Heilbronn is a city in the north of Baden-Württemberg and with
128,334 inhabitants (December 31, 2022) it is the seventh largest city
in the federal state. The city is located on the Neckar, about 50
kilometers north of the state capital Stuttgart, is its own urban
district and also the seat of the Heilbronn district, which completely
surrounds it. In addition, Heilbronn is the regional center of the
Heilbronn-Franken region (until May 20, 2003 the Franconian region),
which includes the north-east of Baden-Württemberg, and belongs to the
edge zone of the European metropolitan region of Stuttgart. The area
around Heilbronn is usually called the Unterland in the wider region.
First mentioned in 741, Heilbronn achieved the status of imperial
city in 1371 and, due to its location on the Neckar, developed into an
important trading center from the late Middle Ages. At the beginning of
the 19th century, Heilbronn became one of the centers of early
industrialization in Württemberg. The old town of Heilbronn was almost
completely destroyed in the air raid on December 4, 1944 and rebuilt in
the 1950s. Most of the buildings in the city center date from this
period.
Heilbronn is known as the city of wine because of its
extensive vineyards. The city is also called Käthchenstadt, after the
title character in Heinrich von Kleist's play Das Käthchen von
Heilbronn.
On February 1, 2020, the Ministry of the Interior of
Baden-Württemberg awarded the city of Heilbronn the designation of a
university city.
In Heilbronn, environmental zones have been set up in accordance with
the Fine Dust Ordinance. If you don't have the appropriate badge, you
risk a fine of €100 when entering an environmental zone. This also
applies to foreign road users. Date of action: 01/01/2012
By
plane
The nearest airports are in Stuttgart Airport (IATA: STR) and
Frankfurt Airport (IATA: FRA) . The international Fraport in Frankfurt
offers significantly more connections and also serves as a hub for
northern Baden-Württemberg.
By train
Heilbronn Hauptbahnhof is
the central regional railway hub in Heilbronner Land. From here,
Deutsche Bahn regional trains connect Heilbronn in all directions with
other major cities, such as Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Würzburg,
Schwäbisch Hall and Crailsheim. In the station itself there are also
some shops, the Deutsche Bahn travel center and a station mission. All
platforms are barrier-free accessible with elevators. They were renewed
and raised in 2019, making it easier to board the trains. The Heilbronn
Hauptbahnhof/Willy-Brandt-Platz stop is located on the station
forecourt, from which three tram lines (S4, S41 and S42) depart. They
connect the numerous light rail stops in Heilbronn city center with the
cities in the surrounding area, such as Karlsruhe, Öhringen, Neckarsulm,
Sinsheim and Mosbach.
Since 2002, a special feature has been a
light rail vehicle decorated with motifs by the artist James Rizzi.
Heilbronn is only occasionally approached by long-distance German
railways. The nearest ICE train stations are Mannheim or Stuttgart,
where you have to change trains.
By bus
Next to the Heilbronn
main train station is the Heilbronn bus station, from which various
regional bus lines (mainly operated by DB Regiobus Stuttgart) run to the
surrounding towns and villages. The long-distance bus company Flixbus
also drives to the bus station and thus connects Heilbronn with Munich,
Augsburg, Frankfurt and other destinations. Other long-distance bus
lines depart from the Neckarsulm train station long-distance bus stop.
The other scheduled bus services depart from the central bus station at
Wollhausplatz.
Coaches operate from the Karlstraße bus station.
The Stadtwerke Heilbronn transport company operates a city bus network
that connects the districts of Heilbronn and the municipality of Flein.
In the street
The A 6 motorway from Mannheim to Nuremberg and the
A 81 from Stuttgart to Würzburg meet near Heilbronn at the Weinsberger
Kreuz. There are access roads between Heilbronn and Neckarsulm on the A
6, at Heilbronn-Untergruppenbach and Weinsberg-Ellhofen on the A 81.
Heilbronn is also on the federal highways B 39 to Sinsheim, B 293 to
Karlsruhe and in the direction of Schwäbisch Hall, B 27 to Mosbach and
Ludwigsburg.
The Castle Road and the Württemberg Wine Road lead
through the city.
By boat
Although passenger shipping on the
Neckar plays a rather small role, it is still possible to arrive on a
ship operated by Stumpf passenger shipping. Various trips take place,
such as the onion cake trip from Heilbronn via Lauffen am Neckar and
Kirchheim to Besigheim or the excursion to the Felsengartenkellerei in
Hessigheim. In addition, harbor tours in Heilbronn and tours down the
Neckar via Neckarsulm, Kochendorf, Bad Wimpfen, Gundelsheim and
Haßmersheim to Neckarzimmern are offered.
If you are traveling
with your own boat, you can use the municipal boat landing stage in
Obere Neckarstraße, which is close to the city center and right next to
the Theaterschiff. The key for this is ready for collection in the
Mangold restaurant.
By bicycle
With the Alb-Neckar-Weg, the
Neckartal-Weg, the Burgenstrasse Cycle Route and the Württemberg Wine
Cycle Route, four long-distance cycle routes cross the city; the
Kocher-Jagst cycle path can also be reached in Bad Friedrichshall, just
a few kilometers away. Some regional cycle paths such as the
Kraichgau-Hohenlohe-Weg also lead through Heilbronn.
In the city
itself, the network of paths is consistently well signposted, some cycle
paths exist, and sometimes a cycle lane is separated at the edge of busy
roads. You can often make much faster progress by bike than by car.
Local public transport
The Stadtbahn (also known as the S-Bahn by
the locals), which was introduced in 2001, operates on the most
important routes through the city with its three lines S4, S41 and S42.
It is linked to the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn network and connects the city
center and the surrounding area of Heilbronn. From Heilbronn, you can
take the Stadtbahn to Öhringen, Karlsruhe, Mosbach or Sinsheim without
having to change trains. The city railways are supplemented by the dense
city bus network of Stadtwerke Heilbronn and by some regional bus lines
to surrounding towns and communities. By networking all lines with each
other, long transfer times can usually be avoided.
Tickets can
either be bought from the ticket machines at the train stations or at
the Stadtbahn stops or directly from the respective bus driver.
Heilbronn is located in tariff zone A of the Heilbronner local transport
(abbreviated: HNV), so the prices of this transport association apply
accordingly. With an HNV ticket you can use all trains, trams and buses
within the area of validity of the ticket. Children under the age of 6
travel for free when accompanied by an adult. In addition, the following
tickets are available for tariff zone A (City of Heilbronn):
single tickets
There is no need to buy a new ticket when changing
trains!
for adults: €2.40
for children aged 6 to 14: €1.20
with
BahnCard discount: €1.80
Short distances (up to a maximum of four
stops): €1.50 – only valid on the city bus!
four cards
A
section must be validated for each journey or for each passenger!
for
adults: €8.60
for children aged 6 to 14: €4.60
day tickets
Day ticket SOLO: 4.80€ (for one person)
Day ticket PLUS (tip!):
€10.00 (for two to five people)
If you are looking for further
information on the route or tickets, you will find it in the Heilbronn
route network map, in the fare overview and in the honeycomb map.
city tours
City tours in the red double-decker bus have been
offered in Heilbronn since August 2017.
On the red line, fifty
sights of the city are presented in 100 minutes, and you can get on or
off at any of the eight stops along the way. The day ticket for the city
tour costs €18 for each adult, two children up to the age of 14 travel
free for each paying adult. Each additional child pays 8 €.
A short
visit trip on the blue line takes 45 minutes and costs €9 per adult / €4
per child
Information about the city can be heard in German over the
loudspeakers on the bus; English and French information is also
available with the free headphones provided on the bus. Other languages
are to follow.
The ibis hotel next to the Neckar Tower on
Bahnhofstrasse is the starting and ending point of the tour. The
departures there are at 10:30 am, at 12:30 pm and at 2:30 pm.
From
the end of March to the end of October, the city tours take place on
Fridays to Mondays, from the beginning of November until just before
Christmas only on Fridays to Sundays. During the rest of the year,
traffic is completely at a standstill.
On foot
The pedestrian
zone in the immediate city center of Heilbronn stretches from
Theaterforum K3 via Sülmerstraße, the market square with Kaiserstraße,
Kiliansplatz with Kirchbrunnenstraße to Wollhaus in Fleiner Straße.
Numerous important sights of the city, such as the town hall with its
astronomical art clock, the harbor market tower or the Kilianskirche are
easily accessible on foot. There are also numerous shopping facilities
here.
taxi
Taxi center Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 58555,
fax: +49(0)7131 585520, email: info@taxiheilbronn.de. Half of all taxi
companies in Heilbronn have come together in the taxi headquarters.
These state that, on average, a taxi will be available at the desired
departure point five minutes after calling.
Taxi Heilbronn Unterland.
Phone: +49(0)7131 44444, email: info@taxi-unterland.de.
Taxi Service
Heilbronn, phone: +49 (0) 7131 40 55 280, email:
info@taxiservice-heilbronn.de.
There are numerous taxi ranks
throughout the city, including at the main train station, at the town
hall, at the Harmonie, at the Haus des Handwerks and at the Wollhaus.
1 Kilianskirche, Kiliansplatz .
2 Deutschhof St. Peter and Paul.
Deutschordensmünster im Deutschhof.
3 Nikolaikirche (Protestant),
Sülmerstraße 72 . The Nikolaikirche was first mentioned in 1351, from
1524 Lutheran services were celebrated in the Nikolaikirche (however,
the Lutheran preacher of the Nikolaikirche had to leave the city in
October 1525 because of the Peasants' War). Five years later, Heilbronn
finally joined the Reformation, the Nikolaikirche is no longer the
property of the Catholic Church, but of the city. From 1544 the building
was used as a children's church for all children in Heilbronn, before
the Nikolaikirche was quickly converted into an armory between 1622 and
1699 during the Thirty Years' War. After the end of this use, the church
was neglected, but because the citizens of Heilbronn campaigned for its
restoration, it was able to serve as a place of worship again from 1706.
In the 18th century, burials usually took place here. From 1802 to 1804
the Nikolaikirche was also a school, in 1805 French soldiers seized the
church and converted it into a military hospital. From 1820 the building
was rented out and used in a variety of ways: as a workshop, fire
station, polling station and assembly hall, and finally even as a
gymnasium. However, citizens collect donations and want the church to be
used again for its original purpose - which is achieved in 1851. During
the air raid on Heilbronn in 1944, the Nikolaikirche was destroyed down
to the walls. The reconstruction of the church was completed in 1951 and
since then it has been a place for worship and prayer. Open: Tue
2pm-6pm, Wed 4pm-6pm, Thu 2pm-6pm, Fri 3pm-6pm, Sat 11am-2pm, Sun 9am:
00-10:30; Worship Service: Sunday, 9:30 am.
Due to the destruction caused by the bombing raid on Heilbronn on the
evening of December 4, 1944, only very few representative buildings in
the city center have survived. These include the Deutschhof and the
Käthchenhaus on the market square.
1 Trappenseeschlösschen, in
the Trappensee.
2 Schiesshaus, Frankfurter Straße 65, 74072 Heilbronn
(near the main train station) . Built from 1769 to 1771 as a rifle club,
the baroque shooting range has served a wide variety of purposes
throughout its history. In the years 1848 and 1849 the people's meetings
of the German Revolution were held here, after the Second World War it
was an emergency church and provisional seat of the council chamber,
city library and local newspaper. Today it is used as an event space. In
addition to the gardens surrounding the shooting house, the magnificent
rococo hall on the upper floor is particularly worth mentioning.
3
Teutonic Order Castle Kirchhausen, Schloßplatz 2, 74078
Heilbronn-Kirchhausen (stop Kirchhausen Schloßplatz lines 31, 61, 683) .
The palace, built in Renaissance style between 1572 and 1578, was used
by the magistrates of the Teutonic Order until 1805 and today serves as
Kirchhausen's citizens' office. The ditches around the castle were
originally filled with water, which is why the term "moated castle" has
survived to this day. Various sixty to ninety-minute themed tours are
offered, which, in addition to the castle itself, also visit the tower
museum, the bailiff's house and other buildings outside the castle.
Price: for guided tours €60, school classes pay €40.
The remains of
the Roman fort Heilbronn-Böckingen can be visited at the eastern end of
Steinäckerstraße in the district of Böckingen. It is documented from
around 85 AD and existed until the middle of the second century, when
the Neckar-Odenwald Limes was moved forward and the fort was no longer
necessary.
4 Town Hall . With astronomical art clock.
5 Idol Tower. pillars
of a city wall.
6 Harbor Market Tower
7 Bulwark Tower. The tower
can be climbed, the key is available at the tourist information and in
the city archive.
Wartberg tower on the Wartberg, outside towards
Weinsberg, on the Wartberg the panorama trail is a destination
8
Seven Tube Fountain . He probably gave the town the name villa
heilbrunna in 741.
Robert Mayer memorial on the market square
Otto von Bismarck
Monument in Bismarck Park
9 Museum in the Deutschhof. Email: museen-hn@heilbronn.de . The
museum in the Deutschhof shows numerous exhibits from the fields of
archaeology, art and culture with reference to local history. Open: Mon
closed, Tue 10am-7pm, Wed-Sun and public holidays 10am-5pm. Closed on
some public holidays in December. Price: the permanent exhibitions can
be visited free of charge; the changing special exhibitions cost an
entry fee of 4€ (for concessionaires: 3€).
10 Kunsthalle Vogelmann,
Allee 28, 74072 Heilbronn (stop Harmonie/Kunsthalle). Tel.: +49(0)7131
56-4420, fax: +49(0)7131 56-3194, e-mail: museen-hn@heilbronn.de . Open:
Mon closed, Tue-Wed and Fri-Sun and public holidays 11:00-17:00, Thu
11:00-19:00. Closed on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year's Eve.
Price: adults: €6, concessions: €4, families: €12.
11
Otto-Rettenmaier-Haus – House of City History, Eichgasse 1, 74072
Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131 56-2290, fax: +49(0)7131 56-3195, e-mail:
stadtarchiv@heilbronn.de . The Heilbronn city archive brings visitors
closer to the city history of Heilbronn in the exhibition "Heilbronn
historically!" and various temporary exhibitions. Open: Mon closed, Tue
10am-7pm, Wed-Sun 10am-5pm. Price: free.
12 Experimenta,
Kranenstrasse 14, 74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 887950, email:
info@experimenta-heilbronn.de . Experimenta reopened on March 31 after
an expansion. Admission combined ticket adults €19 / children €10,
during the BUGA €14 / €7.
13 Süddeutsches Eisenbahnmuseum Heilbronn
(SEH), Leonhardstraße 15, 74080 Heilbronn (Böckingen Sonnenbrunnen
stop). Tel.: +49 (0)7131 390 74 34, email:
museum@eisenbahnmuseum-heilbronn.de . The museum in the listed
roundhouse from 1893 with a working turntable shows 80 locomotives or
wagons from different eras. There are also other attractions, such as
model railways and a "children's railway". A visit to the museum during
the steam days is particularly worthwhile, during which some historical
locomotives are shown in operation and you can ride in the driver's cab.
Open: early March to late October: Sat–Sun + public holidays 10:00
a.m.–6:00 p.m.; Early November to late February: Sat 11:00 a.m.–4:00
p.m. Price: adults: €5, children: €2.50, families: €12.50.
Historical
industrial park Neckargartach. Former paper factory by Johann Jakob
Widmann, later pumping station for the water supply: with pumping
station, hammer mill and fountain house.
The avenue, it leads from Berliner Platz am Theater via the Festhalle Harmonie to Wollhausplatz
Botanical Orchard. Email: info@botanischer-obstgarten.de. A gem on
the outskirts. Its origins go back to 1900, when boys were given the
opportunity to practically apply theoretical knowledge from school in
the garden and in manual work. At the time, this was something
completely new: Heilbronn was the first city in Germany to apply this
type of reform pedagogy. In addition to the orchard itself, there are
now various show gardens and a collection of historic garden houses that
is well worth seeing. If you want, you can strengthen yourself after a
tour in the Pestalozzicafé or browse through the farm shop (these are
not always open). Open: April to September: daily 8am-8pm, October to
March: daily 9am-5pm. Price: free entry.
The Wertwiesenpark was laid
out for the 1985 State Horticultural Show.
forest heath . A local
recreation area with a great history. From 1951 the forest clearing was
used as a military training ground and from 1953 also as an airfield for
American forces. While the site was initially accessible to citizens of
Heilbronn, from 1974 the area was cordoned off with watchtowers and
fences. The reason for this was the stationing of nuclear Pershing
missiles on the Waldheide. In an emergency, these should have been used
in the nuclear war against the Eastern Bloc. The people of Heilbronn
became increasingly aware of the danger and organized numerous human
chains and demonstrations against further nuclear armament. The peace
movement culminated in the Easter march on the Waldheide in 1983, in
which 30,000 people took part. But it came as it had to: on January 11,
1985, a rocket accident killed three people. Only after the end of the
Cold War was the area renatured and since then it has been open to the
public again.
City Garden (behind the Harmony).
Old graveyard.
With approx. 200 historical tombstones
Pfühlpark with Trappensee
Neckarpark with Kraneninsel and Hagenbucher on the Wilhelm Canal
Brick factory park in the district of Böckingen
More green areas were
created for the Federal Garden Show 2019, they are in the new
Neckarbogen district north of the main train station.
Main
Cemetery . The cemetery was opened in 1882. Since September 18, 2020, it
has been part of UNESCO's Cemetery Culture Intangible Cultural Heritage.
Robert Mayer Observatory, Bismarckstraße 10, 74072 Heilbronn (in the Robert Mayer High School). Phone: +49(0)7131 81299, fax: +49(0)7131 677777, email: info@sternwarte.org.
Regular major events and markets
Horse Market (February)
Trollinger Marathon (May)
Unterland folk festival (August)
In the
middle of September, the Heilbronn Wine Village will be held around the
town hall in Heilbronn for nine days. organized. Around 300 wines from
the area are offered in tenths glasses (0.1 l) for around 1.50 euros per
glass.
Harbor market in Sülmercity (October)
The second weekend is
the wine summit, more than 50 Wengerter present themselves with up to
600 excellent wines.
Heilbronn Christmas market
1 City Theater, Berliner Platz 1, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131
563001, fax: +49(0)7131 563139, e-mail: kasse@theater-hn.de . The three
venues in the big house, in the comedy house and in the BOXX,
Heilbronn's young theater, belong to the municipal theater.
2
Theaterschiff Heilbronn, Obere Neckarstraße, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.:
+49(0)7131 62 75 79, fax: +49(0)7131 89 87 522, e-mail:
kultur@theaterschiff-heilbronn.de. The Heilbronner Theaterschiff was the
first of its kind in Germany. The visitors are offered theatre, cabaret,
cabaret, music and readings.
3 Kulturkeller, Gartenstrasse 64, 74072
Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 67 91 89, email: info@kulturkeller.de. In
addition to theater and cabaret, readings and music are also presented
on the oldest cabaret stage in the city. Price: usually around €17.
4
level 3, Berliner Platz 12, 74072 Heilbronn (in the Theaterforum K3).
Phone: +49(0)7131 393077, email: info@ebene-3.de. Open: daily from 7
p.m., Mondays and Tuesdays: day off.
From a musical point of view,
the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn is particularly noteworthy,
as it is one of the most renowned chamber orchestras in the world.
Ice rink at the Kolbenschmidt Arena: Heilbronner Falken ice hockey or
just ice skating, also for children
Inline skating: Skate facilities
in the Wertwiesenpark, at the Theresienwiese, at the Böckinger Bridge
Skate routes with a length of 10km or 15km through the city, each
starting point at the Frankenstadion
Figure skating REV Heilbronn
Climbing arena of the German Alpine Association in the old Block E of
EnBW
Stadtbad SOLEO (indoor pool, sauna), Untere Neckarstraße 21, 74072
Heilbronn (near the bulwark tower). Tel.: +49(0)7131 56 25 34. Sauna:
Mon 1 p.m. - 10 p.m., Tue - Sat 9 a.m. - 10 p.m., Sun 9 a.m. - 8 p.m.
(Tuesday is ladies day). Prepaid cards with discount. Parking:
Multi-storey car park at the Bollwerksturm. Open: Mon 1pm-6pm, Tue
8am-8pm, Wed 8am-9pm, Thurs 8am-8pm, Fri 6am-9pm, Sat 8am-6pm, Sun
8am-8pm. Price: Adult prices: indoor pool €6.20, sauna €17.70.
Indoor
swimming pool Biberach, Bibersteige 17, 74078 Heilbronn-Biberach,
Tel.:07066 7989, open Tue 3pm-7pm, Wed 9am-12am and 3pm-7pm, Thu
2pm-9pm, Fri 3pm-9pm, Sat 1pm-6pm, Sun 8am -12. Entry adults €3.50
Outdoor pools at the Neckarhalde, at the Gesundbrunnen, in Kirchhausen
City gallery, shopping mall.
Galeria Kaufhof Right next to it is
Fleiner Strasse and the Wollhaus on Wollhausplatz with Galeria Kaufhof
and numerous shops
The Sülmer City with pedestrian zone
Kaiserstrasse, Marktplatz and Käthchenhof
The furniture mile in the
Böckingen district
Genossenschaftskellerei Heilbronn, Binswanger
Straße 150, 74076 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49 7131 1579 10. There is a huge
selection of local wines, sparkling wines and seccos on around 600
square meters. You can try and get advice. Open: Mon to Fri 8.30 a.m. to
6 p.m., Sat 8.30 a.m. to 2 p.m., 1st Sunday in May to the Sunday before
Christmas Eve 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Weekly market
If you are
looking for vegetables, fruit and other groceries from farmers in the
area, the Heilbronn weekly market is recommended. He always finds
As expected, Heilbronn's cuisine is traditionally Swabian and German.
Especially worth mentioning and typical of the city is the Heilbronner
favorite dish (a mixture of the "best" of Swabian cuisine: Buabaspitzle
(Schupfnudeln), spaetzle, dumplings and pork tenderloin in a mushroom
sauce with lettuce, the Heilbronner favorite dish is often even served
in a specially designed dish served on a plate) and the Böckinger
Feldgeschrei (named after the Böckingen district of Heilbronn, otherwise
known as the "Gaisburger Marsch". Traditional Swabian stew with potato
wedges, spaetzle and beef).
The favorite drink of the people of
Heilbronn is undoubtedly wine. With the Heilbronn-Erlenbach-Weinsberg
cooperative winery, the largest individual winegrowers' cooperative in
Germany is located here. So it is not surprising that the mountains
around Heilbronn, especially the Wartberg, are characterized by
viticulture. As almost everywhere in Württemberg, the cultivation of red
wine varieties predominates, the Trollinger being their most important
representative. But there are also numerous other varieties such as
Riesling, Lemberger, Schwarzriesling or Kerner and even newer ones such
as Acolon. The list is not complete. The people of Heilbronn explain the
fact that Württemberg wine is relatively unknown in the world as
follows: the wine is of such a quality that people like to drink it
here. Often there is not much left over for export.
Wein-Villa
(old Faißt villa), Cäcilienstraße 66, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131
676712, fax: +49(0)7131 676713, e-mail: info@wein-villa.de . classical
villa, operated by the wineries in the area. Exhibitions on viticulture,
tasting of fine wines, good regional cuisine. Open: Tues to Sat: 11.30
a.m. to 11 p.m.
However, people also like to drink beer – the
traditional beer brand Cluss (existing since 1865) and the Heilbronner
Kronen-Bräu (since 1894) have their roots in the city.
Since
2012, Heilbronn has also had its own cult drink, Hölleblöms. Based on a
scene from Heinrich von Kleist's play Das Käthchen von Heilbronn, in
which the main character Käthchen is resting under an elder bush, this
is an elderberry juice spritzer. The drink is available at some
restaurants, beer gardens, cafés and bars.
Heilbronner
NECKARMEILE - gastronomy between the towers: On a distance of approx.
700m between the Götzenturm and the Bollwerksturm you will find 20
gastronomic establishments, shops and a hotel.
1 Pier 58, Untere
Neckarstrasse 10, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131 594 58 15, e-mail:
hello@pierfuenfacht.de.
2 Finnegan's the Rock Pub, Wollhausstrasse
45. Tel.: +49(0)7131 82027.
3 Wilma Wunder, Sülmerstr. 40. Tel:
+49(0)7131 873405.
4 Delhi Palace, Rosskampffstr. 17. (Indian,
vegetarian)
5 Ratskeller, Marktplatz 7. Swabian cuisine.
6 Restaurant Trappensee, Jägerhausstraße 159. Tel.: +49(0)71317452
300, e-mail: info@restaurant-trappensee.de. Open: Friday - Tuesday 11:30
a.m. - 10:30 p.m., closed on Wed, Thu.
7 Wartberg mountain
restaurant, Wartberg 1, 74076 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131 162913. Open:
daily 11 a.m. - 10 p.m.
8 Hagen coffee house, Christophstrasse 13, 74076 Heilbronn. Tel.:
+49(0)7131 155540, fax: +49(0)7131 1555423, e-mail: info@hagencafé.de.
The "Hagen-Kaffee" brand is known far beyond Heilbronn's borders and
enjoys an excellent reputation. The coffee house with tea counter and
attached shop has been family-owned since 1934. From time to time,
cultural events and seminars also take place in the coffee house, which
is housed in a historic factory building. Prior reservation is
recommended. Open: Mon to Fri: 8.30 a.m. to 6 p.m., Sat: 8.30 a.m. to 4
p.m. Price: Breakfast from €5.50.
9 Café s'Schümli, Sülmerstrasse 9,
74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 82600, email: info@schuemli.de. Café
with a special lighting concept and a relaxing atmosphere in a prime
downtown location. Predominantly affordable prices, also various baked
goods are offered. Open: Monday to Saturday: 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday
and public holidays: 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.
10 Das Roth, Lohtorstrasse 41,
74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 85904, fax: +49(0)7131 993822, email:
info@das-roth.de. The traditional Café Roth with a pastry shop has
existed on the Hafenmarkt in Heilbronn since 1919, and breakfast and
lunch are also available here. The "banana cream" has become known as a
specialty of the house. Open: Tue-Fri: 9am-6.30pm, Sat: 9am-6pm, Sun:
10am-6pm, some public holidays: 1pm-6pm.
11 Excellent – coffee house
and chocolate shop, Marktplatz 2, 74072 Heilbronn (in the Käthchenhof).
Tel.: +49(0)7131 6405720, e-mail: info@chocolaterie- Kaffeehaus.de.
Coffee house over two floors with a view of the Kilianskirche and the
historic town hall. In summer you can also enjoy coffee and cake outside
directly on the market square. Open: daily 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
12
Hartman's Café-Bar, Holzstrasse 14, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131
1295975, e-mail: hartmans@gmx.de . Open: Mon - Thu: 10 am - 2 am, Fri -
Sun: 10 am - 3 am.
Kinostar Arthaus, Kirchbrunnenstraße 3, 74072 Heilbronn (in the
"Marrahaus", the entrance is next to the historic Fleischhaus). Tel.:
+49(0)7131 6422222, email: kino@kinostar.com. Modern designed, small
cinema with four cinema halls. Mainly non-mainstream films are shown.
CinemaxX Heilbronn, Berliner Platz 12, 74072 Heilbronn (in “K3”). Tel.:
+49(0)40 80806969 (for reservations), email: ticket@cinemaxx.com. Large
multiplex cinema with six screens and films in 2D and 3D quality.
Open-air cinema Heilbronn, Binswanger Straße 150, 74076 Heilbronn (in
the courtyard of the Heilbronn cooperative winery). Phone: +49(0)7131
923417, email: kino@x-media.net
Kaiser's, Gottlieb-Daimler-Strasse 9d. Phone: +49(0)7131 1376175,
email: info@clubkaiser.de. The listed brick storage tower of the
Kaiser's Kaffee company from 1939 has been breathed new life into other
uses since 2006 - in 2010 the tower was increased by a glass cube, and
the Kaiser's Skybar has been housed here ever since. From the tower you
can let your gaze wander far over Heilbronn. Open: Tuesday to Saturday:
from 6 p.m. (open end).
Prediger, Schellengasse 16. Tel.: +49(0)7131
1245462, email: info@predigerbar.de. A slightly nondescript downtown
smokers bar with a large selection of cocktails. Open: Tuesday to
Thursday: 8pm to 1.30am, Friday and Saturday: 8pm to 2.30am.
Heilbronn's nightlife takes place mainly outside the city center.
Gazebo, Viehweide 13, 74080 Heilbronn-Böckingen. Phone: +49(0)7131
33634, fax: +49(0)7131 2035684, email: party@laube.hn. As early as 1982,
the former Heilbronn allotment gardener's home was converted into a
disco with a pub - and has been a real authority in the city ever since.
Behind the "Laube" is a large community of fans who were able to prevent
the demolition of the building in 1990 and helped with the
reconstruction after the two fires in 2000 and 2010. This coined the
well-known sentence: “Die Laube, Heilbronn dies.” Open: Tuesdays: 9 p.m.
to 3 a.m.; Fri, Sat and before public holidays: 9 p.m. – 5 a.m. Price:
free entry.
mobilat club, Salzstrasse 27, 74076 Heilbronn. One of the
most popular clubs in Heilbronn, has existed since 1997. Open: Fri. and
Sat.: 10.30 p.m.–5 a.m., by appointment also Thurs.: 8.30 p.m.–1 a.m.
Musikpark, Gottlieb-Daimler-Strasse 9d, 74076 Heilbronn. Phone:
+49(0)7131 6455921, fax: +49(0)7131 6455958, email:
info@musikparkheilbronn.de.
Hip Island, Hafenstrasse 17, 74076
Heilbronn. Mobile: +49 176 81825363, email: info@hip-island.de. Open:
daily in summer, weather permitting: 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Pfläumli, Neue
Strasse 30, 74080 Heilbronn-Böckingen. Phone: +49(0)7131 8984451, email:
info@pflaeumli.de. Only live music is played, but with a wide range -
from funk to hits. Open: Fri, Sat and before public holidays: 8 p.m. -
2.30 a.m. Price: €5 entry.
Creme 21 – the club, Lichtenberger Straße
17, 74076 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131 745722, fax: +49(0)7131 745723,
e-mail: info@creme21derclub.de. Open: Fri and Sat: 10pm-4am.
The
Rooms Club, Etzelstraße 38, 74076 Heilbronn (in the Weipert center).
Email: info@roomsclub.de. Open: Fri and Sat: 11pm-5am.
Bukowski,
Hafenstrasse 36, 74076 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 177936, email:
info@bukowski-live.de. Small club with a focus on electronic music.
Recommended especially for those who want to party until dawn. Open: Fri
and Sat: at least 11 p.m. – 8.30 a.m.
Jazzclub Cave 61, Lauffener
Straße 2, 74081 Heilbronn-Sontheim (in the old theater). Phone:
+49(0)7131 6428281, Fax: +49(0)7131 6428279.
Cheap
1 DJH youth hostel Heilbronn, Paula-Fuchs-Allee 3, 74076
Heilbronn (from April 2019 only 800m from the main station). Phone:
+49(0)7131 172961, fax: +49(0)7131 164345, email:
info@jugendherberge-heilbronn.de. The new youth hostel Heilbronn is
located in the middle of the grounds of the Federal Horticultural Show
2019 in downtown Heilbronn. It has 180 beds in 51 rooms, most of which
are double and four-bed rooms, as well as a lockable bicycle storage
room, roof terrace and bistro. Open: all year round, 07:00-22:00.
Check-in: from 3 p.m. Check-out: until 10:00 a.m. Price: During the BUGA
(17.04.-06.10.2019) special prices including access to the BUGA site and
a welcome drink.
2 Scout home in the Altböllinger Hof, Altböllinger
Hof 4, 74078 Heilbronn-Neckargartach (Böllinger Höfe). Email:
info@altboellingerhof.de. Price: €10 per night, minimum 6 people.
At
the Wertwiesenpark (near the Neckarhalde outdoor pool) there are parking
spaces for mobile homes (49° 8' 0" N 9° 12' 24" E).
Middle
3
ibis Hotel Heilbronn, Bahnhofstrasse 5, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.:
+49(0)7131 59440, Fax: +49(0)7131 5944333. Feature: ★★p. Price: single
room from €59, double room from €69.
4 B&B Hotel Heilbronn,
Mozartstrasse 24, 74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 74960, Fax:
+49(0)7131 7496444, Email: heilbronn@hotelbb.com.
5 Hotel Arkade am
Theater, Weinsberger Strasse 29, 74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131
95600, fax: +49(0)7131 956066, email: info@hotelarkade.de.
6 Hotel
garni Central, Roßkampffstrasse 15-17, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131
6242-0, fax: +49(0)7131 6242-40, e-mail:
info@hotel-central-heilbronn.de.
7 Hotel zur Post, Bismarckstrasse 5,
74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 627040, fax: +49(0)7131 82193, email:
info@hotel-zur-post-heilbronn.com. Feature: ★★★.
8 City Hotel, Allee
40, 74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 93530, fax: +49(0)7131 935353,
email: info@city-hotel.de. Feature: ★★★.
9 Hotel Urbanus,
Urbanstrasse 13, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131 99171-0, fax:
+49(0)7131 99171-91, e-mail: info@urbanus.de.
10 Stadthotel
Heilbronn, Neckarsulmer Strasse 36-38, 74076 Heilbronn. Phone:
+49(0)7131 95220, fax: +49(0)7131 952270, email:
info@stadthotel-heilbronn.com. Feature: ★★★.
11 Hotel-Gasthof "Zum
Rössle", Saarbrückener Strasse 2, 74078 Heilbronn-Frankenbach. Phone:
+49(0)7131 91550, email: info@roessle-frankenbach.de.
12 Best Western
Hotel am Kastell, Kastellstrasse 64, 74080 Heilbronn-Böckingen. Phone:
+49(0)7131 913310, fax: +49(0)7131 91331299, email:
info@kastell.bestwestern.de.
Upscale
13 Insel Hotel, Willy
Mayer Bridge, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131 6300, email:
insel@insel-hotel.de . Centrally located on an island in the Neckar, the
hotel is considered to be Heilbronn's "best house in town" (with
swimming pool, sauna, restaurant, café, fitness room and conference
area). Feature: ★★★★S. Price: single room from €119, double room from
€159.
14 Hotel TraumRaum, Bahnhofstrasse 31, 74072 Heilbronn. Phone:
+49(0)7131 591924-0, fax: +49(0)7131 591924-11, email:
kontakt@hotel-traumraum.de. The rooms have names like "Hamburg", "Sylt",
"Venice" or "St. Petersburg" and are furnished according to the city
theme. Price: Single room from €95, double room from €125.
15 Mercure
Hotel Heilbronn, Platz am Bollwerksturm 2, 74072 Heilbronn. Tel.:
+49(0)7131 749950, Fax: +49(0)7131 74995166. The Mercure hotel, located
close to the city centre, is furnished in a retro-modern style. Feature:
★★★★. Price: from €99.
16 Hotel Parkvilla (Villa Mayer),
Gutenbergstrasse 30, 74074 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0)7131 95700, fax:
+49(0)7131 957020, e-mail: info@hotel-parkvilla.de . The park villa from
1912, surrounded by numerous other villas, has a very unusual feature to
offer: in the park of the house there is a tame cheetah to admire in
addition to other animals. Price: Single room from €98, double room from
€132.
After Heilbronn was mainly known for the local industries for many
years, the city is now to gradually transform itself into a "city of
knowledge". Various measures ensure, for example, the expansion of
Heilbronn as a university location and are intended to increase the
attractiveness of the city for students. An important building block for
this is the modern educational campus Heilbronn under the motto lifelong
learning, which is located in the northern city center. The educational
campus is already home to the following institutions:
Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW Heilbronn),
Bildungscampus 4. Tel.: +49(0)7131 1237-0, fax: +49(0)7131 1237-100,
e-mail: central@heilbronn.dhbw.de.
German Graduate School of
Management & Law (GGS), Bildungscampus 2. Tel.: +49(0)7131 645636-0,
email: info@ggs.de.
Academy for Innovative Education and Management
Heilbronn-Franconia (aim), Bildungscampus 7. Tel.: +49(0)7131 39097-0,
e-mail: info@aim-akademie.org.
In addition, part of the Heilbronn
University (HHN) is also located on the education campus, the rest is
located on the campus in the Sontheim district.
As almost
everywhere, there is a city library in Heilbronn, Berliner Platz 12,
74072 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 56-2663, Fax: +49(0)7131 56-2950.
Open: Tuesday to Friday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m
Directly in front of the Soleo indoor pool on the square at the
Bollwerksturm there is also a public bookshelf where books can be sorted
free of charge and from which everyone can take books home free of
charge.
In November 2016, the unemployment rate in Heilbronn was around 3.9%.
1 Klinikum am Gesundbrunnen, Am Gesundbrunnen 20-26, 74078
Heilbronn-Böckingen. Phone: +49(0)7131 49-0, fax: +49(0) 7131
49-4740000, email: info@slk-kliniken.de.
2 Urological Clinic am
Lerchenberg, Lerchenstrasse 81, 74074 Heilbronn. Tel.: +49(0) 7131
1566-0, fax: +49(0) 7131 1566-80, e-mail: info@klinik-lerchenberg.de.
Tourist Information, Kaiserstraße 17, 74072 Heilbronn (Town Hall
stop). Tel.: +49 (0)7131 56 22 70 (information, tickets), +49 (0)7131 56
41 03 (city tourism), fax: +49 (0)7131 56 33 49, e-mail: info@heilbronn
-marketing.de. In addition to information and accommodation services,
numerous Heilbronn souvenirs are also offered here. Open: Mon–Fri 10
a.m.–6 p.m., Sat 10 a.m.–4 p.m. / Extended opening hours for the Federal
Horticultural Show: Mon–Sat 10 a.m.–7 p.m., Sun+holidays 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
Lost property office, Marktplatz 7, 74072 Heilbronn (room 7 on the
ground floor of the town hall). Phone: +49(0)7131 56-2076, fax:
+49(0)7131 56-3678, e-mail: buergeramt@heilbronn.de. Open: Mon-Wed and
Fri 8:30-12:00, Thu 14:00-18:00.
The local daily newspaper Heilbronnerstimme and the Heilbronner
Stadtanzeiger, which appears every two weeks, report on what is
happening in the city. The weekly newspapers echo on Wednesday and echo
on the weekend are also available free of charge.
Also free are
the city magazines Hanix - the magazine from Heilbronn and Moritz, which
appears with its own regional edition for the city and district of
Heilbronn.
The special launderette (Arkus-Waschsalon), Wilhelmstraße 58/1, 74074 Heilbronn. Phone: +49(0)7131 99123-23, email: hauswirtschaft@arkus-heilbronn.de
“Marketplace” toilet facility (below the market square, two
staircases at the tram stop lead down to the toilets). Feature: not
wheelchair accessible. Open: at least from 9:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., much
longer for events in the city center, such as the "Heilbronner
Weindorf". Price: free.
“Allee” toilet facility (at the “Allee/Post
(West)” bus stop). Feature: wheelchair accessible. Open: always. Price:
€0.30.
rail&fresh WC, Bahnhofstraße 30, 74072 Heilbronn (in the
underpass of Heilbronn main station). Feature: wheelchair accessible.
Open: daily 5:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Price: 1 € (0.50 € will be returned
as a voucher that can be redeemed at Yorma's and Subway in the main
station).
Numerous Heilbronn retailers and restaurateurs also take
part in the "Nette Toilette" campaign: they offer their regularly
cleaned toilets free of charge and to the public during the respective
opening hours. A list of all participating shops and restaurants can be
found here.
The oldest human traces in the fertile Necka flood plains of the
Heilbronn Basin date back to the Paleolithic (30,000 BC). Ancient
long-distance routes crossed the Neckar at Heilbronn in ancient times.
In the 1st century AD, the Romans secured their border along the Neckar
Limes with forts, including the Heilbronn-Böckingen fort, where eight
Roman roads met. After the Romans, the Alamanni ruled in the Neckar
region from the middle of the 3rd century and were pushed out around 500
by the Franks, who settled their eastern provinces with royal courts.
The first larger settlement in the area of today's core city probably
goes back to such a royal court.
The place is first mentioned as
villa Helibrunna in a donation dated 741. The name indicates a well or
spring. A market was first mentioned around 1050 and a port around 1140.
The town soon developed into an important trading center and after the
end of the Carolingian rulers passed to their regional princes, the
Counts of Calw. The former Frankish princely court splintered into
manorial courts, and these in turn broke up into smaller parts. In
addition to various counts, monasteries with their Heilbronn care homes
and the Teutonic Order, which appeared from around 1225 and established
the Deutschhof as a commander and owned the neighboring town of
Sontheim, property rights in Heilbronn also came into the hands of the
increasingly influential patriciate, including its early representatives
the Eres and the Lutvin counted. In 1225, the city was first referred to
as an oppidum (fortified city) and given to Württemberg as a fief by the
Hohenstaufen king Heinrich (VII).
In 1281, King Rudolf I of
Habsburg granted Heilbronn city rights, with the first mention of a city
council formed from the patriciate. Around 1300, the Kilianskirche was
first mentioned by name, as was a market square with a town hall. With
the foundation of the Katharinenspital in 1306, a municipal health and
welfare system was formed. In 1322, King Ludwig the Bavarian granted the
city high jurisdiction.
The harbor and the water-powered mills on
the Neckar, which could be dammed and diverted from 1333 thanks to the
Neckar privilege for the benefit of the city, allowed trade to flourish
in Heilbronn. Due to the handling monopoly, Heilbronn became the “Little
Venice” of inland shipping. In 1360 the citizenry was able to acquire
the mayor's office from the previous fiefdom of Württemberg.
On December 28, 1371, the city became an imperial city through a
constitution by Emperor Charles IV. An extremely close relationship with
the emperor and an alliance with the Electoral Palatinate from 1417 to
1622 strengthened the position towards Württemberg.
From 1500
Heilbronn belonged as an imperial city to the Swabian Empire, while the
areas of the Teutonic Knights, Ballei Franconia, belonged to the
Franconian Empire.
In 1519, Götz von Berlichingen was imprisoned
in Heilbronn as a prisoner of the Swabian League. During the Peasants'
War, Jäcklein Rohrbach appeared as a rebellious peasant leader in
Heilbronn. He committed the bloody deed in Weinsberg with the
Neckar-Odenwald peasant gang around Easter 1525 and then plundered the
Carmelite monastery in Heilbronn outside the city walls. In the city
itself, the anger of the peasants was only directed at the Teutonic
Order in the Deutschhof.
The city of Heilbronn, which had
patronage rights over the position of preacher in the Kilianskirche,
joined the Reformation early on. The Heilbronn Catechism of 1528,
written by the Kilianskirch preacher Johann Lachmann, is one of the
earliest Protestant catechisms. The first Protestant mayor, Hans
Riesser, took part in the Speyer protest in 1529. The economic stability
in the further course of the 16th century led to a further prosperity of
the city, in which about 4000 people lived at that time. Numerous
historical buildings date back to this period, including the ornate west
tower of the Kilianskirche, the Fleischhaus and the Heilbronn town hall.
During the Thirty Years' War the city and the surrounding imperial
town villages suffered greatly. After the Battle of Wimpfen,
Neckargartach was burned down in 1622. In 1633, the Swedes in the
Deutschhof concluded the Heilbronn League with the Protestant southern
German imperial cities. At that time the city was surrounded by a
bulwark. From 1634 to 1647 the city was again in the hands of imperial
troops, after which French and then Palatinate troops moved in. Even
after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the city remained a parade ground
and Protestant district fortress of the Swabian Empire. In late 1688,
during the War of the Palatinate Succession, Heilbronn was occupied by
the French under Ezéchiel de Mélac, who abducted nine members of the
patrician families as hostages for more than a year when they withdrew
from advancing Saxon troops in December 1688. The last witch trial in
the imperial city took place in 1694.
After the political
stabilization, magnificent buildings in the rococo style were built
around 1750, such as the municipal archive building, the orphanage,
penitentiary and workhouse, the Kraichgau archive and the shooting
house. From 1770, Heilbronn became one of the largest transshipment
points for slaughter cattle in southwest Germany for over a century
thanks to the cattle and horse market.
As a result of mediatization, Heilbronn came with other imperial
cities to Württemberg in September 1802 and became the seat of the
Heilbronn Oberamt. Two of the chief magistrates of the 19th century,
namely Joseph Christian Schliz and Friedrich Mugler, became the city's
first two honorary citizens.
From 1815 the Neckar was made
navigable again, which had been blocked by countless weirs and mills
since the High Middle Ages. The Wilhelm Canal was built for this purpose
between 1819 and 1821. Industrialization was driven forward in Heilbronn
by the Heilbronner paper mills on the Neckar, which switched to
factory-type production around 1820 with the installation of large paper
machines and developed into large companies, which in turn were followed
by subordinate processing companies. In 1832 Heilbronn was the city with
the most factories in the Kingdom of Württemberg, it was called the
Swabian Liverpool.
In the course of the 19th century, the city's
population increased sixfold, so that it quickly outgrew the medieval
city limits, which had remained almost unchanged for centuries. The old
city gates and city walls were demolished. New roads and bridges were
built. From 1839 suburbs were systematically developed, now also to the
west of the Neckar, where the old station stood from 1848. Heilbronn was
initially the terminus of the Württemberg Northern Railway from
Stuttgart. Additional railway connections from Heilbronn to other
important southern German towns were established by 1880 under the
direction of the Württemberg State Railways.
In 1848, Heilbronn
was the Württemberg center of the March Revolution. Up until the summer
of 1849, there were frequent unrests in the city, which in many cases
could only be suppressed by the dispatch of royal soldiers from
Stuttgart.
With the steady further growth of the city, a new
general building plan was drawn up by Reinhard Baumeister in 1873, which
was followed for further city planning until around 1900. The
Kaiserstraße became an important east-west traffic axis. The raft harbor
was built in 1875, followed by the salt harbor in 1886 and Karlshafen in
1888. On January 16, 1892, Heilbronn was the first city in the world to
start long-distance electricity supply when it was connected to the
power grid of the power station in Lauffen. In 1900, another important
goods transshipment center was built with the Südbahnhof.
The
most important Heilbronn companies at that time included the silverware
factory Peter Bruckmann & Sons, the Heilbronn sugar factory, the Cluss
brewery, the Knorr soup factory and the Heilbronn mechanical engineering
company.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were
numerous workers' and sports clubs and a liberal press landscape in the
pronounced industrial and working-class city. The later Federal
President Theodor Heuss was editor-in-chief of the Neckar-Zeitung from
1912 to 1917, which enjoyed national attention at the time. The city was
considered a "red stronghold". During the November Revolution of 1918/19
there were no major revolutionary actions.
The local group of the NSDAP, founded in 1923, was meaningless until
the "seizure of power", but then from 1933 under district leader Richard
Drauz energetically brought the local clubs and the local press into
line. In 1933, the Württemberg political police, which from 1936
operated under the name "Secret State Police - Stapoleitstelle
Stuttgart", set up a field office in Heilbronn, which observed and
pursued political opponents, Jews and forced laborers until the end of
the war.
In 1935, with the canalization of the Neckar, the major
shipping route Heilbronn-Mannheim and the Heilbronn canal port were
opened, which together with the other Heilbronn ports is still an
important transhipment point on the Neckar and one of the ten largest
German inland ports. In 1936 the autobahn to Stuttgart was completed.
The former town of Böckingen was incorporated into Heilbronn in
1933. As part of an administrative reform on October 1, 1938, the
previously independent communities of Sontheim and Neckargartach were
also added to Heilbronn, which became an urban district and at the same
time the seat of the new Heilbronn district. With 72,000 inhabitants,
the city was now the second largest in Württemberg after Stuttgart.
On November 10, 1938, the Heilbronn synagogue was destroyed by
arson. In the course of 1939, the traditional Jewish community in
Heilbronn was almost completely wiped out.
In September 1944, the
SS set up the Neckargartach concentration camp in the Neckargartach
district, a satellite camp of the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration
camp, which at times housed more than 1,000 prisoners who were exploited
through forced labor in the armaments industry and elsewhere throughout
the city (July 1944 to April 1945, part of the Neckar camp). At the time
it was known as the Steinbock SS labor camp. 246 of those who died are
buried in the concentration camp cemetery on Böllinger Strasse.
From December 1940 onwards, Heilbronn was often the target of
Anglo-American air raids during the Second World War. The British air
raid of December 4, 1944, in which the old town was completely destroyed
and more than 6500 people lost their lives, became a disaster for the
city. When American troops occupied Heilbronn on April 12, 1945, the
city had only 46,350 inhabitants.
After the end of the Second World War in 1945, Heilbronn belonged to
the American occupation zone and until 1952 to the state of
Württemberg-Baden. With a tremendous effort, the completely destroyed
city was rebuilt in just a few years. Only a few important individual
buildings were rebuilt in their historical form, most of the quarters
were built over with contemporary architecture from the 1950s. From 1951
US troops were stationed permanently in Heilbronn.
After the
Federal Motorway 6 from Heilbronn to Mannheim with the monumental Neckar
Viaduct was opened to traffic in 1968 and the A 81 to Würzburg in 1974,
followed by the A 6 to Nuremberg in 1979, the regional economy
experienced a strong upswing thanks to improved traffic development.
Numerous large companies settled in newly created industrial and
commercial areas along the new traffic arteries and the economic region
in its present form came into being.
With the incorporation of
Klingenberg in 1970, Heilbronn exceeded 100,000 inhabitants and became a
major city. In 1972 and 1974 Kirchhausen, Biberach, Frankenbach and
Horkheim were added. With the district reform of Baden-Württemberg in
1973, Heilbronn remained an independent city and the seat of the now
enlarged district of Heilbronn. The city became the seat of the regional
association of Franconia, from which today's regional association of
Heilbronn-Franken emerged.
Fleiner Strasse and Sülmerstrasse,
which formed the city's central north-south axis before the war and were
retained as thoroughfares during reconstruction, were converted into
pedestrian zones in the 1970s, and traffic was calmed in the surrounding
areas. In its place, the parallel avenue became the most important
inner-city north-south axis, along which underpasses and buildings in a
contemporary style were built, such as the 14-storey shopping center
from 1971, the Wollhaus center built in 1974 and the Heilbronn theater
opened in 1982.
In 1977, the USA stationed Pershing IA
short-range missiles with nuclear weapons on the Heilbronner Waldheide,
which were replaced by Pershing II medium-range missiles as part of the
1984-1985 NATO double-track decision. The population was not informed
about this, from July 1984 the rockets were a topic in the municipal
council and in the regional press due to public pressure. A rocket
accident on the site in 1985 caused public outrage, protests rallied and
the site was blocked. After the INF treaties were signed, the US Army
withdrew the missiles in 1987 and the last units in 1992. Since then
there have been no more military facilities in Heilbronn.
From
1998 the city was connected to the local transport network of the
Karlsruhe Stadtbahn, for which large areas of Heilbronn's city center
were rebuilt again by 2005.
The Stadtbahn Heilbronn was extended in sections to Öhringen in 2005
and now crosses Heilbronn from west to east. Another branch of the line
to Neckarsulm, which was built between 2011 and 2013, now branches off
this line. Other major buildings that have been built in the city area
in recent years are two Neckar bridges and the two shopping centers
Stadtgalerie and Klosterhof. In addition, the northern and southern
parts of the city were greened and developed as part of the federal and
state funding program "Social City".
In 2005 and 2006, Heilbronn
was the first UNICEF children's town in Germany.
The killing of a
policewoman in Heilbronn in early summer 2007 caused a sensation and
brought the city to international media attention. The alleged
perpetrator, the "Heilbronner Phantom", turned out to be a mere
construct in March 2009 due to an investigation error. Since November 7,
2011, the crime due to weapons found in Zwickau has been assigned to the
right-wing terrorist group National Socialist Underground.
In
2007, the city was awarded the contract for the Federal Garden Show
2019. More than 2.3 million visitors came to the garden and city
exhibition in 2019, which took place on a former commercial area of
around 40 hectares directly north of the main station. After the end of
the BuGa, part of the site will be developed into the new Neckarbogen
district, in which up to 3,500 people will live and 1,000 will work in
the future. The first buildings in the green and family-friendly quarter
have already won several awards.
Since the groundbreaking
ceremony for the Dieter Schwarz Foundation's Heilbronn educational
campus in 2010 in downtown Heilbronn, the city's university landscape
has grown significantly. In 2022, around 6,500 people will study on the
approximately 65,000 m² campus with five higher education institutions
and other research and training facilities.
In the 2020/21 winter
semester, 9,054 people studied in Heilbronn, almost 60 percent more than
ten years earlier.
In 2021, the Council of Ministers of the State
of Baden-Württemberg decided, after a location competition, to award the
new Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (AI) Baden-Württemberg,
which was funded by the state with up to 50 million euros, to Heilbronn.
According to the 2011 census, 35.8% of the residents were Protestant, 23.1% Roman Catholic and 41.1% were non-denominational, belonged to another faith community or made no statement. The number of Protestants and Catholics has since fallen. In December 2020, 26.5% of the total population in Heilbronn belonged to the Evangelical Church, 20.0% belonged to the Roman Catholic Church and 53.6% of the population was summarized in the statistics under other / no religion.
Since the Reformation by Johann Lachmann in 1528, Heilbronn has been an almost purely Protestant city with the Kilianskirche as the spiritual center. In 1530, the council and the citizenry unanimously professed the Augsburg Confession. Mayor Johann Spölin signed the Lutheran formula of concord of 1577 on behalf of the Heilbronn city council. Catholics were undesirable and Jews were forbidden to settle in Heilbronn. After the transition to Württemberg, the city became the seat of a deanery in 1803, today's church district of Heilbronn. In 1823 a Generalate was set up, from which today's Heilbronn Prelature of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg emerged.
The city's Catholic community had its mother church in the Teutonic Order's Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, which was also responsible for the few Catholics in the historic districts of the city. The districts of Biberach, Kirchhausen and Sontheim are traditionally Catholic, as they once belonged to the Teutonic Order and therefore remained Catholic during the Reformation. The Catholic parishes are now part of the Heilbronn deanery of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese.
The existence of Jews in Heilbronn has been documented since 1050, but from 1438 to the beginning of the 19th century they were forbidden to stay or settle. In the 1860s, Jews were legally equal to other citizens. The Heilbronn synagogue was inaugurated in 1877, but the building was destroyed in the Kristallnacht in 1938. The Nazis almost completely wiped out the Jewish community by 1939. In the 1980s there were only six families of Jewish faith in Heilbronn. The congregation then grew to over 150 members, in particular due to the influx from Eastern Europe. In 2006 the new Jewish Center Heilbronn was inaugurated. The Heilbronn Jewish community is a branch of the Jewish religious community in Württemberg based in Stuttgart.
After 1960, numerous guest workers settled in the city and district
of Heilbronn. The number of registered foreigners rose from around 2,500
in 1961 to 13,700 in 1974 (12% of the resident population). For the
Muslims among these people, the first Islamic places of worship were
built, initially in small, provisional spaces. Gradually, several
mosques were built in the city and district of Heilbronn. You can find
them on Goppeltstrasse, Hans-Seyfer-Strasse, Salzstrasse, Weinsberger
Strasse and Böckinger Strasse. Salafist positions are conveyed in the
Bilal Mosque in Heilbronn.
The number of Muslims in the Heilbronn
district is estimated at over 10,000 people. The majority of them are
Muslims of Turkish descent, some of whom are represented by a Heilbronn
branch of DITIB; there are also Muslims of Bosnian, Kurdish, Arabic and
German descent.
From 1896 the New Apostolic Church had congregations in Heilbronn and
the surrounding area, which were initially administered from Frankfurt
am Main. In the 1920s they then formed their own Heilbronn area, which
became an independent administrative district with 212 municipalities in
Württemberg and Bavaria on January 1, 1926; the seat of the district was
at Lerchenstraße 8 in Heilbronn. After the Second World War, the
district of Heilbronn became the district of Stuttgart until 1953, with
headquarters there.
Jehovah's Witnesses have been in Heilbronn
since 1920, and their first groups came together in Heilbronn from the
"serious Bible researchers". The rather small community was hostile to
and persecuted during National Socialism, and numerous community members
died in concentration camps. In 1953, Jehovah's Witnesses set up a first
Kingdom Hall in Heilbronn, which was followed by numerous other halls up
to the present day.
Other denominations represented in Heilbronn
are the Greek-Orthodox congregation in the Aukirche, the Syrian-Orthodox
congregation in the Mor-Ephräm-Kirche, the Adventist congregation, the
congregation of committed Christians, the Evangelical-Methodist
congregation with the Pauluskirche, the Free Evangelical Congregation
Heilbronn , International Christian Fellowship with the ICF Heilbronn,
the Free Reformed Baptists and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
In the 15th century about 4000 people lived within the city
fortifications. In 1840 there were 11,300 inhabitants, in 1890 Heilbronn
had 30,000 inhabitants. By June 1, 1933, this number had doubled to
60,000 inhabitants, partly due to the incorporation of the town of
Böckingen (11,593 inhabitants in 1925). Due to the destruction of the
Second World War, Heilbronn lost around 40 percent of its population,
from 77,000 inhabitants in 1939 only 47,000 remained in 1945.
In
1956 the population had reached the pre-war level again, on January 1,
1970 it exceeded the limit of 100,000 inhabitants due to the
incorporation of Klingenberg, which made it a big city. In the 1980s,
the city consistently had around 112,000 residents. After German
reunification in 1989 and the opening of the Eastern European countries,
the population reached a temporary high of around 122,000 in 1993, after
which the population declined again until 2000, mainly due to the return
of Yugoslav civil war refugees. Since then, continuous growth has been
recorded again. As of December 31, 2007, Heilbronn's population ranked
59th on the list of large and medium-sized cities in Germany. On
September 30, 2012, the population of 125,129 exceeded 125,000 for the
first time. At the end of May 2013, however, when the figures from the
2011 census became known, it became apparent that these population
figures, which were based on decades of updating old data, were
allegedly too high and that Heilbronn actually had 116,059 inhabitants
as of May 9, 2011. The city of Heilbronn is filing a lawsuit with the
administrative court in Stuttgart.
The following overview shows
the population according to the respective territorial status. Up to
1833, these are mostly estimates, after that they are census results (¹)
or official updates from the respective statistical offices or the city
administration itself.
Before 1843, the number of inhabitants was
determined using inconsistent survey methods. From 1843, the data
mention the "local population", from 1925 the resident population and
since 1987 the "population at the place of main residence".
The main town of Heilbronn is located in the fertile valley area of
the Heilbronn basin created by the Neckar, a northern foothills of the
Neckar basin. To the west is the comparatively less hilly Gartacher
Feld. In the east, the Heilbronn mountains, the foothills of the
Löwenstein mountains, enclose the city from north to south, with
extensive vineyard landscapes on their slopes; these include the
Büchelberg, Galgenberg, Gaffenberg, Hintersberg, Reisberg, Schweinsberg
and Wartberg surveys. To the north lies the Sulmer mountain plain.
The highest point of the urban area is located in the extreme
south-eastern tip of the city forest, 378 m above sea level. NN high
Reisberg, the second highest elevation is 372.8 m the Schweinsberg. The
district reaches its lowest point at 151 m on the Neckar at the district
border to Neckarsulm. The urban area stretches over 13 kilometers
north-south and 19 kilometers east-west. Heilbronn has a share in the
three natural areas of the Neckar Basin, the Kraichgau and the
Swabian-Franconian Forest Mountains.
The Heilbronner dialect is a
variant of the southern Franconian dialect in the transition zone to the
Alemannic dialect group.
Heilbronn is located in the northern part of the variously dissected
south-west German strata. A deep well drilled in 1912/13 in Heilbronn's
neighboring town of Erlenbach at 163.68 m above sea level. NN to a depth
of 856 m and supplemented by seismic investigations in 1954/56 provided
information about the rock composition in the Heilbronn area. The
surface of the original Variscan basement, composed of gneisses and
granites, is 1080 to 1100 m below sea level. Above this are layers of
sedimentary rock several hundred meters thick, at the bottom those of
the Permian (around 390 m Rotliegend, 23.6 m Zechstein), followed by
those of the Triassic: 517.2 m Buntsandstein (around 80 m Lower
Buntsandstein, 370 m Mittel Buntsandstein, 67 m Upper Buntsandstein),
around 238 m shell limestone (72.7 m Lower shell limestone, 86.1 m
Middle shell limestone, 78.7 m Upper shell limestone) and finally Keuper
(27.5 m Lower Keuper, 25.7 m Middle Keuper) . In the middle shell
limestone in the north of the core city and in the north-west of the
city area, rock salt deposits up to 45 m thick are deposited, which are
mined.
The Middle Keuper has almost reached the level of the
Neckar, which divides the urban area from south to north. In the
floodplain, which includes large parts of the Heilbronn industrial area
and the western part of the city between Altneckar and the Neckar Canal,
it is overlaid by a roughly three-meter-high cover of valley floodplain
gravel deposited by the Neckar, on which in turn there are around three
meters of alluvial clay. Further away from the river are layers of
gravel that are only five to ten meters thick under the core of the
city, but reach up to 35 m in the western part of the city between
Böckingen, Frankenbach and Neckargartach. Almost everywhere there is
still a 6 to 13 meter thick layer of windblown, fertile loess and loess
loam.
The Heilbronn mountains in the east of the city area, which
are not covered by river deposits, reflect the further sequence of
geological strata that were removed by erosion in the rest of the city
area. At 28 to 29 meters Unterer Keuper follow 130 to 150 meters of
Gipskeuper (grave field formation) and an approximately 20 to 45 meter
thick layer of reed sandstone, which was formerly exploited in quarries
and whose brown-yellow Heilbronn sandstones once shaped the cityscape of
Heilbronn. The three highest mountains in the south-east of the urban
area, the Reisberg (378 m above sea level), the Schweinsberg (372.8 m
above sea level) and the Hintersberg (364.8 m above sea level), carry
the higher layers of the Lower colorful marl and the Lehrberg layers
(together around 32 to 35 meters) and siliceous sandstone (5 to 16
meters).
Beginning in the north and listed clockwise, the towns of Bad Wimpfen and Neckarsulm, the municipality of Erlenbach, the town of Weinsberg, the municipalities of Lehrensteinsfeld, Untergruppenbach, Flein and Talheim, the town of Lauffen am Neckar, the municipality of Nordheim, the town of Leingarten, and the town of Schwaigern border , the municipality of Massenbachhausen and the town of Bad Rappenau an Heilbronn. All neighboring towns and communities are in the district of Heilbronn. Heilbronn has grown together with Neckarsulm to form a closed settlement area.
The urban area of Heilbronn is divided into nine districts. In
addition to Heilbronn itself, these are the formerly independent
municipalities of Biberach, Böckingen, Frankenbach, Horkheim,
Kirchhausen, Klingenberg, Neckargartach and Sontheim.
Some parts
of the city also include other locations in a geographical sense, such
as individual courtyards and residential areas. Specifically, these are
the Konradsberg farms in Biberach, the Hipfelhof in Frankenbach and the
Altböllinger Hof in Neckargartach, Neckarau and the Neuböllinger Hof.
Abandoned, no longer existing places are Hetensbach and
Rühlingshausen on the Böckingen mark, Utenhusa on the Biberach mark,
Altböckingen, Hanbach and Rappach on the Heilbronn mark, Böllingen and
Trapphof on the Neckargartach mark and Ascheim and Widegavenhusa on the
Kirchhausen mark.
Böckingen, Frankenbach and Neckargartach
belonged to Heilbronn as imperial city villages until the beginning of
the 19th century. Böckingen and Neckargartach were re-incorporated in
1933 and 1938 respectively; the former Teutonic Order village of
Sontheim also came to Heilbronn in 1938. The remaining districts
followed with the local government reform in the 1970s: 1970
Klingenberg, 1972 Kirchhausen, 1974 Biberach, Frankenbach and Horkheim.
Apart from the districts of Biberach and Kirchhausen, which are
relatively far away from the city center and are completely surrounded
by agricultural areas, Heilbronn has grown together with its districts
to form an almost closed settlement area.
The Neckar valley near Heilbronn is one of the warmest areas in Baden-Württemberg. There is a moderate continental climate with mild winters and warm to hot summers, which favors extensive viticulture. According to data from the German Weather Service, the average annual temperature in the normal period 1961-1990 was 9.8 °C, and annual precipitation was 758.1 mm. In the USDA climate zone classification, the sheltered locations are mostly classified in zone 8a (-12.2 to -9.5 °C) and the more exposed locations in zone 7b (-14.9 to -12.3 °C).
Heilbronn and the surrounding area belong to the northern area of the
Stuttgart conurbation. The city is the regional center of the
Heilbronn-Franconia region and thus one of a total of 14 regional
centers designated as part of the 2002 state development plan of the
state of Baden-Württemberg. This also takes over the tasks of the
central area for the entire district of Heilbronn except its north-east,
which forms the central area of the city of Neckarsulm. These are the
towns and communities of Abstatt, Bad Rappenau, Bad Wimpfen, Beilstein,
Brackenheim, Cleebronn, Eberstadt, Ellhofen, Eppingen, Flein, Güglingen,
Ilsfeld, Ittlingen, Kirchardt, Lauffen am Neckar, Lehrensteinsfeld,
Leingarten, Massenbachhausen, Neckarwestheim, Nordheim, Obersulm,
Pfaffenhofen an der Zaber, Schwaigern, Siegelsbach, Talheim,
Untergruppenbach and Weinsberg.
Spatially significant measures
are being developed for the Heilbronn-Franken region by the
Heilbronn-Franken regional association.
The Lord Mayor of Heilbronn is elected by the citizens of Heilbronn
(including EU foreigners) for a term of eight years. The current
incumbent, Harry Mergel, has been in office since May 1, 2014.
1945-1946: Emil Beutinger
1946-1948: Paul Metz (SPD)
1948-1967:
Paul Meyle (FDP/DVP)
1967-1983: Hans Hoffmann (SPD)
1983-1999:
Manfred Weinmann (CDU)
1999-2014: Helmut Himmelsbach (independent)
since 2014: Harry Mergel (SPD)
The blazon of the Heilbronn coat of arms reads: In gold, the red
armored and red tongued black imperial eagle with a breastplate divided
into red, silver and blue. The city flag is red, white and blue.
The imperial eagle as a symbol of Heilbronn's imperial immediacy has
been documented in the city's seals since 1265. In the city of Heilbronn
it always appeared in colored depictions on a golden shield background
(first proven in a coat of arms window from 1487 in the Kilianskirche),
while it appeared on a silver background in the main banner of the
imperial cities from 1462, in Siebmacher's coat of arms of 1605 and in
coats of arms of the 18th century is pictured.
To distinguish it
from the imperial coat of arms and other eagle coats of arms, the
breastplate has appeared in coat of arms drawings since 1556 and also in
seals since the 18th century. In J. S. Schlehenried's plan prospectus
from 1658, it is even given equal status next to the shield with the
eagle coat of arms. The origin of the colors of the breastplate could
not be clarified to this day. In 1556, 1581 and 1681 they also occurred
in the order blue-silver-red; the order of red-silver-blue that is
common today, which has also found its way into the red-white-blue city
flag, was first documented in 1560. In some seals of the 17th and 18th
centuries, the breastplate contained only the capital letters HB,
indicating the city name. In 1948, the Stuttgart heraldist Alfred
Dochtermann provided the draft for the currently used coat of arms
graphics, and the Heilbronn municipal council decided on it on July 14,
1949. The Heilbronn graphic artist A. W. Sauter was responsible for the
final graphic design.
The city of Heilbronn, together with northern municipalities and
towns of the district, forms the constituency of Heilbronn for the
elections to the German Bundestag. In the 1998, 2002, 2005, 2009 and
2013 elections, the candidate of the CDU, Thomas Strobl, was elected
with a direct mandate. In the 2017 and 2021 elections, his successor
Alexander Throm (CDU) became a directly elected member of the German
Bundestag. Josip Juratovic (SPD) entered the Bundestag via the state
list in 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2021. In the 2005, 2009, 2017 and
2021 elections, Michael Georg Link was also elected to the Bundestag via
the state list of the FDP.
For the elections to the state
parliament of Baden-Württemberg, the city of Heilbronn has been in
constituency 18 (Heilbronn) since 2006, along with other municipalities.
Currently (as of 2022) there are two MPs for constituency 18 in the
state parliament: Gudula Achterberg (Greens) and Nico Weinmann (FDP).
Important sports clubs in Heilbronn are the Heilbronn section of the
German Alpine Club, the VfR Heilbronn 96-18 football club, the Heilbronn
Ice Hockey Club (HEC) with the Heilbronner Falken professional team and
the TSB Heilbronn-Horkheim handball club.
The VfR Heilbronn 96-18
was founded in 2018 and plays its home games in the 17,000-seat
Frankenstadion. The HEC emerged from the Heilbronn roller skating and
ice skating club, which was founded in 1934 and was very successful at
German and international championships in the 1970s. The Heilbronn
Falcons play their home games in the 4,000-seat Heilbronn ice rink next
to the older roller sports stadium.
The Heilbronn teams
Live-Strip.com Racing and AutoArenA Motorsport are active in motorsport.
The Heilbronn Open ATP Challenger tennis tournament, named after
Heilbronn, took place in neighboring Talheim from 1984 to 2014.
There are 49 municipal gymnastics and sports halls in the city for mass
and school sports, as well as 37 sports fields, 34 soccer fields and 68
tennis courts as well as other equestrian sports facilities, shooting
ranges, climbing facilities, squash courts, water sports and skate
facilities. The city's 67 sports clubs have around 29,000 members.
In 2021, the city applied to host a four-day program for an
international delegation to the Special Olympics World Summer Games 2023
in Berlin. In 2022 she was selected to host Special Olympics Chile.
consisted of 39 athletes and 20 Unified partners and companions. By
participating in the Host Town Program, the city became part of the
largest municipal inclusion project in the history of the Federal
Republic with more than 200 host towns.
In 2018, Heilbronn, within the city limits, generated a gross
domestic product (GDP) of 6.993 billion euros, ranking 55th in the
ranking of German cities by economic output. In the same year, GDP per
capita was EUR 52,004 (Baden-Württemberg: EUR 43,632, Germany EUR
38,180) and is thus well above the regional and national average. There
were around 96,500 employed people in the city in 2016. The unemployment
rate was 4.6 percent in December 2018 (in the Heilbronn district it was
2.8 percent).
The commercial structure of Heilbronn has
constantly changed. At the beginning of industrialization, companies in
the food and beverages industry, the chemical, paper and silverware
industries dominated, but these were soon joined by the stone and earth
and textile industries. Some industries, such as textiles and
silverware, have now completely disappeared, while others have
re-established themselves, such as woodworking and metalworking. Today,
the metal industry (vehicle accessories and tool making), the electrical
industry, the food and beverage industry, the paper and printing
industry, the chemical industry and salt mining are of particular
importance.
In 2010, the business location Heilbronn had around
92,000 jobs. The ten largest employers are: Campina, Heilbronnerstimme,
Illig Maschinenbau, Kaufland (and Kaufland Foundation), Kreissparkasse
Heilbronn, Heilbronn district office, SLK clinics, Südwestdeutsche
Salzwerke, Unilever and the city of Heilbronn itself.
Of the
approximately 61,000 employees subject to social security contributions,
around 30 percent work in manufacturing, 24 percent in trade,
hospitality and transport, and 46 percent in other service companies.
There are also around 1,500 craft businesses in Heilbronn. Retail sales
in 2010 were around 950 million euros.
In the so-called "Atlas of
the Future" from 2019, the urban district of Heilbronn ranked 32nd out
of 401 rural districts and urban districts in Germany, making it one of
the places with "very good prospects for the future".
The industrialization in Heilbronn came from the Heilbronn paper
industry. While the paper production of the Rauch brothers and Gustav
Schaeuffelen was already discontinued by the Second World War, paper
processors and wholesalers such as Baier & Schneider (Brunnen brand
name), Berberich Papier, Mayer-Kuvert and Kilian-Verpackaging are still
important today.
Founded in 1805, the Peter Bruckmann & Sons
silverware factory was once the largest and most modern German
silverware factory and worked with many internationally renowned
artists. Peter Bruckmann was a co-founder of the Deutscher Werkbund and
gave Theodor Heuss the management of the Werkbund in 1918.
Today's Münzing Chemie was founded in 1830 as the first sulfuric acid
factory in Württemberg. To this day, the company is a global producer of
additives.
The Wolffkran company, founded in 1854 by Friedrich
August Wolff in Heilbronn as an iron foundry, is one of the oldest crane
manufacturers in Germany. Today, the company headquarters of the now
international crane manufacturer is in Zug, Switzerland. Wolffkran still
produces construction cranes in Heilbronn, since 2008 also in Luckau.
The chemical company Brüggemann was founded in Heilbronn in 1868.
The company mainly produces alcohols, plastic additives, reducing agents
and zinc compounds.
The company "Schill+Seilacher" (chemicals for
leather production) was founded in 1877 by Christoph Seilacher and his
brother-in-law Karl Schill in Heilbronn, but was relocated to
Stuttgart-Feuerbach in 1881. Today the company is based in Boeblingen.
The company KACO, a global manufacturer of special seals and
inverters, has existed since 1914/15 and now belongs to the Chinese
Zhongding Group.
From 1925 there was an automobile factory in
Heilbronn belonging to the Neckarsulm-based company NSU, which was taken
over by Fiat in 1928 and from then on built NSU Fiat passenger cars. A
model of the Fiat 500 was manufactured there from 1952 to 1955, and the
1100 D model in 1960. From 1973 Fiat Germany was merely a sales company
based in Heilbronn, with the headquarters being relocated to Frankfurt
am Main in 1996. Other companies in the group, such as Fiat Bank GmbH,
are based in Heilbronn.
The mechanical engineering company Illig
was founded in Heilbronn in 1946 and specializes in forming and punching
machines, especially thermoforming machines. The company is now one of
the ten largest employers in the city.
The Läpple Group, which
has been based in Heilbronn since 1950 and is an automotive supplier and
toolmaker, employed over 2,100 people in 2012, most of them in
Heilbronn.
The 50,000 square meter Telefunken Park emerged from
the Telefunken Group's Heilbronn semiconductor plant, which was
inaugurated in 1960. Several of Telefunken's successor companies,
including Azur Space Solar Power, AIM Infrared Modules and Vishay,
produce semiconductors and solar cells at Telefunkenpark. Atmel's wafer
production was sold to Telefunken Semiconductors, which has been in
bankruptcy since February 2015. As of September 2015, five companies
employed around 1,200 people there.
The well-known manufacturer
of headphones and microphones, beyerdynamic GmbH & Co. KG, has had its
headquarters in Heilbronn since 1948. After the production facility in
Berlin was completely destroyed, the company in Heilbronn was rebuilt as
the Eugen Beyer Elektrotechnische Fabrik. The medium-sized company with
around 400 employees is still family-owned today.
The trading company Pflanzen-Kölle, founded in Ulm, has had its
headquarters in Heilbronn since 1890 and (as of 2021) around 1600
employees. Gustav Lichdi AG, which existed in Heilbronn from 1904 to
1980, was one of the first retail chains with self-service shops from
1950 onwards. The companies Lidl, Kaufland and the associated Kaufland
Foundation based in neighboring Neckarsulm also have branches and
administrative facilities in Heilbronn, so that the company, which is
part of the Schwarz Group conglomerate of Heilbronn honorary citizen
Dieter Schwarz, is one of the ten largest employers in Heilbronn and the
largest retail group in Europe.
The Fr. Sritter bookshop, which
has existed since 1688, is one of the most traditional companies in
Heilbronn.
Approximately 30 banks are represented in the Heilbronn district, and
the local banking business can look back on a long tradition. Bankers
are said to have stayed in Heilbronn as early as the 11th century, the
so-called “Kawerschen” from southern France. Heilbronn has been an
important banking location since the second half of the 19th century.
The first local bank was the private bank Rümelin & Co, which had good
connections to institutes in Frankfurt am Main (Rothschild) and was once
the only bank in Württemberg outside of Stuttgart. Today there are bank
buildings on three of the four blocks at the corners of the central
inner-city intersection of Allee and Kaiserstrasse/Moltkestrasse.
The largest institute in the city is the Kreissparkasse Heilbronn,
which emerged from the Oberamtssparkasse founded in 1856, with a
business volume of 7.5 billion euros, around 100 branches and over 1,500
employees. The Heilbronn branch of the former Dresdner Bank, now
Commerzbank, is the second oldest. It goes back to the Max Gumbel-Kiefe
banking business founded in 1860, which was taken over in 1918 by
Darmstädter Bank, which merged with Dresdner Bank in 1930. The Volksbank
Heilbronn goes back to the Heilbronner banker Abraham Gumbel, who
founded the Heilbronner Bankverein in 1909. In 1956 the house took on
the legal form of a cooperative, and since 1982 it has been called the
Volksbank Heilbronn. Today, with total assets of almost 1.6 billion
euros, it is the largest credit union in the region.
In addition
to these banks, the following are represented in Heilbronn: Südwestbank,
Sparda-Bank Baden-Württemberg, Norisbank, Targobank, Santander Consumer
Bank, Baden-Württembergische Bank, BBBank, Hoerner Bank, GE Money Bank,
the HypoVereinsbank, SEB AG, Fürstlich Castell'sche Bank and Fiat Bank.
The Württembergische und Badische Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft
(Wüba) was founded in 1837 as the Württembergische
Schiffahrts-Assecuranz-Gesellschaft zu Heilbronn. After several sales,
Wüba became a brand of the insurance company Chartis Europe S.A. on
December 1, 2009 with around 300 employees at the time.
Heilbronn is the headquarters of the Südwestdeutsche Salzwerke AG, which has operated a salt mine in the city since 1883, which is connected to the Bad Friedrichshall salt mine, which was closed in 1994, by a tunnel. In 2004 the new "Konradsberg" shaft was completed in the Heilbronn district of Biberach for the Heilbronn mine, whose salt mining has progressed far to the west over the course of time. According to the company, the Heilbronn rock salt mine is the largest in Western Europe.
The food processing company Knorr, founded in Heilbronn in 1838, has
since been sold several times to become a brand of the international
Unilever Group, which continues to produce and research in Heilbronn.
The milk processing company FrieslandCampina Germany (formerly
Südmilch), a subsidiary of the Dutch company FrieslandCampina, is also
based in Heilbronn.
The city was also an important brewery
location for a long time. In 1816 there were already six companies in
this branch in the city. The Cluss brewery, founded in 1865 and sold to
Dinkelacker in 1982, became the best-known and longest-lasting brand. In
what is now the Böckingen district, the Schuchmann brewery was important
around 1900. Today there are only a few house breweries in Heilbronn.
Viticulture has a long tradition in Heilbronn and is an important
economic factor in the city. With 514 hectares (about two thirds of
which are for red grape varieties), the city of Heilbronn has the third
largest area of vines in the Württemberg wine-growing region after
Brackenheim and Lauffen am Neckar. Trollinger, Schwarzriesling,
Lemberger, Riesling and Kerner are mainly cultivated. Heilbronn
University offers a degree in wine business administration.
Winegrowing in Heilbronn, first mentioned in documents in 1146, probably
existed in Roman times. The town received a lot of income from the taxes
levied on the production yields by the local Wengertern, as well as from
the taxes on craftsmen working in viticulture and the merchants who
traded in wine. The wine booklet from the city tax office is one of the
most important sources of the city's history. In the days of the
imperial city, the council laid down the yearly work of the vine growers
with ordinances. In 1556 there were 170 private presses and trotters. In
1797 Goethe gave the figure of 12,000 acres of vineyards around the
city. In 1905, the young Theodor Heuss wrote his doctoral thesis on
"Viticulture and Vineyards in Heilbronn am Neckar". The first Reich
Conference of German viticulture took place in Heilbronn in 1937.
In 1888 Heilbronn winegrowers merged to form the Heilbronn
Weingärtnergesellschaft, which cooperated early on with the winegrowers'
companies in Weinsberg and Neckarsulm and in 1933 merged with the
Heilbronn winegrowers' cooperative founded in 1919. On July 14, 1972, it
further merged with the winegrowers' cooperatives from Erlenbach and
Weinsberg to form the Heilbronn-Erlenbach-Weinsberg cooperative winery;
this has been located just beyond the Heilbronn city limits in the
district of Erlenbach since 1973. More than 1000 winegrowers are united
in it. Numerous private wineries are based in Heilbronn.
In Heilbronn there are over 550 gastronomic establishments and around 1700 guest beds. Around 250,000 overnight stays are counted annually.
EnBW AG operates the Heilbronn power plant in the industrial area of
Heilbronn. One of the seven blocks, Block 7, is still in commercial
operation. Blocks 5 and 6 are only operated as part of the grid reserve
at the request of the grid operator. All blocks are fired with hard
coal, Block 7 also has the option of burning sewage sludge. The power
plant is visible from afar thanks to its two 250 meter high chimneys,
which are among the tallest free-standing structures in
Baden-Württemberg, and its 140 meter high cooling tower. The Block E
event center has been located in a disused block of the power plant
since 1998.
ZEAG Energie AG is one of the oldest German energy
suppliers. The company is based in Heilbronn and operates the Heilbronn
hydroelectric power station.
eilbronn is the seat of a studio of Südwestrundfunk (SWR). The
regional program Frankenradio is broadcast from here by SWR4
Baden-Württemberg. The private broadcaster L-TV produces a regional news
window for the greater Heilbronn/Ludwigsburg area. The private radio
station Radio Ton is based in Heilbronn; the private radio station
Antenne 1 also has a studio in Heilbronn.
The Heilbronnerstimme
has been published in Heilbronn since 1946 as a daily newspaper. The
advertising paper echo is distributed free of charge twice a week. There
are also the monthly city magazines Freizeit Journal, Moritz and Phonk.
From September 2011 to 2022, the independent, multimedia society
magazine Hanix was published ten times a year.
The federal highways 81 (Würzburg-Stuttgart) and 6
(Mannheim-Nuremberg), some of which run through the city limits,
intersect at the Autobahn junction Weinsberg, about six kilometers
east-northeast of the city center in the area of the neighboring city of
Weinsberg. The federal highways 27 (Mosbach-Stuttgart), 39
(Mainhardt-Sinsheim) and 293 (to Karlsruhe) lead through the city
itself. The Neckartalstraße is an important relief road that connects
the A 6 in the north near Obereisesheim across the city with the B 27 in
the south near Sontheim. The inner-city main street is the Allee.
Heilbronn has campaigned for the promotion of the green arrow to an
extent that is unusual for western Germany. This traffic sign has been
installed at 52 street crossings in the city area since 1996, and the
city has also launched a nationwide information campaign.
Heilbronn is one of the few major German cities that is not served by
the long-distance train network of Deutsche Bahn AG, but the city is a
railway junction: the Frankenbahn connects Stuttgart with Würzburg, the
Neckartal and Elsenztalbahnen branching off at the Bad Friedrichshall
Hauptbahnhof railway junction lead to Heidelberg and Neckargemünd, the
railway line Heilbronn-Crailsheim reaches Schwäbisch Hall via Öhringen
and establishes a connection to Nuremberg.
For the Federal
Horticultural Show 2019 in Heilbronn, the city will be served for the
first time by an Intercity Express train pair, which connects Cologne
and Stuttgart via Heilbronn Monday to Friday. At weekends, an Intercity
runs from Mainz/Wiesbaden to Heilbronn on Saturdays, which runs in the
opposite direction on Sundays. According to media reports, the ICE
connection is often canceled at short notice and fails for several days
in a row. In response to a letter of complaint from the Lord Mayor of
Heilbronn, Deutsche Bahn announced in July 2019 that "the ICE train
connection via Heilbronn may be removed from the timetable without
replacement".
In addition to the Heilbronn main station, there is
also the Sülmertor stop, which is served by a few regional trains. The
Heilbronn freight station is located in the district of Böckingen.
The Stadtbahn Heilbronn, which is operated by the
Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft, runs on the Kraichgaubahn coming from
Karlsruhe. The S4 line currently has several stops in Böckingen, the
main train station, downtown Heilbronn and continues on the
Heilbronn-Crailsheim railway line to the Öhringen district of Cappel.
Because there were long delays in the new construction of the route
through the Heilbronn city area and in the renovation and
electrification of the existing route from Heilbronn to Öhringen, the
official opening was postponed several times and only took place on
December 10, 2005. Since December 2013, a new route to Bad
Friedrichshall has branched off from the existing route on the avenue in
the city center, which is served by lines S41 and S42. Since 2014, these
lines have run on rail tracks to Sinsheim and Mosbach-Neckarelz. Another
light rail line to Zaberfeld is also under investigation.
Several
old train stations in Heilbronn are no longer served. The Bottwartalbahn
used to start at Heilbronn Südbahnhof, a narrow-gauge railway to Marbach
am Neckar, which was gradually discontinued from 1966. The remaining
freight traffic to the Südbahnhof ended in 2000. The stops in
Klingenberg and Böckinger station on the Frankenbahn have also been
closed, as has the Karlstor stop on the Heilbronn–Crailsheim railway
with the expansion of the Stadtbahn towards Öhringen.
The rail
network of the industrial and port railway, operated by Stadtwerke
Heilbronn, runs through the industrial area on the Neckar and the
Heilbronn canal port.
Local public transport (ÖPNV) in the city area is provided by buses
operated by Stadtwerke Heilbronn and some other transport companies. In
addition, the Stadtbahn (see above) operates according to the Karlsruhe
model. From 1897 to 1955, the Heilbronn tram ran in the city, which in
turn was replaced by the Heilbronn trolleybus, which existed from 1951
to 1960.
The city belongs to the tariff area of the Heilbronner
Hohenloher Hall local transport, which also includes the district of
Heilbronn as well as the Hohenlohe district and parts of neighboring
districts.
With the Neckar privilege of 1333, the main branch of the Neckar was
rerouted along the city wall. The passage on the river was blocked by
weirs and mills, so that shipping coming from the Rhine ended here until
the 19th century and only rafts could cross the Neckar near Heilbronn.
To bypass this bottleneck, which was unfavorable for Württemberg, the
Wilhelm Canal was built in Württemberg and opened on July 17, 1821. In
the course of industrialization, the port facilities along the river
were expanded from the middle of the 19th century. The raft harbor has
existed since 1875. There, wood delivered by train from the Black Forest
was assembled into rafts in order to transport it from here by water
towards the Rhine. The timber handling in Heilbronn established the
Heilbronner sorting, a classification method for trunk wood that is
still common in Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate.
From 1878, the
tug boat company on the Neckar operated chain shipping between Mannheim
and Heilbronn on the Neckar. In 1886, the salt port was built as a
handling center for the Heilbronn mine, and in 1888 the Karlshafen. The
canalization of the Neckar from Mannheim up to Heilbronn, which began in
1921 and was completed in 1935, promoted the further development of
Neckar shipping. Chain shipping was then discontinued. The Heilbronn
canal port was opened in 1935 to complete the canalization of the Neckar
to Heilbronn. In 1952 the river expansion reached Stuttgart upstream, in
1968 Plochingen.
With a turnover of 3.6 million tons, the port of
Heilbronn is today (as of 2012) the eighth largest German inland port
and the most important German inland port on the other side of the
Rhine. In the Heilbronn Neckarhafen, 50 percent of the total handling
occurs on the Neckar. All Heilbronn ports together (canal port, east
port, salt port, east side of the old Neckar) cover a total area of
approx. 78 hectares and quays with a length of approx. 7.2 kilometers.
Since 2012 there has been a 2.2 hectare container terminal on the old
Neckar near the salt port. The Heilbronn industrial and port railway
runs on approx. 18 kilometers of rails, 38 crane systems handle the
handling, which consists of 80 percent salt from the mine, coal for the
power plant and building materials. The port facilities also include a
container terminal and the heavy goods quay, which was last expanded in
2003 and on which individual loads of up to 350 tons can be handled. The
port of Heilbronn is the starting point and destination of heavy
transport for the Augsburg aviation industry and the local ship engine
manufacturer MAN Diesel.
There is no airport in Heilbronn, the nearest international airport is Stuttgart Airport. There is a helipad at the Klinikum am Gesundbrunnen.
The Alb-Neckar cycle path reaches Heilbronn as a long-distance cycle path. It leads from Ulm via the Swabian Alb to the Neckar.
Heilbronn is the seat of the Heilbronn-Franken Regional Association,
the Heilbronn District Office, the Heilbronn-Franken Chamber of Crafts
and the Heilbronn-Franken Chamber of Industry and Commerce, whose
chamber district is the Heilbronn-Franken region. There is also an
employment agency, a tax office and a main customs office. With 850
beds, the Klinikum am Gesundbrunnen in Heilbronn is the largest of the
four hospitals of the regional hospital holding company Stadt- und
Landkreis Kliniken Heilbronn GmbH (SLK-Kliniken).
The police in
Heilbronn have a police station and five police posts; the Heilbronn
police department is responsible for the city of Heilbronn and the
district. After the implementation of a police reform, Heilbronn has
been the seat of a police headquarters since January 1, 2014, which is
responsible for the city and district of Heilbronn, the Hohenlohe
district, the Main-Tauber district and the Neckar-Odenwald district. The
Heilbronn fire department was founded in 1847. In 2012 it consisted of
the professional fire brigade set up in 1971 with 79 officers and nine
active departments of the volunteer fire brigade with a total of around
300 members.
The city is the seat of the district court of
Heilbronn and the regional court of Heilbronn, both of which belong to
the higher regional court district of Stuttgart. There is also the labor
court in Heilbronn (with chambers in Crailsheim) and the social court in
Heilbronn, whose jurisdiction includes the urban district of Heilbronn,
the districts of Heilbronn, Ludwigsburg and Schwäbisch Hall as well as
the Hohenlohe district and the Main-Tauber district. The Heilbronn
Correctional Facility, the Heilbronn Prison, is located in buildings
constructed between 1867 and 1870 on a 3.5-hectare site on the outskirts
of the city center. There is also a branch of the prison in Talheim, the
Staatsdomäne Hohrainhof, where arable farming and cattle breeding are
practiced in open prisons. In 2012, Heilbronn prison had an average of
just over 280 prisoners.
The city is also the seat of the
Heilbronn Prelature and the Heilbronn Church District of the Evangelical
Church in Württemberg and the Heilbronn-Neckarsulm Deanery of the Roman
Catholic Diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
In Heilbronn there is a
business premises of the municipal information processing Baden-Franken
(KIVBF), which covers the western and northern part of Baden-Württemberg
as a system house for the municipal area, as well as the protective
workshop Heilbronn.
The Heilbronn University of Applied Sciences was founded in April
1961 as a state engineering school and offers courses in technology,
business and computer science.
Since a branch of the
Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Mosbach (DHBW) started
operations in Heilbronn in October 2010, the city has also been a
location for the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University. In
addition to the Center for Advanced Studies of the DHBW, the business
administration faculties of Heilbronn University and a branch of the
Technical University of Munich, it is now located on the Heilbronn
Education Campus in downtown Heilbronn, which was financed by the Dieter
Schwarz Foundation. The Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Engineering
(IAO), the Ferdinand Steinbeis Institute and Campus Founders are also
based there. Since the 2011/12 winter semester there has also been a
study center for the private distance learning university DIPLOMA – FH
Nordhessen in Heilbronn. In the winter semester 20/21, 9,054 people are
studying in Heilbronn, almost 60 percent more than ten years ago.
In addition to these universities, there are two state seminars for
didactics and teacher training, where prospective teachers at elementary
schools, secondary schools and high schools complete the second phase of
teacher training.
The city of Heilbronn maintains 35 schools in which 19,107 students were registered in the 2019/20 school year. In the 2019/20 school year, a total of 28,885 students attended one of Heilbronn’s 57 public or private primary, secondary or vocational schools, including the special education and counseling centers.
In Heilbronn there are five publicly funded general schools: in
addition to the Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium, which goes back to the old
Latin school in the city, the Elly-Heuss-Knapp-Gymnasium, the
Justinus-Kerner-Gymnasium, the Mönchsee-Gymnasium and the Robert Mayer
high school with the Robert Mayer public and school observatory. Since
2004, the St. Kilian Heilbronn Catholic Free Educational Center has also
had a grammar school, and the Heilbronn Kolping Education Center has had
an evening grammar school since 1990.
There are also four
secondary schools in the city: the Dammrealschule, the
Helene-Lange-Realschule, the Heinrich-von-Kleist-Realschule in Böckingen
and the Mörike-Realschule. There is also a junior high school at the
Catholic Free Education Center St. Kilian Heilbronn.
There are
also six special education and counseling centers in the city area. The
city is responsible for four of these schools, namely the Neckartal
School, the Pestalozzi School (focus on learning), the Paul Meyle School
(for the mentally and physically handicapped, focus on mental, physical
and motor development) and the Brothers Grimm School ( for
speech-impaired people, focus on language). The Heilbronn district is
responsible for the Hermann-Herzog-School (for the visually impaired,
focus on sight) and the state of Baden-Württemberg is responsible for
the Lindenparkschule Heilbronn (for the hearing-impaired and
speech-impaired, focus on hearing and language, with a boarding school
and counseling center).
Elementary schools are the Damm
elementary school, the Deutschorden elementary school in Kirchhausen,
the elementary school in Horkheim, the elementary school in Klingenberg,
the Grünewald school in Böckingen, the elementary school in
Alt-Böckingen, the elementary school in Silcher and the elementary
school in Sontheim. Primary and secondary schools (partly with a
secondary school) are the Albrecht Dürer School in Neckargartach, the
Elly Heuss Knapp School in Böckingen, the Fritz Ulrich School in
Böckingen, the Gerhart Hauptmann School, the primary and secondary
school with a secondary school Biberach, the primary and secondary
school with the Frankenbach secondary school, the Ludwig Pfau school,
the Rosenau school, the Staufenberg school in Sontheim, the Wartberg
school and the Wilhelm Hauff school. The Catholic Free Education Center
St. Kilian Heilbronn also has primary and secondary school classes.
Vocational schools sponsored by the city of Heilbronn are the Gustav-von-Schmoller-School (commercial school with a commercial high school) and the Technical School Center Heilbronn, consisting of the Johann-Jakob-Widmann-School and the Wilhelm-Maybach-School (each with a technical high school ). The district of Heilbronn supports the Andreas-Schneider-School (commercial school with business school) and the Christiane-Herzog-School (home economics and agricultural school with nutritional science school and biotechnology school). Since autumn 2005 there has been another vocational school, the Peter Bruckmann School (for the occupational fields of health, housekeeping, food and care), and in October 2009 the Heilbronn Kolping Education Center opened a social science grammar school.
There is a wide range of private schools in Heilbronn, including:
Evening secondary school Heilbronn e. V
Alice-Salomon-School for
educational assistance (sponsor is the Diakonische Jugendhilfe Region
Heilbronn e. V., formerly Kleingartacher e. V.)
Vocational College
for Graphics Heilbronn
Diaconal institute for social professions -
vocational school for geriatric care, further education, further
education
Free Waldorf School Heilbronn (sponsor is the Association
for Waldorf Education Unterland e. V.)
International Federation e. V.
Education Center Heilbronn
Catholic Education Center St. Kilian
Heilbronn (primary school, secondary school, junior high school and high
school, supported by the Catholic Free School Foundation of the Diocese
of Rottenburg-Stuttgart)
Kolping Training Center Heilbronn –
vocational college for graphic design, Kolping evening high school and
Kolping Academy for business administration
Academy for communication
in the Innovationsfabrik with vocational colleges for graphic design,
fashion and design and technology and media
Paracelsus school for
naturopaths
Bernd-Blindow-School (vocational training and further
education, advanced technical college entrance qualification, Abitur and
studies)
In 2021, a location for the unconventional French
programming school 42 opened in Heilbronn.
There are a total of 97 kindergartens and day-care centers in Heilbronn, 34 of which are run by the city of Heilbronn. In January 2008, Heilbronn was the first major city in Germany to introduce free kindergarten places. This applies to all children from their third birthday to school enrollment and in all kindergartens of all providers.