pedestrian areas in Europe, the main road, crosses the entire old town of Heidelberg. The main railway station was located in the immediate vicinity, which was then a combined head and through station. In 1955, it was moved about 1.5 km further west, so that trains to the south no longer needed to change direction. The new main railway station thus rose to the second important traffic junction in Heidelberg.

Since 1885 there has been public transport in Heidelberg (public transport), at that time in the form of a horse-drawn carriageway, which was put into service that year. Due to the rapidly increasing volume of transport, it was decided on 20 December 1901 at an extraordinary general meeting to convert the horse’s carriageway to electric operation.

On March 16, 1902 the first electric tram on Rohrbacher Strasse ran under the co-use of the railway facilities of the electrical suburban railway Heidelberg - Wiesloch built by the German Railway Company in 1901. Until the 1950s, the tramway network was expanded one by one. As the rapidly becoming popular automobile confronted local passenger transport operators with ever greater problems, the tramway network was progressively reduced to a network geared towards basic services. It was only on 10 December 2006 that a new tram line was opened with the connection Kirchheim. Today RNV is responsible for operating the tram and bus lines. Since 1989 they can all be used with a uniform tariff within the Rhine-Neckar (VRN) transport network.

Since 14 December 2003 Heidelberg has been connected to the network of the S-Bahn Rhine-Neckar, which opens the entire Rhine-Neckar area and runs lines to the Palatinate, the Saarland and South Hessen. A connection was made to the S-Bahn network to Karlsruhe. The Rhine-Neckar region was thus one of the last metropolitan areas to receive its own S-Bahn. Planning started decades ago; because four Länder had to coordinate each other (Baden-Württemberg, Saarland, Hesse and Rhineland-Palatinate), implementation was delayed for so long.

Since 2005, the mountain railway has traveled with new railcars in the lower part of the Kornmarkt to the Molkenkur view and the historic car from 1907 in the upper part of the route from the Molkenkur view to the royal chair. It is one of the most popular means to reach the Heidelberg Castle. The first plans for the mountain railway began in 1873. However, due to the lack of funds, the first section of the route could only be opened in 1890. In 2004 the upper mountain railway was included in the monument book of the Land Baden-Württemberg.

Bike and hiking trails

Heidelberg is situated on the European E1 long-distance hiking trail, from Norway, the North Cape to Salerno in Sicily.

From Tauberbischofsheim, the Odenwald-Madonnes (Odenwald) trail leads through the Odenwald near Hardheim and Walldein, the Neckartal near Eberbach and Heidelberg to the Rhine Plain Speyer.

In Heidelberg the cycle path starts up the mountain road that leads to Darmstadt.

energy

In February 2015, Heidelberg was awarded the "Energie-Kommune" award for the promotion of solar energy, an innovative tenant electricity model and the goal of a climate-neutral city. Heidelberg is a member of the Energy Cities network and as a master plan community, Heidelberg has committed itself to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions to almost zero by 2050 and to reducing its final energy consumption to 50 percent. Since 2010 Heidelberg Energy Co. eG (HEG) has been implementing the energy transition in Heidelberg and the surrounding area. It operates 20 civil-service solar systems and has a stake in two wind turbines.

media

In Heidelberg, the Rhine-Neckar-Zeitung (RNZ) is the only local newspaper to be published. She has several local issues. The city publishes a weekly Official Gazette, the City Journal. The city magazine with its events calendar Heidelberg is also up to date. The Rhein-Neckar-Journal (RNJ) - a newspaper for the blind and partially sighted - provides information from the Heidelberg area every week for the blind and partially sighted. Since August 2009 an online portal also publishes local news under the title "The City Editor".

For many years, Sueddeutscher Rundfunk (now Suedwestrundfunk) maintained a regional studio, which has now its seat in Mannheim. There is also Rhine-Neckar television as a local television channel. Since the beginning of the 1990s, there has also been a strong interest on the part of the student community to be represented with its own media. In addition to the student newspapers Ruprecht and unimut, on VHF 105.4 MHz the campusradio Rhein-Neckar, RadioAktiv broadcasts. Heidelberger Students are working with fellow students from the neighboring University of Mannheim to maintain the radio and to provide the students with music and news from the campus.

Heidelberg is the location of some broadcasting installations. In addition to the SWR TV tower on the Königstuhl, there is also the Deutsche Telekom AG's adjacent broadcasting facility.

DVB-T is broadcast from the TV tower Heidelberg-Königstuhl. 13 programs shall be received on three transponders, channel 21, 474 MHz (ZDF), channel 49, 698 MHz and 60, 786 MHz (SWR and ARD respectively). From the Rhine-Main-Room and from the Stuttgart Telecommunications Tower, private channels can also be received with roof aerial in the Rhine-Neckar area. The DVB-T signal from the royal chair has a range of 80 to 100 kilometers.

Heidelberg Center, which houses the District Court, the Regional Court and the Public Prosecutor's Office

courts, authorities and institutions

In Heidelberg there is a local court and court, both of which belong to the OLG district of Karlsruhe, as well as a public prosecutor's office. Furthermore, Heidelberg has the external chambers of the Mannheim Labor Court.

In addition, in the city is the headquarters of the professional cooperative Commodities and Chemical Industry, the parish of Heidelberg of the Protestant Church in Baden and the Dekanat Heidelberg of the Archbishop of Freiburg.

Heidelberg was the headquarters of the NATO headquarters in Central Europe; former LANDCENT) under the command of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. The headquarters of the 7th US Army was in the Campbell Barracks (V. US Corps Headquarters). There were also many U.S. military installations in the vicinity. In 2008, the US armed forces employed some 1,000 civilian workers. An estimated €10 million was spent by members of the US military and their members at the Heidelberg retail trade, and another €5 million in the catering sector. About €30 million was the US military's annual investment in its own buildings and facilities. By the end of 2012, however, much of the US forces moved to Wiesbaden, where a new headquarters was built. By 2015, the US military was completely withdrawn from Heidelberg.

Seal of the University of Heidelberg

"The living spirit" via the portal of the New University

Education and research

university, university, seminar

Heidelberg is well-known for its educational institutions far beyond the region. The most renowned of them is the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. It was founded in 1386 and is the oldest university in the field of contemporary Germany. Its campus is divided into two urban areas and several separate buildings: In many historical buildings in the Old Town you will find the humanities, social sciences and law. The majority of science and medicine are located on the new campus in the Neuenheim field.

In 1904 the Heidelberg School of Pedagogy was founded. In 1971, after several enlargements and renamed, she became a scientific college with the current name.

Heidelberg also has an institute specializing in music with the University of Church Music Heidelberg. It opened its doors for the first time in 1931 as an institution of the Protestant Church in Baden.

The SRH Hochschule Heidelberg is a private university of the SRH Group (Stiftung Rehabilitation Heidelberg). It was founded in 1969 and was accredited in 2004 as the first private university of applied sciences by the German Council of Sciences. It is located in the Science Tower in the Wieblingen district.

The Hochschule für Internationales Management Heidelberg (HIM) is a private, state-recognized university. Her Bachelor's and Master's degrees are accredited according to the German and British higher education systems. Students thus acquire both a German and a British degree.

In 1979, the University of Jewish Studies Heidelberg was founded. It has nine sections of the religion and culture of Judaism.

Schiller International University has a campus in Heidelberg. The US private university offers Bachelor and Master's degree courses in International Business and International Relations & Diplomacy.

Heidelberg has a State Seminar for Didactics and Teacher Education (Gymnasias and Special Schools) and an Institute for Translation and Interpretation (IÜD), which is part of the Ruprecht-Karls University.

A very detailed description of student life in the late nineteenth century was given by American poet Mark Twain in his semi-fictitious travel report Bummel across Europe in 1880.

research

In Heidelberg there are numerous research institutes especially for life sciences.

The most important sponsoring company in the Heidelberg research landscape is the University of Heidelberg. Under its roof are numerous institutes such as the Biochemy Center Heidelberg (BZH), the Interdisciplinary Center for Neurosciences (IZN), the Interdisciplinary Center for Scientific Computing (IWR), the South Asia Institute (SAI), the Heidelberg Center for American Studies (HCA), the Heidelberg Center Latin America and the Center for Astronomy Heidelberg (ZAH). In early 2007, the new center for quantitative analysis of molecular and cellular biosystems (BIOQUANT), built in the Neuenheim field, was added.

Known institutes are the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) founded in 1964 and the Center for Molecular Biology Heidelberg (ZMBH) founded in 1983. Both institutes are dedicated to basic research.

The central institution of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), founded in 1974, is also located in Heidelberg. There may be offices. a. Monterotondo (Italy), Hinxton (England), Grenoble (France) and Hamburg. It is operated by 18 European countries.

With four institutes, Heidelberg forms a regional focus of the Max Planck Society. The Max Planck Institute for Foreign Public and International Law, the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research are located here. The city of Heidelberg is also "a member of the Max Planck Society".

Further research centers are the State School of Applied Sciences, the Landessternwarte Heidelberg-Königstuhl, the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, the European Media Laboratory (EML), a private research institute for applied computer science and the Evangelical Study Community research center, which is sponsored by the Protestant Church.

schools

There are elementary, community, real and professional schools (state and private), special educational and counseling centers and secondary schools.

Schools with special characteristics are the Freie Waldorf School Heidelberg (private) and the International Comprehensive School Heidelberg (IGH) (state). The IGH is an additive general school, which is mentioned in the Baden-Württemberg Schools Act as a school of extraordinary character with two additional schools. Both schools offer the opportunity to drop out of the high school. Heidelberg International School (HIS) in Wieblingen, Germany, is a private, state-recognized secondary school. The language of instruction is English and fees are charged.

At the Johannes-Gutenberg-Schule Heidelberg there is one of the three state professional colleges for graphic and design in Baden-Württemberg, together with Stuttgart and Karlsruhe.

Besides the Volkshochschule there is also the music and singing school of the city of Heidelberg with the Johannes-Brahms-Hall. There is also a hotel school and numerous private vocational schools such as the bfw and the R&D schools. In addition to these schools there are also non-educational institutions, such as the Life-Science Lab, a student laboratory at the German Cancer Research Center.

The Academy for Older Persons, founded in 1984 as an association, offers a wide range of education services to older people (60 years and older) in the form of lectures and seminars. It promotes integration, the creation of new networks, volunteering and political participation by older people.

town library

The Stadtbücherei Heidelberg, founded in 1904 (total stock: more than 200,000 media), the library index’s performance measurement showed several top positions in the "large city library" category. After several years of municipal austerity measures, the city library was able to regain this top ranking through a comprehensive renovation in 2009.

Construction

Heidelberg is one of the few major German cities not destroyed during World War II. A special feature is the Baroque Old Town, which - after the destruction in 1689 and 1693 - was rebuilt on a medieval plan. The old town, one of the longest pedestrian areas in Europe with a length of 1.6 km, is home to most of the major buildings. There are about 2830 monuments listed throughout the city (stand: 24 April 2017).

castle

Heidelberger Schloss

The Heidelberg Castle is one of the most famous ruins in Germany and the landmark of the city. Originally built as a fortified castle in a strategically convenient location above a narrowing of the Neckartal valley, the building was later transformed into the magnificent residence of the Kurfürstendamm of the Palatinate. Since the destruction in 1689 and 1693 in the Palatinate War of Succession, the castle has only been partially restored. In 1764, another fire, after lightning, sealed the lot of the castle, which was then under renovation. It was abandoned and the ruins used as a quarry (building material) for the new Schwetzingen summer castle and later for the Heidelberg citizens, before it was discovered by literature at the end of the 18th century and seen as a symbol of transience, but also as a patriotic monument in the period of the Napoleonic wars. The castle ruin rises 80 meters above the bottom of the valley on the northern slope of the royal chair and dominates from there the image of the old town. The Ottheinrichsbau, one of the palaces of the castle, is one of the most important buildings of the Renaissance north of the Alps.

old bridge

The official name of the Old Bridge is Karl Theodor Bridge. It is one of Germany's oldest bridge constructions and was first documented in 1284. There were many predecessors of wood, but they were repeatedly destroyed by ice. In its present form, it was built in 1788, but at the end of World War II, two pillars were blown up by the Wehrmacht to stop the advance Allied forces. In 1947 the bridge was completely reconstructed.

• old bridge

• Heidelberg Castle, Old Bridge and Neckar

• The Old Bridge at Night, July 2016

• The gate of the Old Bridge seen from north ...

• ... and from the south

• View of Philosopher's Path with Snake Path (right)

zoom and display image information

 

Heidelberg North of the Neckar

important churches

• The Sanctuary

• The Jesuit Church of Heidelberg

• parish

• Church of Christ in the West

• Bonifati Church in the West

The Sanctuary is the most famous church in Heidelberg. It is located in the center of the city, just a stone's throw from the Heidelberg Castle. Its façade, together with the castle, shapes the silhouette of the Neckarstadt. It used to serve as a repository of the famous Library Palatina, but during the Thirty Years War, the collection of manuscripts and early printing by Prince Maximilian I. and presented to the Pope as a gift.

The oldest church in Heidelberg's old town is the St. Peterskirche. It is believed that the St. Peter's Church was built before the foundation of Heidelberg. Their age is estimated to be around 900 years. In the late Middle Ages, she became a university chapel. It serves as the last resting place for about 150 professors and courthouse staff. Among other things, Marsilius von Inghen, founding director of the University of Heidelberg, is buried here. Martin Luther's 400th birthday was planted on the eastern side of 1883.

The Jesuit Church, completed in 1749, is located nearby. It is the landmark of the counter-reformation in Heidelberg and was once the center of the former Jesuit district.

Historical representative churches were built at the beginning of the 20th century in the planned western town: the Protestant Church of Christ (1904) and the Catholic Church of Bonifatius (1903).

Historical buildings

One of the oldest still preserved buildings in the old town of Heidelberg is the Hotel Zum Ritter. It was built in 1592 by a family of cloth dealers. With its location in the old town opposite the Church of the Holy Spirit, it is one of the most visited sights in Heidelberg.

On the eastern edge of the Old Town stands the Karlstor, a freestanding arch that was a gift from Heidelberg's citizens to the prince Karl Theodor. Construction lasted six years and was completed in 1781. Karlstor is decorated with the coat of arms of the Kurfürst, as well as portraits of him and his wife on the arch.

In the old town there are other historical buildings of the University of Heidelberg. One of the most important is the university library, which houses the university's central library and a museum with old manuscripts and codes, also part of the university's book collection. One of them is the Codex Manesse, the most comprehensive and famous German songwriting of the Middle Ages. The entire library is housed in a classic red sandstone building.

• The Hotel Zum Ritter

• baroque building "House for Giant"

• Academy of Sciences

• former pharmacy

See also

• Old anatomy
• old university
• Badischer Hof
• construction
• Grand-Ducal Palais
• house for giant
• Dutch court
• marstall
• Palais Boisserée
• Palais Morass
• Palais Weimar
• town hall
• observatory
• Villa Bosch
• Wormser Hof
• midwife

modern buildings

Heidelberg fire station

The Thingstätte on the Heiligenberg Mountain dates from the time of National Socialism. The Thingstätte is an open-air stage in the style of a Greek theater. It was built by the National Socialist empire and inaugurated in 1935 by Joseph Goebbels. The Thingstätte was primarily intended as a propaganda platform. Today it serves as an open-air stage for all kinds of cultural performances.

Also worth mentioning is the new synagogue in the western city. After the Jewish divine houses in Heidelberg in the Pogromnacht of 9. until 10 November 1938, the Jewish community was rebuilt at the end of the war in 1945, and there were no permanent prayer rooms for Jewish citizens. After a series of processions, the municipality found its home today in the new synagogue inaugurated in 1994.

Since 1981, the Urban Cleaning and Pool in Bergheim has not been used as a bath since 1981, which is one of the last preserved Art Nouveau indoor swimming pools (Old Indoor Swimming Pool). Since 2013 it has been used as a market hall with shops, gastronomy and cultural offerings.

The TV tower Heidelberg, the telecommunications tower Heidelberg and the telecommunications tower of the US armed forces Heidelberg illustrate that Heidelberg also plays an important role in telecommunications for the entire region. All three transmission towers are located on the royal chair.

The Stadthalle is the congress and cultural center on the banks of the river Neckar in the Old Town, built in 1901-1903, with a rich red sandstone façade (Grünzeit-, Neorenaissance- and Art Nouveau architecture).

The fire station of the Heidelberg Fire Service, built as a passive house, was planned by Peter Kulka and has been in use since 2007. It is considered one of the most modern and innovative fire stations in Germany and is therefore also the target of architectural tourism.

Historic towns

The Philosophenweg (Philosophenweg) offers a famous and often presented view of the old town of Heidelberg. The path begins in the Neuenheim district, leads half to the Heiligenberg, which is on the banks of the Neckar opposite the Heidelberg Castle, and then moves above the Neckar through the valley to Ziegelhausen.

Friedrich Ebert, 1925

The mountain cemetery is one of Germany's most famous last resting places. Many eminent people, such as the first President of the Reich, Friedrich Ebert, and scientists Carl Bosch and Robert Bunsen, are buried here. Numerous monuments remind of the victims of past wars and the Holocaust.

See also

• Karlsplatz with various palaces
• marketplace / town hall
• old synagogenplatz
• university
• Kornmarkt (Heidelberg)

museums

The Copper Stone and Landscape Painter Charles de Graimberg

The Kurpfälzische Museum is dedicated to the history of Heidelberg and the Kurpfalz. The museum owes its origins to the commitment of the French emigrant Charles de Graimberg, who began to be interested in the annals of the Palatinate princely house from 1810 onwards. His collection of coins, weapons, paintings and other historical pieces formed the basis for the museum’s collection. Graimberg has also acquired the famous twelve-legged altar by Tilman Riemenschneider. In 1879 the city bought the private collection and in 1908 the museum opened its doors at the Palais Morass. The museum collection has been greatly expanded since its beginnings, so that you can now find out about the history of the Kurpfalz right up to the early history.

The Deutsche Apotheken-Museum is located directly in the Heidelberg Castle and displays one of the most comprehensive pharmacological collections in the world. You can see several precious Baroque and Biedermeier pharmacy facilities, an extensive collection of raw drugs, tools for the art of pharmacies and a unique collection of pharmacist containers. With objects, interesting texts and exciting guided tours, guests experience 2000 years of cultural and pharmaceutical history in a vivid way.

A nationwide-looking memorial and museum is the documentation and cultural center of German Sinti and Roma.

The Ethnographic Museum houses a collection of works of art and ethnographic objects from Asia, Africa and Oceania. It offers an insight into the art, worldview and rituals of the peoples of those territories. The Museum of Population dates back to 1921 and is now housed in the Weimar Palace. Since its foundation it has been the sole sponsor of J. E. by Portheim Foundation, founded in 1919 by Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt. The extensive collection of the Jewish scholar formed the basis of the museum.

The Heidelberg Kunstverein, with more than 1000 members of one of the largest Germany, is obliged by the statutes to promote and communicate contemporary art, while the Haus Cajeth museum is dedicated to "primitive art".

Five of the fourteen districts have local museums; they preserve the history of the district and make it available to the interested public.

Not far from the Old Bridge is the birthplace of Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925), the first democratically elected head of state in German history. There, in the house of Pfaffengasse 18, in the heart of the old town, the 46 m² apartment, in which Friedrich Ebert was born on 4 February 1871 as the seventh of nine children, gives an impression of the limited living conditions of a small-scale family in the second half of the 19th century. In addition, the permanent exhibition "From the worker’s leader to the president of the Reichstag: Friedrich Ebert (1871-1925)" on the life and political activities of Friedrich Ebert against the background of the German Empire, the First World War, the November Revolution and the Weimar Republic. The Friedrich-Ebert-Haus is hosted by the Reichresident-Friedrich-Ebert-Memorial Foundation, which was founded by Federal Law in 1986.

The Karzer was an involuntary home for a large number of students

With its numerous collections and exhibitions, the University of Heidelberg is a giant in the city’s museum landscape. Many of the university institutes and faculties hold large stocks which are publicly available. In this way, completely different specialties such as Egyptology, Botanics, Paleontology or Zoology are accessible to the layman. The university even has its own university museum. Among all these facilities, two stand out: the Karzer and the University Library. The student carcass is part of the Student Museum at the Old University. When the university had its own jurisdiction over students, a Karzer served as a prison for overly recalcitrant classmates. Generations of students have been sitting here and with all kinds of writing utensils on the walls of the Academic Prison, they have conserved their frustration with their Alma Mater for the posterity. In addition to a variety of recent books, the University Library is one of the most famous collections of old books and writings. The main item of the collection is the medium-high German songwriting Codex Manesse. The "Manessischer Liederhandwriting" is the most comprehensive and famous German collection of poetic works of the Middle Ages. A facsimile is always visible in the university library.

Since 2011, the German Tuberculosis Archive, which includes a museum, has been on display at the Thoraxklinik Heidelberg-Rohrbach. The Heidelberg Zoo was founded in 1933 and attracts around half a million visitors every year. The livestock population comprises about 1726 animals in 159 species (status: 2019). Zoo Director has been Klaus Wernemann since 1998.

memorial

• A memorial on the mountain cemetery near the entrance of Görresstrasse recalls 27 victims of Nazism buried there, including 19 resistance fighters of the "Lechconductor Group" named after the KPD member of parliament Georg Lechleiter, who was murdered with the other members in 1943. Another memorial board informs about French resistance fighters of the "Vodli Group" who committed sabotage acts at major installations. At the family grave Goerdeler, a blackboard refers to Carl Friedrich Goerdeler, one of the leading minds of the assassination of July 20, 1944. He was murdered in 1944 in Berlin-Plötzensee together with his brother Fritz.
• In 1953, the honorary cemetery of 1934 above the mountain cemetery was extended to the memorial for 177 prisoners of camp outposts who were expelled from Poland, the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia to Germany for forced labor.
• A memorial plaque of the persecuted and murdered Jewish inhabitants is commemorated at the memorial hall of the Jewish cemetery. Below the blackboard, a stone reminds of the synagogue destroyed in November 1938. The former site of Große Mantgasse/Lauerstrasse also commemorates this church.
• At Mombertplatz in the Emmertsgrund district, there is a plaque for the Jewish lawyer and poet Alfred Mombert, who died of the consequences of his arrest after his deportation to the Gurs camp in 1940.
• At the church of the Old Town, Heiliggeist, a memorial plaque informs about the work of the Protestant priest Hermann Maas, who belonged to the confessional church and helped endangered Jews to flee. The Prälat-Hermann-Maas-Archive preserves the memory of this honorary citizen Heidelberg.
• On the town hall square of the district of Rohrbach, a memorial stone built as a star of David commemorates the destroyed synagogue.
• A memorial in the cemetery of the Kirchheim district preserves the memory of at least 100 prisoners of the Nazi dictatorship who were the victims of forced labor.
• In the Wieblingen district, the inhabitants commemorate the Elisabeth von Thadden School and other commemorative signs of the bourgeois anti-Hitler who was murdered in Berlin-Plötzensee in 1944.
• The Fehrentzstrasse in the Bergheim district is dedicated to the memory of the worker athlete and Ringer Heinrich Fehrentz, who was murdered in 1943 and was buried in an honor grave in the Urban Cemetery after 1945.

theater

The Theater of the City of Heidelberg is the city’s largest theater company, a four-division municipal theater with music, speech and dance theater, as well as a separate ensemble for children’s and youth theater, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2009.

The biggest playground "Stadtonstage" was extended and rebuilt from 2009 to 2012 and reopened with a festival on 24 November 2012. The project was estimated at EUR 52.9 million. This decision was made possible by the unique civic commitment of 16.5 million euros throughout Germany. During the reconstruction, the main venues were the "Operntelt" and the "Theater cinema" housed in the former castle cinema, the children's and youth theater "Zwinger 3" and the studio stage "Zwinger 1". Opened in 1853 with a performance by Friedrich Schillers Die Braut von Messina, the Stadttheater also organizes the castle festival in the Heidelberg Castle.

The University of Heidelberg also has its own stage with the theater in the Romanesque cellar. It is the largest forum for student and free theater in Neckarstadt. The reputation of the theater in the Romanesque cellar extends far beyond Heidelberg.

A theater with a very different style is the theater. Founded in 1950 by young actors Jochen Ballin, Claire Hahn, Helga Schmidle, Karl-Heinz Walther and Brigitte Zepf, it has preserved its charm as a small theater. The Zimmertheater has also become known beyond the borders of Heidelberg through its first and first performances. It is the oldest private theater in Germany. The Theater is financially supported by the Friends of the Theater.

The perpetrator Theater is one of Heidelberg's younger theaters. Founded in 1984, it was home in the old tobacco factory Landfried in 1987. The name of the theater is a play of words with the concepts of theater and perpetrators, which points to the principle of the group: At the beginning is the action - everything else will come.

The Plappermaul puppet theater is a theater offering a program especially for younger viewers. The Roadside Theater, the English-speaking theater of the US Armed Forces in Heidelberg, is also worth mentioning. It offers an Anglo-Saxon theater program, inspired by the style of American "community theater". Other theaters in Heidelberg that have their own playground include stage 14, cabaret art in the Anna Blum House, Stephge, the bird-free theater group in the Garden of the Germanic Seminar, the Theaterwerkstatt Heidelberg, the TiKK and the Unterweg and the drama light group. The theater hall in the Augustinum Heidelberg was regularly used as a theater for touring theaters until the late 1990s. Due to a lack of visitors and the many other venues in Heidelberg, the theater operation in the Augustinum was almost stopped. a. in cooperation with the culture window Heidelberg.

cinema

Harmonie Lux (1979)

Heidelberg was once the city with the highest cinema density in Germany and had no commercial cinema after the cinema's death in recent years and the closure of the Harmonie Lux Kinocenter. A curiosity is that the Harmonie Lux Kinocenter was housed in the historic town house of the Bishops of Worms until the beginning of 2014. The cinema was a remnant of Ufa's bankruptcy estate and has since been run by the employees. Since 2014, the building has been converted into a shopping and literature house.

In December 2017, the Luxor Film Palace Heidelberg was opened, it has 15 rooms and is the world's first passive house cinema.

Cinema Augustinum Heidelberg

The other cinemas in Heidelberg are a mix of commercial and program cinemas with high-end programs: Gloria & Gloriette, Camera, Cinema Augustinum and the municipal Karlstorkino. The Karlstorkino also regularly changes its focus on foreign-language films and documentaries. The Cinema Augustinum shows about two films a month, mostly current films, as a cinema in the theater hall of the senior citizens' residence.

The annual Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival, which mainly features films by "undiscovered" directors, and the "Film Days of the Mediterranean" in the Montpellier House, are particularly noteworthy. There is also the short film festival "Zum Golden Hirsch", where only film productions from the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan area can be seen.

centers for the elderly and citizens

According to basic planning in the 1980s, 12 neighborhoods of the elderly and citizens were built. They serve as a place for the leisure as well as a counseling center for the charities and the city administration.

The local volunteer staff organizes a wide variety of programs. The city only finances the buildings and a part of the staff. This will provide a universal access point for people in need and their relatives.

sport

The town of Heidelberg has for years been running a special sports promotion program to support the clubs. In 2006 there were 120 sports clubs, 22 urban sports facilities and 40 sports and gymnastics halls in Heidelberg. Heidelberg is also considered to be a German Rugby stronghold, as there are five rugby clubs in the city area, of which currently (season 2018/19) three (Heidelberger RK, RG Heidelberg, TSV Handschuhsheim) are among the 16 teams in the Rugby Bundesliga.

Heidelberg is the most member sports association of the German Alpine Association, founded in 1869, with more than 9000 members, before the TSG Rohrbach, founded in 1889 as a tournament club. The association currently has more than 3000 members. TSG Rohrbach is one of the ten largest clubs in North Baden.

Several Heidelberg clubs have repeatedly won championships. A prominent example is the USC Heidelberg basketball club, which has won the second most German basketball championships with nine titles, two of which have been held since the foundation of the 1967 Basketball League. Today the club plays in the 2nd. Liga ProA is especially known for its youth department, which has produced several national players. Another example is the swimming club SV Nikar Heidelberg. The ladies' team of the Heidelberger TC became a German team champion ten times between 1982 and 1998. The SGK Heidelberg is currently the most successful football division in Heidelberg.

In 2003, a group of three Heidelberg schools - the Helmholtz-Gymnasium, the Johannes Kepler-Realschule and the Willy Hellpach-Schule - were awarded the title "Eliteschschule des Sports" by the German Sports Association. The award was given for the special sports support programs that these schools offer in cooperation with the Heidelberg Olympic Center in the Neuenheimer Field. Young athletes who participate in this program will receive special attention to reconcile school and training. The program has produced several German champions and international successes.

Regular events

The following nationwide events are regularly held in Heidelberg:

• January: miracles; Since 2010, the festival, which takes place on the 1st of January, with live multivations and photography workshops in the "Music and Singing School", has become a tradition for them. Since 2010 it has been taking place in Heidelberg
• March/April: Heidelberg Spring, annual festival for classical and contemporary music with internationally renowned artists
• International Easter egg market Heidelberg
• three weeks before Easter (Sunday Laetare): traditional summer day train
• April: Heidelberg Half Marathon last weekend in April
• April/May: Queer Festival Heidelberg
• April/May: Heidelberg Pieces Market, Theatertage with Young Authors
• May: Heidelberg Symposium
• Early summer: Annual award of the Clemens Brentano Prize
• May: Spring Fair at the Exhibition
• May: Heidelberger Ruderregatta
• July: Theater marathon in public squares and in the venues
• June/ July/ August: Heidelberg Castle Festival
• July/August: HeidelbergMan, a triathlon competition
• June-September: on the first Saturday in June and September and on the second Saturday in July - the Heidelberg castle lighting with brilliant fireworks from the Old Bridge
• September: Heidelberger Herbst in the Old Town and on the one kilometer pedestrian area on the last Saturday of September
• October: autumn fair
• October/November: The Heidelberg Theatertage, an international festival for free theater
• October/November: Enjoy Jazz, an international festival for jazz and other
• October/ November/ December: Cabaret autumn thinks of the culture window
• November: Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival
• November/December: Heidelberg Christmas market

Heidelberg in poetry

Joseph Victor von Scheffel wrote the famous poem Alt-Heidelberg, you fine.

Heidelberg is the subject of many poems. Among the most famous are Oswald von Wolkensteins I am delighted with Heidelberg, several poems by Martin Opitz, the Ode Lange I loved you already from Friedrich Hölderlin, the song of a student arriving in Heidelberg from Clemens Brentano, Gottfried Keller poem on the Old Bridge Heidelberg, you fine from Joseph Victor of Scheffel.

Heidelberg also gained literary significance by the fact that in September 1815 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Marianne von Willemer met each other for the last time. In this encounter or immediately afterwards, about 15 of the poems of the West-East Divan were born. Other writers in Heidelberg, such as Joseph von Eichendorff, Jean Paul and Nikolaus Lenau, are also documented. Alfred Mombert and Hilde Domin lived and worked in Heidelberg. In December 2014, Heidelberg became the first German city to become a UNESCO literary city.

dialect

The local mouth of the Heidelberg region is "Kurpellsisch" or in Hochdeutsch: the Palatinate dialect in the form of curdled plants. Many things in Heidelberg have a crank name, such as Hendesse for the Gschuhsheim district.

A dialect in Rhineland-Palatinate is "planted" in countless small-scale variations, the high German and the high proportion of people who have been drawn have somewhat reduced the dialect. Elsbeth Janda’s lectures, such as the role of Liselotte from the Palatinate, are not forgotten.

The town of Heidelberg was home to many well-known personalities. There are often commemorative panels on the inconspicuous houses in the old town, which remind you that a famous person lived or worked here.

The humanist Johannes Reuchlin wrote here the Latin school drama Henno from 1496 to 1497.

• Liselotte von der Pfalz, born 1652 in Heidelberg

• Robert Wilhelm Bunsen invented spectroscopy in Heidelberg in 1859, the name of the "Bunsen-Gymnasium" in Neuenheim

• King Ananda Mahidol on a contemporary stamp

The University of Heidelberg’s role in research is one of the reasons why the city’s many famous personalities are involved. Many Nobel laureates have lived, studied or taught here:

• Carl Bosch, 1931 Nobel laureate in Chemistry
• Georg Wittig, 1979 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
• Walther Bothe, 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics
• Ernst Ruska, Nobel Prize for Physics 1986
• Otto Meyerhof, 1923 Nobel Prize winner in medicine
• Bert Sakmann, 1991 Nobel Prize in Medicine
• Wolfgang Ketterle, Nobel Prize in Physics 2001
• Theodor W. Hänsch, Nobel Prize in Physics 2005
• Harald zur Hausen, Nobel Prize winner for Medicine 2008
• Stefan W. Hell, 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry

Breakthrough inventions such as spectroscopy have been developed by scholars living in Heidelberg.

The famous Heidelberg figures include:

• Heidelberg - The movie. The story. Documentary, Germany 2016, 44:37 min, book and direction: Anita Bindner, Production: House of Documentary Film Stuttgart, SWR, Series: South-West history, first edition: 14th April 2017 at SWR Television, content of HDF with preview video, 3:12 min. This documentary contains many historical private recordings of Heidelberg's inhabitants.
• Goodbye G. I. Documentary, Germany 2014, 81:20 min, book and direction: Uli Gaulke and Agnes Lisa Wegner, camera: Sebastian Bäumler, Production: kurhaus production, SWR, first edition: 12th August 2014 in Das Erste, Filmpage, Summary of Film Promotion Baden-Württemberg, online video.
• Heidelberg - a journey through the 50s and 60s. Film-Collage, Germany, 2013, 44 min., book and director: Eberhard Reuß, Production: SWR, first consignment: November 1, 2013 at SWR, content with film photos of SWR (Memento of August 4, 2014 in the web archive archive.today) and content of ARD.
• Ballermann at the Neckar dispute about the Heidelberg party parts. TV Reportage, Germany 2010, 28:10 min, book and direction: Ulrike Baur, Production: SWR series: Key, first consignment: 21 September 2010 at SWR, contents of ARD.
• Picture book Germany: Heidelberg. Documentary, Germany, 2007, 45 min., book and director: Christina Brecht-Benze, Production: SWR, initial broadcast: September 9, 2007, Summary (Memento of October 31, 2007 on the Internet Archive) of SWR.
• Myth Heidelberg. romance, romance and the living spirit. Documentary, Germany, 1996, 52 min., book and direction: Mario Damolin and Bernhard Kilian, production: Damolin & Kilian Film Production, map, first broadcast: 10 December 1996 at arte in the theme evening: Heidelberg: The shadow of a dream, indication of contents of M. Damolin.
• Product Heidelberg. tourism between romance and recession. Documentary, Germany 1994, 43:30 min, book and direction: Mario Damolin and Bernhard Kilian, production: Damolin & Kilian Film Production, SDR., first broadcast: May 20, 1994 at the SDR., film data in the German Digital Library.