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DISCOVER HEIDELBERG

Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The town of Heidelberg is an administrative district of its own. Although not being part of it, the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis, the rural district, which surrounds the town, has its seat in Heidelberg.

Heidelberg lies on the river Neckar at the point where it leaves its narrow, steep valley in the Odenwald to flow into the Rhine valley where, 20 km (12.4 miles) Northwest of Heidelberg, it joins the river Rhine at Mannheim. Heidelberg is part of a densely populated region called Rhein-Neckar-Triangle.

Heidelberg consists of fourteen districts which are distributed in six sectors of the city. In the central area of the city are Altstadt, Bergheim, and Weststadt. In north Heidelberg are Neuenheim and Handschuhsheim. In the east are Ziegelhausen and Schlierbach. In the south are Südstadt, Rohrbach, Emmertsgrund, and Boxberg and in the southwest is Kirchheim. In the west are Bahnstadt, Pfaffengrund, and Wieblingen. A new city district, tentatively named "Bahnstadt", is planned on land located within Weststadt and Wieblingen.

Approximately 600,000 years ago, the "Heidelberg Man", whose jaw-bone was discovered in 1907, the earliest evidence of human life in Europe, died at nearby Mauer.

THE OLD TOWN OF HEIDELBERG

The old town, in German Altstadt, located at the southern side of the Neckar, is long and narrow and is dominated by the ruins of the Heidelberg Castle which perches 80 metres above the Neckar on the steep, wooded side of the Königstuhl ("King's chair" or throne) hill. The Karls´gate (Karlstor) is a triumphal arch in honour of the Prince Elector Karl Theodor, located at Heidelberg's very east. It was erected from 1775 until 1781 and designed by Nicolas de Pigage The house "Zum Ritter Sankt Georg" (Knight St. George) is one of the few buildings, which survived the war of succession. The building opposite of the Church of the Holy Spirit was build in the style of the late Renaissance period. The house is named after the sculpture at the top.

The "Marstall" was an arsenal of the Heidelberg Castle in which several different goods were stored. The 19th century building we see today was created in a neo-classical style. Since 1971, the "Marstall" houses lecture halls of the university.

The old bridge is a stone bridge which was erected from 1786 to 1788. There is a medieval bridge gate on the side of the old town, originally part of its town wall. Baroque tower helmets were added as part of the erection of the stone bridge in 1788.

HEIDELBERG CASTLE

Heidelberg Castle is a mix of styles from Gothic to Renaissance. Prince Elector Ruprecht III (1398 - 1410) erected the first representative building in the inner courtyard as a regal residence. The building was divided into a ground floor made of stone and framework upper levels. Another regal building is located opposite to the Ruprecht Building: The Fountain Hall. Prince Elector Philipp (1476 - 1508) is said to have arranged the transfer of the hall's columns from a decayed palace of Charlemagne to Heidelberg.

In the 16th and 17th century the Prince Electors added two representative palace buildings and turned the fortress into a castle. The two dominant buildings at the eastern and northern side of the courtyard were erected during the rule of Ottheinrich (1556 - 1559) and Friedrich IV (1583 - 1610). Under Friedrich V (1613 - 1619), the main building of the westside was erected, the so called "English Building". The castle and its garden were destroyed several times (during the 30 Years' War and the Palatine war of succession). When Prince Elector Karl Theodor who resided in Schwetzingen tried to restore the castle, lightning struck the Castle in 1764 and finished all attempts to rebuild the castle. Later on, the castle was misused as a quarry - castle stones helped to build new houses in Heidelberg. This was stopped in 1800 by Count Charles de Graimberg who made any effort he could to preserve the Heidelberg Castle. In spite of its Gothic interior, it was not before 1934, that the King's Hall was added.

Today, the hall is used for festivities, e.g. dinner banquets, balls and theatre performances. During the Heidelberg Castle Festival in the summer, the courtyard is the site of open air musicals, operas, theatre performances and classical concerts performed by the Heidelberg City Orchestra.

The castle is surrounded by a park where the famous poet Johann von Goethe once walked. The Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway runs from Heidelberg's Kornmakt to the summit of the Königstuhl via the castle

PHILOSOPHER'S WALK

On the northern side of the Neckar, the Heiligenberg with the remains of the celtic fortress and the Philosophers' Walk (Philosophenweg) is located. This Walk derives its name from the fact that Heidelberg's philosophers and university teachers are said to have once walked and talked here. It shows excellent views of the old town and castle.

UNIVERSITY OF HEIDELBERG

Heidelberg also is home to one of Europe's oldest educational institutes, the Ruprecht Karls University founded in 1386, more commonly known as the University of Heidelberg. Among the prominent thinkers to have been associated with the University over the centuries are Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, the philosopher of hermeneutics Hans-Georg Gadamer, the critical theorist Jürgen Habermas, and the discourse philosopher Karl-Otto Apel. Karl Drais, who invented the bicycle in 1817, was also a student. The university is also credited with chemists Posselt and Reimann's 1828 discovery of nicotine as the main pharmacologically active component of tobacco.

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Molecular Biology Organization, The German Cancer Research Center, and several Max Planck Institutes (the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics and the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law) are located in Heidelberg.

ROMANTICISM OF HEIDELBERG

Heidelberg was the center of the epoch of "Romantik" (Romanticism) in Germany. There was a famous circle of poets such as Joseph von Eichendorff, Joseph von Görres, Arnim, and Clemens Brentano. A famous relic of Romanticism is the Philosophers' Walk (Philosophenweg), a scenic walking path on the nearby Heiligenberg, overlooking Heidelberg.

The "Romantik" epoch of German philosophy and literature, was described as a movement against classical and realistic theories of literature, an antipole to the rationality of the Age of Enlightenment. It elevated medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be from the medieval period as well as folk art, nature and an epistemology based on nature, which included human activity conditioned by nature in the form of language, custom and usage.

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See Also for Germany