Tübingen is a university city in Baden-Württemberg. The city on
the Neckar is about 48 kilometers south of Stuttgart. With over
27,000 students, it is the youngest city in Germany and shaped
accordingly.
The oldest parts of the city are on the north
and east flanks of the Schlossberg, a ridge that runs parallel to
the Neckar, below Hohentübingen Castle. The upper town, still on the
slope, and the lower town in the valley of the Ammer, a side stream
of the Neckar, form the historic old town. The upper town, once
inhabited by merchants and scholars, shows richly decorated
multi-storey half-timbered houses. In contrast, the lower town,
inhabited by farm workers and winegrowers, the Gogen, is built much
more simply and poorly.
Tübingen is one of the oldest
university cities in Germany, and university buildings shaped the
city from an early age. These are both late medieval buildings in
the upper town and an extensive university district northeast of the
old town (and a new building area for the university outside on the
mountain). Schlossberg and the east bordering Österberg are built on
with lush Wilhelminian style villas and also houses of student
associations.
South of the Neckar, between the river and the
train station, is a business center with retail, bank branches and
hotels. Beyond (south) of the railway facilities there are also
industrial areas that are rather rare in Tübingen. There is
comparatively industry in Tübingen. To the northwest of the old town
there is still a mixed commercial area, but you can tell from the
city that it is a civil servants and university town.
On the
south side of the Neckar in the south-east of the city was a
barracks area that was used for military purposes until the 1990s
and has now been converted into a new district. With the neighboring
suburbs, Lustnau in the east, Derendingen and Weilheim in the south,
Tübingen has now grown together.
Tübingen is easy to reach both by public transport and private
transport, as long as you know how to avoid commuter traffic.
By
plane
The nearest airport is Stuttgart Airport (IATA: STR) . There
are national and international connections here, both within Europe and
transcontinentally. From here you can drive to Tübingen in 25 minutes
via the B27. There is also an "Airport Sprinter" - line 828 - available
to the "Busbahnhof" in Tübingen, which takes 50 minutes. The bus leaves
every hour on weekdays during the day from the bus stop, which is
centrally located in front of Terminal 1 on the arrivals level.
Departure times are more irregular on weekends.
By train
Regional trains approach Tübingen station from various directions. The
most important connection is the train in the Neckar valley via
Plochingen to Stuttgart main station, the next long-distance stop. There
are hourly trains to Tübingen. The journey takes between 45 and 60
minutes. A second option is to take the S-Bahn (S1) to Herrenberg and
from there take the Ammertallbahn to Tübingen. The journey takes a
little over an hour and leads through a landscape worth seeing. In
addition, the Neckar Valley Railway from Horb and the Zollernalb Railway
from Hechingen/Sigmaringen reach Tübingen station.
Arriving at
Tübingen train station, everything is within easy walking distance. The
city center with the Neckar Bridge is 500m away. There is a taxi stop in
front of the train station.
Other train stations are located in
the suburbs
Tübingen-Lustnau station on the route to Plochingen;
Tübingen-Derendingen stop on the route to Hechingen;
Tübingen-West
stop on the route to Herrenberg.
What they have in common is
their limited meaning for visitors.
Tübingen is the end point of
a special DB Regio tariff marketed as a cultural railway on the
Maulbronn/Pforzheim - Nagold - Eutingen - Horb - Tübingen connection.
By bus
From the central bus station at Europaplatz directly in
front of the station building, there are connections with Flixbus
several times a day to e.g. B. Ulm, Freiburg i. Br. , Stuttgart, Munich.
Depending on the destination, this may be faster than taking the train.
In the street
In Tübingen, 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.
From
Stuttgart it is about 40 km via the B27 to Tübingen. An alternative is
the A81 from Stuttgart in the direction of Singen am Bodensee. Leave the
autobahn at the Herrenberg exit (B28). From here it is about 20 km to
Tübingen on the B28 country road.
Coming from Ulm, take the A8 to
the Tübingen/Reutlingen - B27 exit near the airport or choose the
attractive route over the Alb on the B28 via Bad Urach and Reutlingen
(recommended if there is a traffic jam on the A8).
The German
half-timbered road runs through the town.
By bicycle
Tübingen
is located directly on the Hohenzollern cycle path, a beautiful cycle
path on the eastern edge of the Alb and on the Neckartal path, one of
the most beautiful cycle paths in southern Baden-Württemberg. If you
follow one of the two paths to the south, you have a connection to the
Alb-Neckar-Weg in Esslingen.
Tübingen's old town is best explored on foot, as most parts are
traffic-calmed. There is also a charge for parking here, so it is worth
leaving your car behind. There are enough multi-storey car parks on the
edge of the old town.
The quickest way to get around in Tübingen
is by bike. The cycle paths are well developed, but just as heavily
frequented. However, cyclists should preferably push in the pedestrian
zone, as cycling is prohibited there and this ban is relatively closely
monitored by security services.
Otherwise, Tübingen has a very
well developed bus network, which also directly connects the parts of
the city away from the city center. naldo tickets are not only valid on
buses, but also on trains within the area, so that you can go on day
trips to nearby destinations such as Hohenzollern Castle for very little
money. In the south, the naldo area extends almost to Lake Constance
(Aulendorf), so that many destinations on the western edge of the
Swabian Alb and on the Alb itself can be reached with an overall network
map.
The famous old town was only placed under overall system protection
in 2019. The oldest parts of Tübingen Town Hall date back to the 15th
century. There are numerous half-timbered houses and many narrow
streets. The Neckarfront with the Hölderlin Tower is a well-known photo
motif of the city and one of its most famous landmarks.
The town
hall chimes on the hour and chimes several times a day.
The Collegiate Church of Tübingen from 1470 is the main Protestant
church in the city. There the Württemberg dukes Eberhard im Bart (died
1496), duke Ulrich (1550) and duke Christoph (1568) are buried in the
chancel of the collegiate church separated by the rood screen. Since
2014, the collegiate church has had a carillon that plays different
melodies.
The second old church in the city is the Jakobuskirche,
first mentioned in 1337, which emerged from a chapel. The essentially
Romanesque church was redesigned in the Gothic style in the 16th
century.
After the Reformation, the Evangelisches Stift emerged
from the Augustinian monastery founded in the 13th century. The
Franciscan monastery, founded around 1272, was converted into the
Collegium Illustre, today's Wilhelmsstift, after the Reformation.
The Catholic parish church of St. John was built between 1875 and
1878, the evangelical Eberhard Church in 1911. An interesting example of
the new architecture in the Weimar Republic is the New Apostolic Church
built in 1931 by Karl Weidle.
After World War II many new
churches were built. Protestant churches are the Martinskirche from
1955, the Stephanuskirche from 1968, the Albert Schweitzer Church and
the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Church, which was built between 1983 and 1985.
Catholic churches from this period are St. Michael (1949), St. Peter
(1956) and St. Paulus (1974).
For the churches in the districts
of Tübingen, see the Religion section.
Other sights include Hohentübingen Castle, the Eberhard Karls
University, the town hall, the city museum, the Goethe house, the nuns'
house, the Bebenhausen monastery, the Bebenhäuser Pfleghof, the French
quarter ("City of short distances", in the making from 1991, as well as
the Loretto Quarter), the Österberg Tower, Bismarck Tower and the
Steinenberg Tower.
In the old town, address Am Markt, there has
been a newly created Neptune fountain since 1948, whose figures were
cast from weapon scrap. Originally, the decorative fountain carved out
of sandstone by the stonemason Georg Müller stood here.
Well-known Tübingen museums are the Kunsthalle Tübingen, the museum
in Hohentübingen Castle as an important part of the museum at the
University of Tübingen MUT, where exhibits from monument-oriented
scientific areas are exhibited under the auspices of the university, the
Tübingen City Museum with the Lotte Reiniger silhouette collection, the
Hölderlin Museum in the Hölderlin Tower and the Boxenstop Tübingen car
and toy museum on Brunnenstrasse.
The Museum of the University of
Tübingen MUT is the only university institution in the world to house
artefacts with World Heritage status, such as the oldest surviving
figurative works of art and musical instruments known to mankind, the
mammoth ivory figures and the fragments of bone flutes. These come from
the Vogelherd Cave (Swabian Jura), which has been part of the UNESCO
World Heritage Site "Caves and Ice Age Art in the Swabian Jura" since
2017. These objects were archaeologically excavated by the Institute for
Prehistory and Early History at the Eberhard Karls University in
Tübingen. In addition, various art, but also natural and geoscientific
collections - a total of 66 - of the MUT, such as the graphic
collection, the mineralogical collection or the paleontological
collection of the university with numerous dinosaur preparations can be
visited. Other university collections open their doors by prior
arrangement. Since 2012 there has also been the exhibition "MindThings -
KopfSache", a cooperation between the Museum of the University of
Tübingen MUT, the Department of Psychology and the University's Career
Service.
In addition, there is the G91 building, which was
converted by Herbert Rösler and is used for exhibition purposes.
The most famous theater in the city is the Landestheater Tübingen (LTT). There is also the Zimmertheater Tübingen, a small and contemporary theater on Bursagasse in the middle of the old town. The Zimmertheater also operates a venue in the former Löwen cinema. There are also several student theater groups at the university and performances by independent theater groups in the Sudhaus socio-cultural center. In July/August, the Tübingen Summer Theater takes place at different venues, alternately organized by the LTT, Zimmertheater and Theater Lindenhof.
The Tübingen City Library was initially founded in 1895 with a "people's reading room". Since 1985, the main office has been located in the former building of the Stadtwerke in Nonnengasse, which was specially converted for this purpose - the library system includes three branches in Derendingen, Waldhäuser-Ost and Wanne as well as the media center Uhlandstraße. With a stock of 233,267 (physical) media, more than 972,742 items were borrowed in 2019.
Numerous choirs and orchestras, which are affiliated with the
university or the parishes or are independent, characterize the music
scene in the city. The Tübingen motet in the collegiate church as a
weekly musical Saturday evening devotional based on the Leipzig model
has national fame.
The most important venue for rock and pop
music is the Sudhaus, the cultural center of the Sudhaus.
The
culmination of the Tübingen jazz scene is the jazz club with its own
domicile Jazzkeller in Haaggasse, the venue for regular jam sessions and
15 to 20 live concerts a year. In addition to the jazz club, since its
founding in 1977, the Jazz im Prinz Karl association has also made a
name for itself as an organizer of national jazz concerts. There are
also the music series Jazz in the Studio and the Jazz & Classic Days.
The events have been held at Club Voltaire since 2017.
From 1975
to 1992, the Tübingen Folk and Songwriters Festival shaped Tübingen's
musical life. Organized every year by Club Voltaire and the
socio-cultural Tübingen scene on a special theme, events with national
and international music greats attracted tens of thousands to Tübingen
over the Pentecost days. In 1985, the Club Voltaire received the Culture
Prize of the Cultural and Political Society for its festival program.
The blues rock group Black Cat Bone has been one of the local heroes
of the Tübingen music scene for over 30 years.
Outstanding among
the wind groups are the Derendingen Music Association, which has existed
since 1911 with over 40 active members and its own youth brass band, the
Harmonie Unterjesingen wine band with over 60 active musicians, youth
band and flute training, and the Pfrondorf Music Association with 30
active members and youth brass band. All enrich the cultural life of the
university town with an annual square concert.
Tübingen has a
very active heavy metal scene, which developed around the former beer
cellar and the metal night in the Epplehaus. The Tübingen alternative
metal band Circus of Fools has achieved a certain international fame
through appearances at larger festivals such as M'era Luna.
Green areas form places of rest, promenades and playgrounds in the
city center of Tübingen and are heavily frequented local recreation
areas. In the center of the city is the old botanical garden with old
and species-rich trees and the monument dedicated to Hölderlin "Genius
of Glory". On the green Neckarinsel is the more than 180-year-old
picturesque avenue of plane trees opposite the Neckarfront with
monuments to Friedrich Silcher and Ottilie Wildermuth, not far from the
park at the Anlagensee between the train station and the three "old"
Tübingen high schools: Uhland, Kepler and Wildermuth high schools.
Between the Neckar and the old town lies the Österberg, which is almost
completely undeveloped on one side and is used by walkers and
paragliders in summer and tobogganers in winter. The Tübingen parks are
also student meeting points and places of learning in summer.
The
New Botanical Garden in Tübingen on the Morgenstelle accommodates
greenhouses with different temperatures, including a fuchsia house with
a collection of plant species named after the Tübingen botanist Leonhart
Fuchs.
The city's 14 cemeteries, including the mountain cemetery
and the city cemetery with the numerous graves of prominent citizens,
are also part of the inner-city green spaces. The burial ground of the
Anatomical Institute is located on burial ground X of the city cemetery,
where almost 600 victims of state violence are buried who did not die of
natural causes: political opponents of the NS system, forced labourers,
deserters, prisoners of war. Commemorative plaques with their names
commemorate them. In 1980, the university added another commemorative
plaque for the victims of Nazi medicine.
From 1907 to 1919, the
privately run zoo in Tübingen was located at the foot of the Spitzberg.
There are currently 36 student associations in Tübingen, which characterize the cityscape of Tübingen in particular with their stately houses. Especially the front Österberg and the Schloßberg are lined with fraternity houses. The punt race, which takes place every year in early summer, also lives from the participating student associations. More than a quarter are batting connections, with the remainder made up of non-batting, "mixed" or all-queen connections.
January
Arab Film Festival, mid/late January
March
Exhibition "For the Family" (fdf), beginning of March
April
CineLatino in April or May
May
Children's University in May or
June
Rock im Tunnel, rock party in the pedestrian tunnel in May or
June
Tübingen Book Festival (every two years)
June
Punt
races on the Neckar on Corpus Christi Day (in May or June); 1 p.m.
costume parade, 2 p.m. start of the race around the Neckarinsel
Ract!festival, a free and outdoor music event in June or July with bands
and workshops
Tübingen water music, a concert event in a special
atmosphere. It takes place on the Neckar. The audience sits in punts.
July
French summer festival - in the German-French cultural
institute
Tübingen Summer Island, late July – early August
August
Bedtime stories in early August
Summer University in early
August
September
Umbrian-Provencal market in mid-September
Tübingen city run in mid-September
Retromotor a vintage car festival
on the third weekend of September
October
Duck races in early
October
Jazz and classical days in mid-October
Kite festival on
the Österberg on the third Sunday in October
French Film Days
Tübingen-Stuttgart from mid-October to early November
November
Film festival FrauenWelten at the end of November
December
Nikolauslauf, half marathon on the edge of the Schönbuch nature park in
the north of Tübingen
chocolART, International Chocolate Festival in
early December
Cine Español – early to mid-December
Christmas
market on the third weekend in Advent from Friday to Sunday
Arsenal at the moat
Studio in front of the Hague Gate
Museum at
Lustnauer Tor with three halls
The old town of Tübingen offers a large number of small boutiques,
shops and shops. Worth mentioning:
Heckenhauer, Holzmarkt 5, 72070
Tuebingen. Phone: +49 (0) 7071 23018, email: ant@heckenhauer.de.
Antiquarian bookshop in the university town for almost 200 years, and
many a professor's estate has passed through its shelves. Hermann Hesse
studied here from 1895 to 1899, memorabilia from the time can also be
seen. Open: Wed, Thu 3pm-6pm, Fri 12pm-6pm, Sat 11am-5pm.
Also in
the nun's house, you will find a very extensive range of office
supplies, city maps, travel guides and maps of travel destinations in
Germany, Europe and the whole world in the "Scriptum".
Cheap
Fast food is also represented in Tübingen's city center, but
apart from various kebab and falafel stands (e.g. left below the
Deutsche Bank at Lustnauer Tor), it is rather unusual: There is no
McDonald's in the city center, only on Reutlinger Straße with additional
drive through. There is a first-class burger joint, the "X" (next to the
city museum), where the burgers are freshly fried and topped. This is
very popular with students and is often the last stop on a pub crawl,
which is why it is very busy after 12:30 a.m.
Italian specialties
can be found in "Da Toni", which is directly behind the youth center
"Epple-Haus", for the small purse there are good pizzas in "Unckel"
(Wilhelmsstraße left side) for 5 € (4 € to take away) ,
1
Neckarmüller, Gartenstrasse 4, 72074 Tübingen. Tel.: (0)7071 27848. Home
cooking and beer brewed in our own and the nearby Mössinger brewery can
be found in the Neckarmüller with a beer garden overlooking the Neckar,
right on the Neckar Bridge. Open: daily 10 a.m. - 1 a.m.
Middle
The "manufaktur" (at the Haagtor) is also recommended, but in terms of
price it is more in the upper range.
2 sausage kitchen, Am
Lustnauer Tor 8, 72074 Tübingen. Tel.: (0)7071 92750. Typical Swabian
cuisine can be found in the "Wurschtküche" at the Lustnauer Tor (on the
left below the Deutsche Bank), at a higher price level.
3
Mauganeschtle, Burgsteige 18, 72070 Tuebingen. at the Hotel am Schloss,
Swabian menu and cuisine.
4 Ludwig's, Uhlandstrasse 1, 72070
Tübingen. next to the Hotel Krone, café, restaurant, bar.
5 Forelle,
Kronenstrasse 8, 72070 Tübingen. Tel.: (0)7071 5668980. Traditional
house with 200 years of history. Open: Wed-Mon 11-23.
"El-Chico" is in the same building as Neckarmüller, one floor up. A
trend bar in the Mexican style, which, however, does not treat the
wallet very gently.
In the city center you will find the
"Alt-Tübingen", where there is beer from clay mugs and on Monday
evenings a "Song-Rate-Competition", where the winning group gets a free
round of schnapps. Tübingen is a city of pubs, in the city center you
don't need more than 5 minutes to the next pub, so it is best to get an
idea of the numerous and different pubs in Tübingen with an extended pub
crawl.
Storchen, Ammergasse 3, 72070 Tuebingen. Quaint, cramped,
smoky (sic!). Traditional student bar, once a meeting place for the 1968
generation. The last long-haired one was carried directly to the
Anatomical Museum a few years ago. Open: daily from 1500 (Sat from 1200)
until late.
There is also the Top10 discotheque on Reutlinger
Straße, where there is a different "special" every weekend.
Cheap
1 youth hostel, Hermann-Kurz-Str. 4. Tel.: +49 7071 23002,
fax: +49 7071 25061, e-mail: info@jugendherberge-tuebingen.de. The youth
hostel is located on the edge of the old town directly on the Neckar. It
can be easily reached on foot from the train station in 15 minutes. A
total of 200 beds in 65 rooms, most with their own shower/toilet. Nice
dining room with a view of the Neckar, breakfast buffet is the usual
youth hostel standard. Barrier-free. Bed&Bike. Check-in: Reception open
8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.
2 Neckarcamping campsite, Rappenberghalde 61
(on the Neckar, on the southwestern outskirts of town). Tel.: +49 7071
43145, fax: +49 7071 35070, e-mail: mail@neckarcamping.de. Small
campsite on the southern outskirts. Very well-kept sanitary facilities,
but the price of the site is relatively expensive, especially for
campers. Many mostly shady pitches for caravans/campers, the meadow for
tents is rather small.
Middle
3 Hotel am Schloss, Burgsteige
18, 72070 Tuebingen. Tel: (0)7071 92940.
4 Hotel am Schönbuchrand,
Klemsenstrasse 3, 72070 Tübingen OT Unterjesingen. Tel.: (0)7073
3003290, fax: (0)7073 50265, e-mail: info@hotel-am-schoenbuchrand.de.
Feature: ★★★. Price: SR 65 €, DR 80 €, apartment 90 €.
Upscale
5 Hotel Krone, Uhlandstrasse 1, 72072 Tuebingen. Tel: (0)7071 13310.
6 Hotel Domizil, Wöhrdstrasse 5-9, 72072 Tübingen. Tel: (0)7071 1390.
The directory of the city of Tübingen provides an overview of other
accommodation options.
Tübingen is committed to promoting technology. The so-called technology park is being built in the north of Tübingen. B. already houses Max Planck Institutes. TFRT advises start-ups and rents laboratory and office space.
The region around the city of Tübingen has been visited by Ice Age hunters and gatherers at least since the Magdalenian period, the youngest section of the Upper Palaeolithic. In the following, the presence of people in almost all prehistoric epochs can be proven in the form of tool finds, burials, house floor plans or remains of settlements. B. those of the Bandkeramischen, the Rössener, the Schnurkeramischen and also the Großgartacher culture. The Bronze Age is in Tübingen among others. represented by the sensational find of the "Menhir von Weilheim". From the older Iron Age, numerous grave mounds from the Hallstatt period are known in the urban area of Tübingen, such as the grave mound of Tübingen-Kilchberg. Traces of the Romans, who built the Neckar-Limes a little further to the northeast, date from around 85 AD. In connection with the siege of "castrum twingia" (Zwingburg) by King Heinrich IV. Hohentübingen Castle is mentioned for the first time in 1078. It can be assumed that the predecessor rural settlement is located in the area of the flood-proof saddle between Schlossberg and Österberg. The place name alone gives an indication: the name of the place founder Tuwo in the prefix and the name ending in -ing (en) point to the foundation during the migration period. The Tübingen lower town has its origin there. The upper town emerged later as an extension of the Burgmann settlement below the castle.
The first mention of merchants comes from 1191, which is evidence of a marketplace. In the middle of the 11th century, the area around Tübingen belonged to the Counts of Zollern. City rights are mentioned for the first time in 1231. In 1262 Pope Alexander IV founded an Augustinian hermit monastery, followed by a Franciscan monastery in Tübingen, founded with the support of Count Palatine Heinrich von Tübingen, exactly ten years later. In the 13th century, Tübingen received a Latin school, which later became the Schola anatolica. In 1342 the castle and town passed to the Counts of Württemberg. The city soon became the seat of an office.
With the relocation of the Sindelfingen Martinsstiftes to Tübingen
in 1476, a collegiate monastery was founded that offered the
economic and personnel prerequisites for founding a university. The
parish church of St. George became a collegiate church. The Eberhard
Karls University was founded one year later.
On July 8, 1514,
the Treaty of Tübingen, which is considered the most important
constitutional document of the Duchy of Württemberg, was concluded.
Since then, Tübingen has been allowed to use the Württemberg antlers
in its coat of arms as the place where the contract was concluded.
With the introduction of the Reformation between 1534 and 1535, the
history of the city's monasteries ended. In 1535 Leonhart Fuchs
accepted a position at the university, one year later Duke Ulrich
von Württemberg founded the Evangelical Monastery of Tübingen as a
scholarship for Protestant theology students, which moved into the
former Augustinian Hermit Monastery in 1547.
Between 1622 and 1625, after the Battle of Wimpfen on May 6,
the Catholic League occupied the Protestant Duchy of Württemberg. In
1629 the edict of restitution came into force. During the “cherry
war” from June 28th to July 11th, Tübingen was looted. After the
Battle of Nördlingen, the commandant Johann Georg von Tübingen
handed over the Hohentübingen Castle, occupied by 70 citizens, to
the imperial troops in September 1634. After all, Tübingen was not
plundered thanks to the commitment of a Tübingen citizen's son, who
was in imperial service as a (Protestant) Rittmeister in the
Fürstenberg regiment. Tübingen was then mostly occupied by Bavarian
troops.
In 1635 and 1636, 1,485 people died of the plague in
the city. Two years later the Swedish army invaded Tübingen. Shortly
before the end of the Thirty Years War, Hohentübingen Castle was
besieged by the French in 1647 (Siege of Hohentübingen Castle). On
March 14th, the southeast tower was blown up with the help of a
mine. The Bavarian occupation gave up and received an honorable
deduction. The French stayed in Tübingen until 1649.
In a city fire in 1771, parts of the western old town around Ammergasse were destroyed. Another city fire hit parts of the eastern old town in the area of today's Neue Straße in 1789. It was rebuilt on a straightened floor plan in the classical style. In 1798 Johann Friedrich Cotta, the publisher of German classics such as Goethe, Schiller, Herder and Wieland, founded the Allgemeine Zeitung in Tübingen, which in the following years became Germany's leading political daily newspaper.
After the
establishment of the Kingdom of Württemberg, Tübingen remained the
seat of the Oberamt of the same name, but underwent some changes
until 1813 in the course of the new administrative structure. From
1807 to 1843 Friedrich Hölderlin lived in care in the Hölderlin
tower on the Neckar. From the beginning of the 19th century, the
city grew significantly beyond the medieval borders with the
right-angled Wilhelmsvorstadt at the new auditorium and the
botanical garden. In the so-called Gôgen uprising of 1831, around 60
young craftsmen and wine growers marched through the city in protest
against arbitrary police force and sang Schiller's robber song. The
local authorities called for help to the officially non-existent and
forbidden student associations, and armed student security guards
were used against the insurgents. In the Tübingen bread riot of
1847, an academic security corps from the University of Tübingen,
consisting of around 150 students, under the leadership of Carl
Heinrich Ludwig Hoffmann, was armed from the university's arsenals.
The Security Corps put an end to the unrest by resolutely opposing
the social interests of the poor. In 1861, with the opening of
today's central station on the Plochingen – Immendingen line,
Tübingen was connected to the route network of the Royal Württemberg
State Railways.
Tübingen has been a military base since 1873.
An infantry barracks was set up south of the city in which the 10th
Württemberg Infantry Regiment No. 180 was stationed. In 1938 the
barracks were given the name Thiepval-Kaserne, named after the
hamlet Thiepval in the French province of Picardy, where soldiers of
this regiment fought during the summer battle in September 1916. A
plaque on the barracks wall reminds of this. 16 houses were damaged
in a French air raid in World War I. From 1914 to 1916 a second
barracks was built, which was initially called the New Barracks and
was also named Loretto Barracks in 1938 in memory of the Loretto
Battle. In 1935 a third barracks was opened, which was renamed from
Burgholzkaserne to Hindenburg barracks in 1938.
The beginning of the time of National Socialism in the German Reich
in 1933 also meant the end of the short-lived, free state of
Württemberg. The university town of Tübingen now came under the
jurisdiction of the NSDAP district of Württemberg-Hohenzollern.
Tübingen was declared an urban district by the German municipal
code in 1935, but remained within the Tübingen district, as the
Upper Office of Tübingen has been called since 1934. In 1938 the
district of Tübingen was considerably enlarged and the district of
Tübingen was created (in the form valid until 1972). From 1933 to
1943 the Gestapo had a field service in Tübingen. During the
November pogrom in 1938, the synagogue at Gartenstrasse 35-37 was
burned down by SA men. A memorial stone in the Jewish cemetery north
of the B 28 towards Wankheim today commemorates 14 Jewish victims of
the Shoah. The Jewish victims of the Nazi dictatorship have also
been commemorated with a plaque on the wall facing the collegiate
church on the Holzmarkt since 1983, as has the Synagogenplatz
memorial on Gartenstrasse since 2000.
On April 19, 1945, the
Second World War ended for Tübingen. Three air strikes had
completely destroyed 82 houses, 104 badly and 607 slightly damaged.
Tübingen was destroyed to a total of 5% by air raids. On the
initiative of the on-site doctor Theodor Dobler, the town was handed
over to the French troops without a fight. Tübingen was now in the
French occupation zone.
In 1946, the French occupying power made Tübingen the capital of the newly established state - from 1949: federal state - Württemberg-Hohenzollern, until it became part of the new state of Baden-Württemberg. The city became "immediate district town". On February 18, 1949, the robbery murderer Richard Schuh was guillotined in the courtyard of the prison at 18 Doblerstrasse. It was the last civil execution on West German territory. In 1952 Tübingen became the seat of the administrative district of Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern, which was transferred to the administrative district of Tübingen on January 1, 1973 during the district reform. In 1956, Tübingen was named a large district town. In 1965 Tübingen was awarded the European Prize for outstanding efforts to promote European integration. With the incorporation of eight municipalities, the urban area reached its current size between 1971 and 1974. With the district reform carried out in 1973, the Tübingen district also got its current size.
Tübingen remained a French garrison town until the 1990s. The
French soldiers helped shape the cityscape. In addition to the three
Tübingen barracks, the French garrison used numerous residential
buildings, especially in the southern part of the city.
In
2015, Tübingen was awarded the honorary title of “Reformation City
of Europe” by the Community of Evangelical Churches in Europe.
The places that, as a result of the incorporation in the 1970s, have
a local constitution with their own local council and mayor, are
referred to as localities, but according to the main statute of the
city are just as districts as the districts that were previously
incorporated. There is also a place to live that has never been an
independent community.
Ammern (living space) was first
mentioned around 1120 as "Ambra". Through various donations from the
Count Palatine of Tübingen, the town came to the Obermarchtal
Monastery in the 12th century, which had been the bailiwick from
1303. After that, the village gradually disappeared. The remaining
goods came with Obermachtal in 1803 to the princes of Thurn and
Taxis and from 1806 under Württemberg administration. In 1852 Ammern
became the property of the royal house of Württemberg and
politically belonged to the municipality of Derendingen, with which
it was incorporated into Tübingen in 1934. In 1935 the
sub-municipality Ammern and in 1978 the Ammern mark was dissolved.
Bebenhausen (locality) was first mentioned in 1185 as "Bebenhusin",
but the settlement is older. The Count Palatine of Tübingen founded
a monastery that was initially populated by Premonstratensians.
Cistercians from Schönau near Heidelberg followed in 1190. From 1204
at the latest, the monastery became imperial. It only came under the
rule of Württemberg at the end of the 14th century. In 1534 it was
dissolved after the Reformation was introduced. The goods of the
monastery and the associated place were administered by Württemberg
bailiffs in the monastery office of Bebenhausen. In 1759 this was
raised to the rank of Oberamt and its seat moved to Lustnau. From
1807 Bebenhausen belonged to the upper office of Tübingen.
Bühl
(locality) was first mentioned around 1100 as "Buhile". Around 1120
noble free von Bühl are mentioned. In the 12th century, the place
came to the Counts of Hohenberg. From 1292 Bühl was given as a
fiefdom to Amman von Rottenburg, who held it until 1502. Then it was
split up. Among others, the gentlemen from Ehingen zu Kilchberg and
the gentlemen from Stain zum Rechtenstein were the owners. The
latter built the castle from 1550. The sovereignty over Bühl was
incumbent on Austria. The fiefdom was withdrawn several times and
pledged again. In 1805 Bühl came to Württemberg and was assigned to
the Oberamt Rottenburg. When it was dissolved in 1938, Bühl came to
the Tübingen district.
Derendingen (district) was first mentioned
around 1089 as "Taredingin". The lords of Derendingen were servants
of the Counts of Achalm, who sold half of the town to the Zwiefalten
monastery. In the 13th century, servants of the Count Palatine of
Tübingen ruled over the other half, who sold their stake to
Württemberg in 1342. However, the Zwiefalten monastery was able to
expand its share in the village later. In 1750 the Zwiefalten
monastery exchanged its property with Württemberg, so that all of
Derendingen was part of Württemberg. The Württemberg part always
belonged to the Office or Oberamt Tübingen.
Hagelloch (locality)
was first mentioned in 1106 as "Hagunloch". The place was sold to
the Bebenhausen monastery in 1296 through several lordships, with
which it came to Württemberg in 1534. Hagelloch remained under the
administration of the Bebenhausen monastery office until 1807 and
then came to the Tübingen regional office.
Hirschau (locality)
was first mentioned around 1204 as "Hizroune". The place came under
the Hohenberg fiefdom through several lords and from 1381 to
Austria. From 1621 Hirschau was again pledged to the Barons von
Hohenverg, from 1733 to the Lords von Raßler (until 1762). After the
transfer to Württemberg in 1805, Hirschau was assigned to the
Rottenburg Oberamt in 1807 and when it was dissolved in 1938 it came
to the Tübingen district.
Kilchberg (locality) was first
mentioned in the 12th century as "Kiliberc". The local nobility were
servants of the Count Palatine of Tübingen. From 1429 the place came
to the Lords of Ehingen zu Hohenentringen, but one eighth of the
place had been part of Württemberg since 1389. The Ehinger built the
castle. In the 17th century, the place was divided between different
lords, including Leutrum von Ertingen. In 1805 Kilchberg came to
Württemberg and was assigned to the Oberamt Tübingen.
Lustnau (district) was first mentioned around 1120 as "Lustnow".
The place was ruled by the Palatine ministerials from Lustnau. But
the village gradually came to the Bebenhausen monastery, which built
a nursing yard here. After the abolition of the monastery, Lustnau
was the seat of the Bebenhausen monastery office, which was only
dissolved in 1807. Since then the place has belonged to the Oberamt
Tübingen. As a result of major construction activities, the village
expanded in the direction of Tübingen from around 1930, so that
today the place has grown together with the core city.
Pfrondorf
(locality) was first mentioned around 1200 as "Prundorf". First with
the Count Palatine of Tübingen, the place came to the Lords of
Lustnau and finally around 1400 to the Bebenhausen monastery, to
whose monastery office the place belonged. In 1807 Pfrondorf came to
the Oberamt Tübingen.
Unterjesingen (locality) was first
mentioned at the end of the 11th century as "Yesingen". From 1299
Marshals von Jesingen named themselves after the place. The village
belonged to Roseck Castle, which was owned by the Lords of Ow and in
1410 came to the Bebenhausen monastery. The village and castle thus
became part of Württemberg and belonged to the Bebenhausen monastery
office. In 1807 Jesingen came to the Oberamt Tübingen and in 1810 to
the Oberamt Herrenberg. To distinguish it from the neighboring town
of Oberjesingen, the prefix Unter- was added, so that the place has
been called Unterjesingen ever since. When the Oberamt Herrenberg
was dissolved in 1938, Unterjesingen became part of the Tübingen
district.
Waldhausen (district) was first mentioned around 1100.
Around 1270 the place came to the monastery Bebenhausen and from
1534 to the monastery office Bebenhausen. In 1807 the place came to
the Oberamt Tübingen, but always remained a part of the political
community of Bebenhausen. In 1934 the place was re-municipalityed to
Tübingen. In 1967 the district of Waldhausen was abolished. In the
1970s, not far from the hamlet of Waldhausen, a new residential area
"Waldhäuser Ost (WHO)" was built, which today has grown together
with the core city of Tübingen.
Weilheim (locality) was first
mentioned around 1100 as "Wilon". From 1271 ministerials of the
Count Palatine of Tübingen named themselves after the place. In 1342
the place came with Tübingen to Württemberg and from 1500 was
assigned to the office or later Oberamt Tübingen.
Tübingen is located in the central Neckar valley between the northern Black Forest and the Swabian Alb. In Tübingen the Goldersbach flows into the Ammer. These, like the Steinlach, also flow into the Neckar in Tübingen. In the center of the city are the Schlossberg and the Österberg, on the outskirts are the Schnarrenberg, the 475 m high Spitzberg as the local mountain of the Hirschau district, the Herrlesberg and the Hüllen. The lowest point of the Tübingen urban area is at 307 m above sea level. NN in the eastern Neckar valley, the highest is the Hornkopf in Schönbuch north of the Hagelloch district with a height of 515.2 m. The Schönbuch Nature Park begins in the north of Tübingen. The Swabian Alb begins about 13 km (air line distance between Tübingen Mitte and Roßberg (tower) (869 m)) further southeast.
In Tübingen in the small forest Elysium, below the Luise-Wetzel-Weg near the Botanical Garden at auf48 ° 32 ′ 15.9 ″ N, 9 ° 2 ′ 28.21 ″ E, the geographic center of Baden- Württemberg using the focus calculation method. A three-ton cone-shaped stone from the Franconian Jura symbolizes this point. It has an inclination of 11.5 °; this should represent half of the earth's inclination. If, on the other hand, the geographic center of the state is calculated using the averaging method of the respective state extreme points, it is in Böblingen.
The following cities and municipalities
border the city of Tübingen, starting clockwise from the north:
Dettenhausen (Tübingen district)
Walddorfhäslach (Reutlingen
district)
Pliezhausen (Reutlingen district)
Kirchentellinsfurt
(Tübingen district)
Kusterdingen (Tübingen district)
Gomaringen (Tübingen district)
Dußlingen (Tübingen district)
Rottenburg am Neckar (Tübingen district)
Ammerbuch (Tübingen
district)
Altdorf (Boeblingen district)
Weil im Schönbuch
(Boeblingen district)
The city of Tübingen
is divided into 23 districts, including 10 so-called outer
districts. Of the latter, 8 were incorporated into the most recent
municipal reform in the 1970s and are now also localities within the
meaning of the Baden-Württemberg municipal code. This means that
they have a local council to be elected by those entitled to vote in
every local election, with a local mayor at the head. There is also
an administrative office. The two districts of Derendingen and
Lustnau, which were incorporated in 1934, each have a local advisory
board and an office of the city administration. They are subdivided
into three or four statistical city districts, which are indented in
the following overview. Administrative and business offices are
quasi district town halls, where you can take care of the most
important urban matters.
Within some parts of the city there
are sometimes other parts of the city that have emerged over time.
These are mostly new developments or residential areas, the
boundaries of which can also be fluid. Each district and its
subdivisions have a three-digit number for statistical purposes.
Tübingen is located in the south of the
Stuttgart metropolitan area (for the scope, see Stuttgart). Together
with the neighboring city of Reutlingen, the city forms the main
center of the Neckar-Alb region, to which the following intermediate
centers are assigned:
Albstadt, Balingen, Hechingen,
Metzingen, Münsingen, Rottenburg am Neckar
For the following
cities and municipalities in the district, Tübingen also takes on
the tasks of the central area:
Ammerbuch, Bodelshausen,
Dettenhausen, Dusslingen, Gomaringen, Kirchentellinsfurt,
Kusterdingen, Mössingen, Nehren, Ofterdingen
The near-surface geological subsurface of Tübingen is mainly
formed by the rocks of the Middle Keuper (km). The steep Keuper
slopes are followed by strata formed by the claystones of the Black
Jura (Lias). The strata are between 440 and 500 m above sea level.
and mostly show a thin layer of loess that was deposited there
during the cold ages.
The following layer sequence is open:
Loess loam: The loess loam has resulted in good arable land on
which, as far as it has not been colonized, grain is grown.
Schwarzer Jura α: Most important step maker in Tübingen
Rhätsandstein: Fossil-rich sandstone that was also used for building
purposes.
Tuberous marl: They form the upper slope areas and are
poor building ground due to their plasticity.
Stubensandstein:
This Keuper sandstone was previously broken as abrasive sand and in
places also forms layered surfaces.
Lower colored marl, silica
sandstone, upper colored marl: They form the lower slope areas in
Tübingen.
Reed sandstone: The reed sandstone comes to light in the bed of
the Neckar, for example. It forms the base of the Neckar Bridge. The
Neckar River caused by the reed sandstone favored the founding of
Tübingen.
Alluvial gravel: They form the level valley floor of
the Neckar and its tributaries Steinlach and Ammer and are mined for
construction purposes. Hence the quarry ponds in the Neckar valley.
The leveling formed by Alluvium, Stubensandstein and Lias α is
of great importance as a stable building ground and also for the
construction of buildings that take up large areas. University and
trade were settled on the alluvial alluvial plain. New clinics, the
Waldhäuser Ost district and the natural science faculties on
Morgenstelle were built on Stubensandstein and Lias α.
The
tuber marl is a hindrance to the building and therefore the
structural development. This is why the northern slope of the
Österberg and the Steinenberg, for example, are free of buildings.
About 5 km north of Tübingen there is a geological nature trail
on the Kirnberg (Schönbuch), where the Keup layers are explained on
several display boards. On June 2, 2017, the revised geological
nature trail was presented to the public and handed over.
In
1831, for the construction of the new anatomy building
(Österbergstrasse 3), a 70 m deep well bore was sunk for the water
supply, which was also scientifically described and represents one
of the oldest geological Keuper profiles in southern Germany.
The Tübingen climate is about the average for Baden-Württemberg.
The mean annual temperature is 9.0 ° C and is therefore roughly in
the middle between the values of the climatically favored cities
in the Rhine Valley (e.g. Karlsruhe: 10.5 ° C) and the cold places
on the plateaus (e.g. Villingen-Schwenningen: 6.7 ° C). The
long-term mean annual rainfall of 741 mm is also roughly the average
of the values in other cities in Baden-Württemberg (e.g.
Stuttgart: 679 mm / Freiburg im Breisgau: 954 mm).
The
regularly warmest month in Tübingen is July with an average
temperature of 18 ° C, the coldest January with an average of −0.7 °
C. Most rain falls in June with a mean 101 mm. The months with the
least rain are March and December with a long-term average of 39 mm.
The urban climate is strongly influenced by the numerous
elevations. In winter it is not uncommon for the districts on the
Neckar to be completely free of snow, while the high altitudes have
a closed snow cover. The location of the slopes also has climatic
effects. For example, the southern slope of the Spitzberg is
extremely warm and species-rich, while the north side is much colder
and can only show a fraction of the biological diversity of the
south side.
There are five nature reserves in Tübingen. The nature reserves
Spitzberg-Ödenburg and Hirschauer Berg are north of Hirschau. The
Obere Steinach and the nature and landscape protection area Bühler
Tal and Unterer Bürg bei Bühl, and the nature protection area
Blaulach between Pfrondorf and Kusterdingen.
In the north is
the Schönbuch landscape protection area and the Rammert landscape
protection area in the south. The two landscape protection areas
Spitzberg and Unteres Ammertal lie between Hirschau and
Unterjesingen, and the Neckar valley protection area between
Tübingen and Plochingen begins at Lustnau.
Reutlingen is part
of the three FFH areas Spitzberg, Pfaffenberg, Kochhartgraben and
Neckar, Rammert and Schönbuch as well as the two bird protection
areas Mittlerer Rammert and Schönbuch. The northern part of the
urban area is in the Schönbuch Nature Park.
According to the 2011 census, 38.9% of the residents were Protestant, 24.6% Roman Catholic and 36.5% belonged to another denomination or none or made no statement. At the end of 2021, of the 92,170 residents in Tübingen, 31.4% were Protestant, 20.6% were Catholic and 48.0% (44,196) belonged to another religious community or did not provide any information. At the end of 2020, of the 90,877 inhabitants, 32.3% were Protestant (30,231), 21.4% were Catholic (19,447) and 46.3% (42,032) belonged to another faith community or did not provide any information.
Tübingen initially belonged to the diocese of Constance and was
assigned to the archdeaconate "before the forest" (Sülchen chapter). As
a result of belonging to the Duchy of Württemberg, the Reformation was
introduced here, as in the rest of Württemberg, from 1535. The reformers
active in the city were Ambrosius Blarer and Balthasar Käuffelin. After
that, Tübingen was a predominantly Protestant city for many centuries.
In 1559 the great church order came into force. Tübingen soon became the
seat of a deanery (see church district Tübingen) within the Württemberg
State Church, which initially belonged to the General Superintendent
Bebenhausen. From 1692 there was a deanery in Lustnau. In 1806, Tübingen
became the seat of its own General Superintendency. Since 1911 the
Deanery of Tübingen has belonged to the Prelature of Reutlingen.
The main evangelical church in Tübingen is the collegiate church, which
probably emerged from a chapel mentioned around 1188. The church
dedicated to St. George, later St. George and Maria, was raised to the
status of a collegiate church in 1476 after the Sindelfingen Canons'
Monastery had been transferred to the Tübingen parish church. The
current church was built from 1470. The tower comes from the previous
church. The second old church in the city is the Jakobuskirche, which
was first mentioned in 1337. It was also originally a chapel, which was
connected to the hospital after the Reformation. The essentially
Romanesque church was redesigned in the Gothic style in the 16th
century. A parish was established on it in 1910. Other Protestant
churches are the Eberhardkirche from 1911 (parish from 1911), the
Martinskirche from 1955 (parish from 1957), the Stephanuskirche from
1968 (parish from 1965), the Albert Schweitzer Church and the Dietrich
Bonhoeffer Church, which was built between 1983 and 1985. These seven
parishes in the core city of Tübingen form the Evangelical Congregation
of Tübingen.
After the Reformation, the Evangelisches Stift
emerged from the Augustinian monastery founded in the 13th century. The
Franciscan monastery, founded around 1272, was converted into the
Collegium Illustre after the Reformation. The Catholic theological
seminary from Ellwangen moved here in 1817. Since then it has been
referred to as the Wilhelmsstift.
With the exception of Bühl and
Hirschau, the Reformation was also introduced in the districts of
Tübingen due to the predominant affiliation to Württemberg. That is why
there is usually a Protestant parish or at least a Protestant church
there to this day. Derendingen already had a chapel around 1189. The
current church was built in 1514. The Hagelloch Evangelical Church was
built in 1904 in the neo-Romanesque style. However, there had been a
parish in Hagelloch since 1545. The Reformation was introduced in
Kilchberg by George II of Ehingen. The parish church in Kilchberg has
different construction phases. The oldest part is probably Romanesque.
The Protestants in Bühl also belong to the community of Kilchberg. The
Church of St. Martin in Lustnau was built in the late 15th century, but
there was a church and parish as early as the 12th century. The parish
of Bebenhausen is also looked after by the parish of Lustnau. But the
community with the former monastery church also has its own church.
Pfrondorf was initially a branch of Lustnau. In 1833 the town received
its own parish and its own church. Unterjesingen already had a parish in
the 11th century and a 14th-century church dedicated to St. Barbara. The
current church was built between 1470 and 1494. In Weilheim there was a
church dedicated to St. Nicomedes. Today's church was built between 1499
and 1521 in the late Gothic style. The Protestants from Hirschau also
belong to the community. All of the parishes mentioned also belong to
the Deanery of Tübingen of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg.
As early as 1750, Marchtal Abbey established a Catholic community in
the hamlet of Ammern, which was abolished in 1806 when the Catholic
parish of Tübingen was founded. The services were initially held in the
Jakobuskirche - the former hospital church. From 1817, the director of
the Wilhelmsstift was also the Catholic city priest. In 1818 the
congregation was able to build its own church, the Church of St.
Wilhelm, near the Wilhelmsstift. The parish, founded in 1806, initially
belonged to the diocese of Constance, then from 1808 to the general
vicariate of Ellwangen and from 1821 to the newly founded diocese of
Rottenburg (today the diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart). Today's Tübingen
parish church of St. John the Evangelist was built between 1875 and
1878. After the Second World War, other Catholic communities and
churches were established in Tübingen, namely St. Michael (1949, parish
from 1958) and St. Paulus (1974, parish from 1975). A clinic church was
built in 1961 where a parish had already been established in 1896. The
university parish office was established in 1933. The parish of St.
Johannes Evangelist also includes the Catholics from Hagelloch and
Unterjesingen. The Catholics from Weilheim are looked after by the
parish of St. Michael.
In 1275 a church and parish were mentioned
in the district of Bühl. Since Bühl finally came under the sovereignty
of Austria through various rulers, the place remained Catholic.
Nevertheless, the Reformation was temporarily introduced by Georg II von
Ehingen and David vom Stain in the 16th century, but reversed again in
1609. Today's parish church of St. Pankratius in Bühl was built in 1902,
the tower dates from the previous building in 1599. The Catholics from
Kilchberg also belong to the community. The residents of Hirschau
initially belonged to the parish of Sülchen near Rottenburg, and some
also to Wurmlingen. In 1461 the chapel of St. Ägidius in Hirschau was
elevated to the status of a parish. Today's Church of St. Ägidius is
essentially Gothic, but was mostly rebuilt between 1851 and 1852. The
Church of St. Peter was built in Lustnau in 1956 and raised to the
status of a parish in 1961. This also includes the Catholics from
Pfrondorf. All Catholic parishes in the Tübingen urban area now belong
to the Rottenburg deanery of the Rottenburg-Stuttgart diocese.
In
addition to the two large churches, there is also a Greek Orthodox
congregation in Tübingen, as well as free churches, including the United
Methodist Church (Peace Church), an Evangelical Free Church congregation
(Baptists - Kreuzkirche), the TOS congregation in Tübingen, a Free
Christian congregation, an independent Evangelical Lutheran congregation
(Philippus congregation), an Adventist congregation (Seventh-day
Adventists) and a free church Pentecostal congregation (Arche). The New
Apostolic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and
the Christian Community are also represented in Tübingen.
There are three mosques in Tübingen:
the IGMG on Reutlinger
Strasse
the DITIB central mosque in Tübingen in the street near the
Kupferhammer after the location at the moat was given up
the Islamic
culture and meeting center in Philosophenweg on the Wanne
The Center
for Islamic Theology, which belongs to the University of Tübingen, has
existed since the 2011/2012 winter semester.
The Tübingen Buddhists are organized into several groups belonging to
different traditions of Buddhism:
The Buddhist community in Tübingen
is close to the Theravada tradition, but is also open to other Buddhist
schools.
Zen meditation is practiced in the Zen Dojo Tübingen.
The
Kagyu tradition is taught in the Buddhist center of the Karma Kagyu
lineage in Tübingen.
The Triratna Order offers weekly meetings.
The Yun Hwa Sangha is based on the teachings of the Buddhist master Ji
Kwang Dae Poep Sa Nim.
Meditation & Mindfulness -
Thich-Nhat-Hanh-Group Tübingen offers weekly meetings. It is based on
the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh.
In Tübingen, there has been evidence of a council and court since
around 1300, with the council including the court. Both bodies
represented the citizens against the government. After the transition to
Württemberg, there was initially only one court. A council was not
established again until 1477, but it had completely different tasks. In
the 16th century, both bodies were also referred to as "magistrate".
Originally, it was the task of the up to two mayors, who were in
office at the same time, to collect taxes and to manage the city's
accounts, to supervise the city's construction work and to keep the
course of the Ammer outside the city under control. From the middle of
the 16th century, the tasks and the importance of the mayors grew
steadily. Their number increased by 1600 to four. That corresponded to a
quarter of the Tübingen court staff. They were in office for life, but
only the two “calculating mayors” ran the official business. As regional
representatives, the mayors also played an important role in state
politics.
In the 16th century the mayor was only entitled to a
fixed sum of 30 fl. He received an additional 25 pounds Heller from the
tax collector and 5 pounds Heller from the fruit administration. On
December 24, 1674, Duke Wilhelm Ludwig decided that the mayor should in
future draw 50 fl. from the city treasury, but the other court relatives
and mayor should draw 24 fl. a year. But the city had to pay 12 guilders
as a tax to the princely chancellery. According to the princely
resolution of 1710, the official mayor received a fixed annual salary of
150 fl. in addition to the waiting money and the statutory counting
money. He was also allowed to use the kennel garden at the Schmiedtor
since 1749.
With the introduction of the Württemberg municipal
constitution in 1819, there was no longer any difference between the
court and the council. The body was now called the City Council. The
head of the city was initially called the mayor, from 1823 the mayor and
from 1903 again the mayor. This is directly elected by the citizens for
a term of eight years. He is chairman of the municipal council and head
of administration. His general deputies are the first deputy with the
official title of first mayor and the second deputy with the official
title of mayor.
In the election of the Lord Mayor on October 22,
2006, Boris Palmer (Greens) was elected with 50.4% of the votes in the
first ballot with a turnout of 51.6%, opposing the incumbent Brigitte
Russ-Scherer (SPD , 30.2%) and Hans-Jörg Stemmler (CDU, 11.9%) through.
He took office on January 11, 2007. In the mayoral election on October
19, 2014, Palmer was re-elected with 61.7%, the turnout was 55.0%. Also
on October 23, 2022, Palmer was re-elected with 52.4% of the vote in the
first ballot with a turnout of 62.6%. He ran as an independent candidate
(with dormant membership in the Greens, which he later gave up on May 1,
2023) against, among others, the Greens candidate, Ulrike Baumgärtner,
who received 22.0% and thus won second place.
around 1247: Wenigo
around 1272: Jagilin
around 1285: Dietrich Fuchs
around 1292:
Cunrad called Haiden
around 1292: Dietrich called Eßlinger der Lange
around 1295: Albert Hailant
1296-1306: Ludwig of Lustnau, knight
around 1310: Otto von Wurmlingen
around 1389: Peter Leo
around
1519: Hans Ochsenbach
around 1547: Walther Reich
from 1561 to
1570: Stephan Kienlin
until 1563: Melchior Metzger (called Calwer) (†
1563)
until 1618: Georg Calwer (1548–1618)
until 1625: Michael
Eippart (Eyppert, Eippert, Euppert; † July 7, 1625)
around 1634:
Georg Vischmacher
around 1636: Anton Niclaz
around 1647: Matheus
Kraemer
around 1660: Christoph Caspar
around 1667: Johann Wilhelm
Schwartz
around 1674: Johann Jacob Baur
around 1694: Johann
Wilhelm Wolf
1706-1717: Johann Adam Kurrer
around 1724: Abel Renz
around 1743: Johann Michael Kohler
around 1749: Johannes Harpprecht
1752–1790: Jakob Heinrich Dann
from 1770: Johann Adam Christoph Kölle
around 1787: Christoph Adam Dörr
around 1800: Victor Hauff
around
1801: Johann Jacob Rehfues
1805-1815: Johann Immanuel Bossert
1806-1815: Johann Friedrich Kiecker
1815-1819: Jos. Phil. Rehfues
1819-1823: Johann Andreas Laupp
1823-1857: Ernst Wilhelm Bierer
1857-1874: August Friedrich Rapp
1874-1897: Julius Gos
1897 Gustav
von Schoenberg
1897-1927: Hermann Hausser
1927-1939: Adolf Scheef
(DDP)
1939-1945: Ernst Weinmann, NSDAP
1945-1945: Fritz Haussmann
1945-1946: Viktor Renner (SPD)
1946-1948: Adolf Hartmeyer (SPD)
1949-1954: Wolfgang Mulberger
1954-1974: Hans Gmelin (independent)
1975-1999: Eugen Schmid (independent)
1999-2007: Brigitte
Russ-Scherer (SPD)
since 2007: Boris Palmer (independent, until May
1, 2023 Greens)
The municipal council consists of the Lord Mayor as chairman and 40
volunteer city councillors. The body determines the goals and framework
of local political action and decides on all important municipal
matters, unless the mayor is responsible by law or the municipal council
has assigned certain tasks to him.
The municipal council is
directly elected every five years. The last local elections took place
on May 26, 2019, at the same time as the European elections. With the
exception of the Pirate Party, all the lists previously represented in
the municipal council stood up again, as did the AfD and Democracy on
the Move.
In 1999, the Tübingen Youth Council was elected for the first time. It consists of 20 members and is elected every two years by all 12 to under 19 year olds in the Tübingen city area. Members must not be older than 18 years at the time of election. Like other youth councils, it works together with the mayor. A special feature of the youth council is that, in addition to the right to speak and be heard, it also has the right to make applications to the municipal council. Since 2002, the Lilli-Zapf Youth Prize has been awarded annually by the youth council together with the Courage e. V. in the field of civil courage and social affairs.
In the state elections in Baden-Württemberg in 2021, the Greens in the university town of Tübingen, as nationwide, were the strongest force. With 44.2% of the votes, they were significantly more successful in Tübingen than at state level (32.6%). Parallel to the Baden-Württemberg overall result, the CDU and SPD followed. While the left failed at the five percent hurdle in the nationwide result, it achieved fourth place in Tübingen with 9.6 percent. The FDP came fourth at state level and fifth in Tübingen. In contrast to the result at state level, the AfD was below 5% in Tübingen.
The Greens were able to repeat their victory in Tübingen in the 2021 federal election, as they had done in the 2017 federal election. As a result, the party was able to increase its share of the vote by 11.2% in 2021 and received the most second votes in Tübingen with 36.7%, while taking third place nationwide. Furthermore, in this city, as in the overall result, the SPD was ahead of the CDU. One difference to the nationwide result was that the left achieved more than 5% and placed ahead of the AfD, which in turn - unlike in the federal government - was below 5% in the university town.
The university town of Tübingen has an official seal, a coat of arms
and a flag.
Blazon: “In gold on three red carrier rings, a
three-braced red flag; on the shield two diagonally crossed man's arms,
clad in red and gold slit puffed sleeves, holding two black deer sticks
pointing upwards."
The three-braced red flag comes from the
Counts Palatine. The city flag is red and yellow.
The city's
oldest seal dates back to 1272 and already shows the flag of the Counts
Palatine, which is also depicted in the coats of arms of Böblingen and
Herrenberg. Even after the city became part of Württemberg, the coat of
arms symbol remained. However, on August 18, 1514, Duke Ulrich von
Württemberg awarded the so-called upper coat of arms, the deer rods with
the two lansquenet arms, as a special badge of honor for the loyalty of
the city during the uprising of the poor Konrad.
The economy of Tübingen is strongly influenced by the public service. The largest employers are the university and the clinic with a total of over 12,000 employees. The approximately 30 authorities in Tübingen employ around 2,500 people. A total of around 40,400 employees subject to social security contributions work in Tübingen. In addition, there are civil servants and self-employed people working in Tübingen. Almost 24,000 of the employees subject to social insurance commute to Tübingen, about 10,000 Tübingen work abroad. Up to 2,843 citizens were registered with the Employment Agency in the 2000s, including around a third for more than twelve months. In June 2012, the number of unemployed reached a long-term low of 1,317 people. By August 2016 it rose to 1,671 unemployed, in December 2017 1,310 were registered as unemployed.
In contrast to many other cities in Württemberg, Tübingen was never a
well-known industrial location. Today the city only has four larger
industrial employers - Walter AG, Hugo Brennenstuhl GmbH & Co. KG, Erbe
Elektromedizin GmbH and the CHT/BEZEMA Group. There are also a number of
smaller companies in mechanical engineering, medical technology and the
textile industry. Many long-established handicraft businesses have
joined forces in the Weststadt in the handicraft park.
Up until
the 1990s there were three other larger industrial companies that
together employed several thousand people. These were the Württemberg
terry weaving mill in Lustnau (insolvency in 1992), the household
appliance manufacturer Zanker (dissolution in 1993) and the Beka factory
owned by entrepreneur Dieter Kemmler, in which kitchen items were
manufactured until 1999. The historically low level of industrialization
in Tübingen and the associated low importance of Tübingen for armaments
production in the Second World War was one of the reasons why the city
was spared major Allied air raids.
Starting with the research
institutes of the university, Tübingen has developed into a center for
information, bio and nanotechnology in recent years. Many of these
companies are based on the Obere Viehweide in the Tübingen-Reutlingen
Technology Park, Germany's largest start-up center for biotechnology,
such as immatics and vaccine pioneer CureVac. The so-called Cyber
Valley, Europe's largest research consortium in the field of artificial
intelligence (AI), has also been developing from the technology park
since 2017. Among other things, due to the proximity to the rapidly
growing Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, some well-known
companies have announced the establishment of their own research centers
in the field of artificial intelligence in Tübingen. Robert Bosch GmbH
is planning to set up an AI campus with 700 employees on the Obere
Viehweide. At the end of 2021, Amazon will put an AI development center
with 200 employees into operation in the immediate vicinity.
In
May 2021, Porsche announced that it would build a battery cell factory
in Tübingen.
Stadtwerke Tübingen GmbH (SWT) is responsible for supplying the city with electricity, water, gas, district heating and telecommunications. They also operate the Tübingen baths and multi-storey car parks. The subsidiary Stadtverkehr Tübingen organizes the bus service. With the Neckarwerk hydroelectric power plant, SWT also operates a run-of-river power plant.
Local public transport is organized by Stadtverkehr Tübingen (SVT), a
branch of Stadtwerke Tübingen GmbH. The individual city bus routes are
advertised and assigned to a bus company for a specific period of time.
Night buses run on twelve lines every night. Local transport is part of
the Neckar-Alb-Donau transport association (NALDO). A semester ticket is
offered for students of the Eberhard Karls University, which is valid in
the entire NALDO network. In Tübingen, experiments are being carried out
with a free public transport service. Since February 10, 2018, there has
been a "ticket-free Saturday", which means that all city buses and the
Ammertalbahn to Unterjesingen can be used free of charge and without a
ticket every Saturday (including Sunday until 5 a.m.). The city also
subsidizes the JugendticketBW. This means that trainees, pupils and
students from Tübingen up to the age of 26 can use all local public
transport in Baden-Württemberg for 264 euros a year. The ticket is
therefore around 100 euros cheaper than elsewhere in Baden-Württemberg,
where it costs 365 euros. Furthermore, the city has been subsidizing the
Deutschlandticket for all people residing in the city since May 1, 2023,
initially with 10 euros, and from August 2023 with 15 euros, so that the
costs are reduced to 39 or 34 euros. As a social ticket, the
Deutschlandticket will be available for 15 euros a month in future.
Municipal employees receive the ticket for 14 euros per month.
As
a supplement to local public transport, the concept of ride-on benches
is offered in Tübingen to improve the mobility of people without a car
(such as older people, young people).
The following train stations and breakpoints are located in the city
area:
Tübingen Hauptbahnhof, a junction of several railway lines
Tübingen-Lustnau on the Plochingen-Immendingen railway line
Tübingen-Derendingen on the Tübingen-Sigmaringen railway line
Tuebingen West
Unterjesingen Sandäcker on the Ammertalbahn
Unterjesingen center on the Ammer Valley Railway
On the Plochingen–Immendingen railway line, SWEG Bahn Stuttgart
trains run on lines IRE 6, RB 18 and RE 12 (journey time to Stuttgart
Hbf with RE 12/RB 18 approx. 60 minutes, IRE 6 approx. 50 minutes) in
the direction of Stuttgart, Heilbronn and Osterburken. In addition, a
two-hourly Interregio-Express (IRE 6a) runs to Stuttgart with only one
stop in Reutlingen main station (journey time approx. 45 minutes) and
connects to long-distance traffic there. Between Tübingen and Reutlingen
there is a 15/30-minute cycle from Monday to Friday, which is partially
reduced to a 30-minute cycle at weekends. In addition, the RB63 trains
from DB Regio run hourly to Metzingen, where they travel to Bad Urach
via the Ermstalbahn. Monday to Friday further trains run to Reutlingen,
resulting in a 30-minute cycle on the RB 63, resulting in a total of
approximately ten minutes between Tübingen and Reutlingen.
Since
December 13, 2009, Tübingen has had a long-distance connection. A daily
Intercity train connects Tübingen with Stuttgart, Mannheim, Cologne and
Düsseldorf, and on certain days also with Berlin. The Kulturbahn trains
can be taken to Pforzheim every hour with a change in Horb via Nagold
and Calw (journey time around one hour and 40 minutes). Direction
Rottenburg is driven every 30 minutes. In Horb there is a connection
towards Singen.
The Ammer Valley Railway goes to Herrenberg.
There you can change to line S1 of the S-Bahn Stuttgart via Böblingen to
Stuttgart (total travel time to Stuttgart Hbf 68 minutes).
Trains
run via Hechingen, Balingen and Albstadt to Sigmaringen on the
Tübingen–Sigmaringen railway, also known as the Zollernalbbahn.
For a number of years there have been plans to set up a Neckar-Alb
regional light rail system based on the Karlsruhe model. For this
purpose, in particular, a light rail line is to be built from the main
station via the university and university clinics to the Waldhäuser Ost
residential area, which will be connected to the regional train service
(downtown line). A standardized assessment resulted in a positive
economic cost-benefit ratio of 1.4. The inner-city route in Tübingen is
the subject of controversial debate among the citizens, so that the
administration and municipal council have promised a referendum. In
2013, the surveying of the regional light rail began. The government of
the state of Baden-Württemberg secured funding for the project in 2014.
The municipal council has agreed on a referendum in 2020 on the
construction of the inner-city route. On September 26, 2021, 57.39%
voted against and 42.61% voted in favor of an inner-city route and thus
rejected an inner-city route through Tübingen with a turnout of 78.37%.
Reutlingen's Lord Mayor Thomas Keck criticized the result of the vote as
"selfish small town thinking".
Tourist trains on weekends in
summer
Tourist trains of the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn made up of
coupled railcars from Tübingen to Engstingen (cars 4 and 5), Schömberg
(car 3) and to Sigmaringen (cars 1 and 2) reach the Upper Danube Nature
Park, where a regular service is offered on all routes. Since 2015, an
early train has made day trips possible.
Germany clock
It is
planned to expand Tübingen station to Stuttgart every half hour in the
German cycle.
Various long-distance bus lines connect the city with Karlsruhe, Munich, Villingen-Schwenningen and Freiburg, among others.
Although the city does not have a direct motorway connection, two
important federal roads intersect in Tübingen: the B 27
Schaffhausen-Villingen-Schwenningen-Tübingen-Stuttgart-Heilbronn and the
B 28 Strasbourg-Freudenstadt-Tübingen-Reutlingen-Ulm. In the north, the
B 27 has been expanded to resemble an autobahn, so that the federal
autobahn 8 near Stuttgart can be reached quickly. The four-lane
expansion from Derendingen to Dußlingen was completed in autumn 2006.
The Schindhau base tunnel is missing in between to relieve the southern
part of the city. There are also plans to widen the B 28a in the
direction of Rottenburg to four lanes as far as the junction with the A
81 motorway. The section up to the Hirschau junction was completed in
autumn 2007 as a four-lane road.
An environmental zone was set up
in Tübingen in 2008 so that, with a few exceptions, the city may only be
entered with a fine dust sticker. Exceptions are the major thoroughfares
B 27, B 28, Stuttgarter and Pfrondorfer Straße through Lustnau,
Wilhelmstraße between Lustnau and Nordring, Nordring,
Schnarrenbergstraße towards the city center to the Breiter Weg, Breiter
Weg, Gmelinstraße towards the city center to the University Hospital and
the Hagelocher Weg. In the city center, the Neckar car park on
Wöhrdstrasse via Friedrichstrasse and the Metropol car park on
Reutlinger Strasse via Hechinger Strasse are also excluded.
Due
to the topographical conditions in Tübingen there are considerable
capacity problems in inner-city north-south traffic. As early as the
19th century, bottlenecks in the connection between the university
quarter to the north of the old town and the train station to the south
led to the expansion of Mühlstraße in the valley between the old town
and Österberg in 1885-1887. Heavy traffic already led to the
construction of an eastern bypass in 1938 as part of what was then
Reichsstraße 27, which, however, could not cover all traffic routes. In
1979, the four-lane Schlossberg Tunnel was put into operation as part of
the B 28 to bypass the city center to the west. In 1992, to relieve
Mühlstraße, a half-way closure for motorized individual traffic was set
up in the southbound direction. A redesign of the street space in
Mühlstraße carried out in 2009 with the aim of better protected bicycle
traffic led to problems in bus traffic, although the width of the lane
used by the buses had not been reduced. A general widening of the road
cross-section is not possible in this area.
More than 50 Tübingen
streets worldwide are named after Tübingen.
In Tübingen, the proportion of bicycle traffic in domestic traffic is
around 23 percent and is thus on a par with typical cycling cities. With
regard to cycling, it is estimated that the quality of the current
cycling network does not correspond to the very high importance of
cycling in Tübingen. Also, the local topography does not favor cycling.
The Hohenzollern Cycle Path, coming from Schönbuch, leads through
the city, which as a long-distance cycle path connects the greater
Stuttgart area with Lake Constance and is therefore an important link in
the German long-distance cycle network. The Neckar Valley cycle path
also runs through the city. This path accompanies the Neckar for 410 km
as a river bike route from its source to its mouth.
The pilgrimage route to St. James, known as the Via Beuronensis and signposted since 2009, begins at the Bebenhausen monastery in Tübingen. It leads across the Swabian Jura to Constance on Lake Constance. From there it leads through Switzerland, then through France and Spain to Santiago de Compostela. It is marked throughout with a stylized scallop shell.
The Schwäbisches Tagblatt, the daily newspaper with the highest
circulation in the district of Tübingen, reports on local events in the
Tübingen area, with the Südwest-Presse as the cover section. It is
therefore a one-newspaper circle in which a header page appears. In
addition, the free advertising paper Tübinger Wochenblatt is distributed
once a week.
Südwestrundfunk operates a state studio in Tübingen,
from which, among other things, the regional program Radio Tübingen is
produced and broadcast within SWR4 Baden-Württemberg. Other radio
programs are Uniwelle Tübingen, Wüste Welle, Freies Radio for Tübingen
and Reutlingen and Helle Welle. The private regional television station
RTF.1 also broadcasts from the Reutlingen and Tübingen area. In
addition, the university television of the Eberhard Karls University of
Tübingen CampusTV Tübingen and the campus magazine Kupferblau with the
associated podcast Conversation Material report on student events and
regional topics.
Tübingen is the seat of the regional council and the district office
of Tübingen.
There is also a district court and a district court
as well as a tax office. The Tübingen courts used to belong to the
Higher Regional Court of Württemberg-Hohenzollern.
In addition to
the university hospital, there has been a professional association
accident clinic with 327 beds since 1957 and the Paul Lechler Hospital
for tropical diseases with 101 beds since 1916.
In Tübingen is
the seat of the Baden-Württemberg Pension Fund for doctors, dentists and
veterinarians, an agency subordinate to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry
of Labor and Social Affairs.
The city is the seat of the church
district of Tübingen of the Evangelical Church in Württemberg.
The Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen is one of the oldest and
most renowned German universities and was founded in 1477. This
educational institution was temporarily the place of study for men from
the resistance movement of July 20, 1944. In the foyer of the new
auditorium, a commemorative plaque has been commemorating these
resistance fighters since 1984.
In 2016, 27,500 students were
enrolled at Eberhard Karls University. This puts the city of Tübingen in
38th place in the list of the largest German university cities.
The Leibniz College, a former institution of the university that is now
managed by a foundation, makes a significant and nationwide unique
contribution to study orientation.
The university is connected to
the University Hospital Tübingen with 17 different clinics and about
1500 beds. Since 1998, the clinic has been run as an independent
institution under public law.
The Evangelische Stift of the
Evangelische Landeskirche in Württemberg has existed since 1536.
Furthermore, the Evangelische Hochschule für Kirchenmusik Tübingen,
which moved away from Esslingen am Neckar in 1999, is located in
Tübingen.
Tübingen has a state seminar for didactics and teacher
training (high schools). The city is also a "corporate supporting
member" of the Max Planck Society.
Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology
Max Planck
Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Max Planck Institute for
Intelligent Systems
Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research
German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)
Friedrich
Miescher Laboratory for biological working groups in the Max Planck
Society
Institute for Danube-Swabian History and Regional Studies
(idgl); This research facility, which is subordinate to the
Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Interior, was founded on July 1, 1987
Leibniz Institute for Knowledge Media (IWM)
More than 15,000 children and young people go to school in Tübingen (as of 2017). There are a total of more than 30 schools in the city area, including 15 elementary schools, two secondary schools, three junior high schools, five high schools, three vocational schools, a special needs school, a school for the mentally handicapped and a school for educational support, as well as a Waldorf and a free active school.
FAS – Free Active School Tübingen e. V
All-day school at Hechinger
Eck (with branches at the primary school at Steinlach and
Ludwig-Krapf-School)
All-day school Dorfacker- and Köstlinschule
Lustnau (with branch Köstlinschule)
All-day school at Hügelschule
Community school French school
Elementary school on the tub
Buehl
Elementary School
Hagelloch Elementary School
Hirschau elementary
school
Elementary school in Aischbach
Elementary school downtown
(locations Lindenbrunnenschule and Silcherschule)
Kilchberg
Elementary School
Pfrondorf elementary school
Unterjesingen
elementary school
Weilheim elementary school
Elementary school
Winkelwiese/Waldhäuser-Ost (locations Waldhäuser-Ost and Winkelwiese)
Free Waldorf School Tübingen (private school)
Hauptschulen and
Werkrealschulen
Sibling Scholl School (experimental school "extended
cooperation", no longer a regular secondary school since the 2009/10
school year)
FAS – Free Active School Tübingen e. V
Community School West
Community school French school
Sibling-Scholl-School – community school (emerged from the “Extended
Cooperation” school experiment, GMS since 2012)
Kirnbach School
Pestalozzi school
Rudolf Leski School
Uhland High School
Carlo Schmid High School
Kepler Gymnasium
Wildermuth High School
Sibling Scholl School
Biotechnological and
nutritional science high school at the Mathilde Weber School
Technical high school at the Tübingen trade school
Business high
school at the Wilhelm Schickard School
Walter-Erbe-Realschule (discontinued, affiliated with the French
school, two grades left in the 2019/2020 school year)
Sibling Scholl
School (experimental school "extended cooperation", no longer a regular
secondary school since the 2009/10 school year)
Technical school in Tuebingen
Mathilde Weber School (Home
Economics School)
Wilhelm-Schickard-School (commercial school)
Education and Technology Center Tübingen
Training institute for medical technical assistants (MTA-L, MTA-R) at
the UKT
German-American Institute in Tübingen
Institut Culturel
Franco-Allemand (German-French Cultural Institute Tübingen e. V.)
Adult Education Center in Tuebingen (VHS)
VIVAT LINGUA! language
training programs
Language Institute Tübingen SIT of the
International Association (IB)
Nursing School at UKT
Midwifery
school at the UKT
Humanistic College in Tübingen
Tübingen Music
School
Regional Council Tübingen – School and Education
Tübingen district
office – school authority
District media center in Tübingen
For a large part of the population of Tübingen, viticulture was the
dominant industry up until the 19th century. The vintners of the time
were referred to and mocked as Gôgen or Rauba (caterpillars). So-called
Gôgen jokes are still told today, which are particularly crude and
reflect the arduous life of the vintners in the past. In the first half
of the 20th century, viticulture in Tübingen came to an almost complete
standstill because the cultivation of high-quality wines in the Tübingen
area was not profitable. Although the abundant southern slopes offer
sufficient warmth, they do not have soil suitable for viticulture. The
upper layers of earth only form a relatively thin layer over the
underlying rock of gypsum keuper, colored marl and Stubensandstein. The
soils on the hillsides are therefore barren and unsuitable for
agricultural use. Accordingly, the majority of these areas lie fallow
today.
On the southern sides of the Schlossberg, Spitzberg and
Schnarrenberg, the terracing of the slopes from the days of viticulture
has largely been preserved, but in many places it is overgrown by forest
or scrub. Since 2004 there has been a private winery in the city again.
Outside the actual urban area, there are a number of private wineries on
the southern slope of the Spitzberg above the district of Hirschau and
on the southern edge of Schönbuch in Unterjesingen. The Tübingen
vineyard Sonnenhalden is part of the Upper Neckar area of the
Württemberg wine-growing region.
Tübingen wine is only available
to a limited extent in Tübingen and the surrounding area today due to
the small amount cultivated. It is often served for a limited time in
broom taverns. The Schloss Hohentübingen sparkling wine, which is
available in some bars in the old town, is not made from Tübingen wine.
In 2001, the purchase of the Schellingstraße residential project in Tübingen was the first residential project outside the Freiburg region under the umbrella of Mietshäuser Syndikat GmbH. There are now four apartment building syndicate housing projects in Tübingen. In autumn 2010, the Tübingen municipal council decided to support the "Vierhäuser Projekt" housing project with a loan of 150,000 euros.
In Tübingen, there has been a solar building requirement for new buildings since 2018.
The basketball players of SV 03 Tübingen play as Tigers Tübingen in
the 2nd Bundesliga. The Derendingen Academics and the second team of SV
03 (“Tigerle”) are represented in the basketball regional league. The
women's volleyball club Tübinger Modell e. V. in the Regionalliga Süd.
In addition, the first division teams of TV Rottenburg (volleyball) and
TuS Metzingen (women's handball) play all or individual home games (TuS)
in Tübingen. Until the Tigers were relegated in 2018, Tübingen was the
only city in Germany next to Berlin where three representatives of
indoor sports in the first Bundesliga played their home games at the
same time.
Track and field athletes such as Dieter Baumann from
LAV ASICS Tübingen and Marius Broening, javelin thrower Stefan Wenk and
gymnasts Marie-Sophie Hindermann and Kim Bui are well known.
Since October 2004 there has been a large sports hall on Europastraße,
which was initially called the TüArena and is now called the Paul Horn
Arena. You can swim in a modern outdoor pool and two indoor pools,
including the historic Uhlandbad. In addition, the institute for sports
science at the university has a wide range of courses.
Other
sports clubs in Tübingen are TSG Tübingen (founded in 1845; badminton,
football, handball, climbing, gymnastics, lacrosse (Tuelax), athletics,
parkour, rhythmic gymnastics, tennis and volleyball), SSC Tübingen
(1988; American football (Red Knights Tübingen), football, volleyball),
the SV Bühl (1925; football, tennis, men's and women's gymnastics,
children's gymnastics, Pilates, Nordic walking, fitness gymnastics,
dance courses for children, back exercises, table tennis), the TV
Derendingen 1900 (basketball, football, tennis, table tennis,
gymnastics), TSV Hagelloch (1913; football, gymnastics, athletics,
volleyball, handball), TSV Hirschau (1923; football, tennis, table
tennis, volleyball, gymnastics/athletics, leisure), TSV Lustnau (1888;
badminton, soccer, handball, athletics, rehabilitation sports, tennis,
table tennis, gymnastics), SV Pfrondorf 1903, SV Unterjesingen 1923
(soccer, athletics, gymnastics), TTC Rot-Gold Tübingen and SV Weilheim
(1979; aerobics, badminton, basketball, athletics, tennis, table tennis,
volleyball, walking). The ATV Arminia zu Tübingen is a non-hitting
sports association at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen.
Clubs dedicated to just one sport include: the bowling club BSV Tübingen
(1964), the Tübinger sports fencers, the hockey club Tübingen (1984),
the aviation clubs Tübingen (1950) and Unterjesingen (1934), the
Tübingen rowing club Fidelia (1877), the RV (cycling clubs) Tübingen
(“RV Pfeil ") and Derendingen (both 1905), the Tübingen cycling
community (bicycle trial), the RSV Roseck equestrian sports club
(Unterjesingen), the Bühl riding and driving club, the 1514 city guard
on horseback (the oldest club in Tübingen) and the Tübingen riding
society, the Hohentübingen chess club (2006) and SV Tübingen 1870, the
Tübingen swimming club (1913), the squash island sports club (1980), the
rifle club Tübingen (1562), Bühl (1892), Derendingen (1954), Pfrondorf
and Hagelloch (1963), the academic ski Club Tübingen (1908), the ski
club Hirschau (1975), the TC (tennis club) Tübingen (1909), the karate
team Tübingen (2009), the TSC Astoria Tübingen, the dance sport club TTC
Rot-Gold Tübingen ( 1972) Tubingen Hawks Baseball & Softball e. V.
(1985), the karate team in Tübingen (2011).
University sports,
organized by the Institute for Sports Science, are also characteristic
of the sporting life of the city of Tübingen, with an extensive program
of competitions and popular sports. The 100-kilometer relay race and the
annual city run are at the forefront of the sporting events that shape
university and social life in Tübingen.
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 Botswana. This made it part of the
largest municipal inclusion project in the history of the Federal
Republic with more than 200 host towns.
There are currently 36 student associations in Tübingen, which shape the cityscape of Tübingen particularly through their stately houses. The front Österberg and the Schloßberg in particular are lined with fraternity houses. The punting race, which takes place every year in early summer, also lives from the participating student associations. More than a quarter are hitting connections, the rest are made up of non-hitting, “mixed” or pure female connections.
January
Arab Film Festival, mid/late January
March
Exhibition “For the Family” (fdf), beginning of March
April
CineLatino in April or May
May
Children's University in May or
June
Rock in the Tunnel, rock party in the pedestrian tunnel in May
or June
Tübingen Book Festival (every two years)
June
Punting races on the Neckar on Corpus Christi Day (in May or June); 1
p.m. costume parade, 2 p.m. start of the race around the Neckar Island
Ract!festival, a “free and outdoor” music event in June or July with
bands and workshops
Tübingen water music, a concert event in a
special ambience. It takes place on the Neckar. The audience sits in
punts.
July
French Summer Festival – in the German-French
Cultural Institute
Tübingen summer island, end of July – beginning of
August
August
Bedtime stories at the beginning of August
Summer university at the beginning of August
September
Umbrian-Provençal market in mid-September
Tübingen city run in
mid-September
Retromotor a vintage car festival on the third weekend
in September
October
Duck races in early October
Jazz and
classical days in mid-October
Kite festival on the Österberg on the
third Sunday in October
French Film Days Tübingen-Stuttgart from
mid-October to early November
November
Women’s World Film
Festival at the end of November
December
St. Nicholas Run,
half marathon on the edge of the Schönbuch Nature Park in the north of
Tübingen
chocolART, International Chocolate Festival at the beginning
of December
Cine Español – early to mid-December
Christmas market
on the third weekend of Advent from Friday to Sunday
Arsenal at the city moat
Studio in front of the Hague Gate
Museum at Lustnauer Tor with three halls