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79-512: Immediately north of the city lies the Schönbuch , a densely wooded nature park . The Swabian Alb mountains rise about 13 km (8 mi) (beeline Tübingen City to Roßberg - 869 m) to the southeast of Tübingen. The Ammer and Steinlach rivers are tributaries of the Neckar river, which flows in an easterly direction through the city, just south of the medieval old town . Large parts of

158-521: A large part of them are edible mushrooms. One of the more rare species to mention is the porcini mushroom, but even in the middle of winter, mushrooms such as the velvet foot and the oyster mushroom can be found in the Schönbuch. Schönbuch, the unsettled nature park, is not only a refuge for plants, but also for animals. Here, there are fire salamanders, yellow-bellied toads, black woodpeckers, and stag beetles, which are animals that have fallen victim to

237-658: A model for similar infrastructure in other locations. In addition to the already mentioned Geological Nature Trail in Kirnberg, there are the following nature trails in or around the Schönbuch: Nature Trail Schlossberg in the Herrenberg City Forest: geology, trees, shrubs, birdlife Forest Teaching Path Betzenberg: geology, arboretum, birdlife, Stubensandstone quarry Allgemeine Zeitung The Allgemeine Zeitung

316-533: A notable arts culture as well as nightlife. In addition to the full roster of official and unofficial university events that range from presentations by the university's official poet in residence to parties hosted by the student associations of each faculty, the city can boast of several choirs, theatre companies and nightclubs. Also, Tübingen's Kunsthalle (art exhibition hall), on the "Wanne", houses two or three exhibits of international note each year. There are several festivals, open air markets and other events on

395-636: A protected designation, as dictated by the Nature Park Ordinance. In 2001, the Schönbuch Nature Park and adjacent areas were incorporated into the Europe-wide Natura 2000 protected areas network, as the region is home to many rare plants, forest communities, and endangered species. Pre- and early-historical traces of human settlement are, different from other forest areas, not rare. The earliest piece of evidence

474-684: A refuge that exists only in the park and not in the area around the park. Alone, the narrow and limiting Goldersbach Valley holds over 400 plants and over 90 species of moss. In the large Goldersbach Valley above the Devil’s Bridge and in the Fishbach Valley and the Lindach Valley, the two source streams of the Goldersbach Valley lead to many wet meadows, which are farmed. The masses of Troll flowers that one can find in

553-400: A regular basis: Since World War II , Tübingen's population has almost doubled from about 45,000 to the current 88,000, also due to the incorporation of formerly independent villages into the city in the 1970s. Currently, Lord Mayor Boris Palmer (Green Party) has set the ambitious goal of increasing the population of Tübingen to 100,000 within the next several years. To achieve this, the city

632-709: A swampy prairie instead. Newer research suggests that Birkensee is the last sandbox created during the removal of sticky sand and silver sand in the Bromberg Hill region. Birkensee has been exposed to more and more silt in recent years. Many of the rare marsh and bog plants that have been recorded previously have now disappeared. Nevertheless, Birkensee still remains one of the most interesting natural areas of Schönbuch. Among other things, one can find Pipe Grass, Red Foxglove, Broombrush, Bracken, Sundew, Narrow-leaved and Broad-leaved Cottongrass, Heather and Carnations, Lycopodium, Bilberries, various Peat Mosses, and, of course,

711-714: A tower overlooking the Neckar. In the Nazi era, the Tübingen Synagogue was burned in the Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938. The Second World War left the city largely unscathed, mainly because of the peace initiative of a local doctor, Theodor Dobler . It was occupied by the French army and became part of the French zone of occupation. From 1946 to 1952, Tübingen was the capital of the newly formed state of Württemberg-Hohenzollern (as French : Tubingue ), before

790-702: Is 1:01 hrs., with some trains taking only 45 mins. Other regional lines are the Hohenzollerische Landesbahn , connecting the city with Hechingen and Sigmaringen (so-called Zollernalb Railway ), Zollernalbbahn and connections to Herrenberg ( Ammer Valley Railway , Ammertalbahn ) and Horb ( Upper Neckar Railway , Obere Neckarbahn ). Since 2009, there is also a daily direct Intercity link to Mannheim , Cologne and Düsseldorf as well as to Berlin . Local public transport: The city, due to its high student population, features an extensive public bus network with more than 20 lines connecting

869-706: Is a Protestant College of Church Music. More than 10,000 children and young adults in Tübingen regularly attend school. There are 30 schools in the city, some of which consist of more than one type of school. Of these, 17 are primary schools while the others are for secondary education : four schools are of the lowest rank, Hauptschule , three of the middle rank, Realschule , and six are Gymnasien (grammar schools). There also are four vocational schools ( Berufsschule ) and three special needs schools. Primary schools Hauptschulen Realschulen Sch%C3%B6nbuch Schönbuch ( Swabian : Scheebuach )

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948-705: Is a blade made of Jura limestone that was found by the Teufelsbrücke (Devil’s Bridge); the dating of this piece to 10,000 B.C. remains uncertain. The residence of the Nomads in the Mesolithic period (8,000 until 5,500 B.C.) is confirmed, since there were living areas found by the Schönbuchtrauf near Herrenberg. During the Neolithic period, a farming culture with dense residential areas emerged in what

1027-704: Is an almost completely wooded area southwest of Stuttgart and part of the Southern German Escarpment Landscape ( German : südwestdeutsches Schichtstufenland ). In 1972, the central zone of Schönbuch became the first nature park in Baden-Württemberg . The borders of the Schönbuch-Region are vague; however, the area of the Nature Park itself is strictly defined and is discernible from the adjacent areas. In

1106-486: Is closing gaps between buildings within the city proper by allowing new houses to be built there; this is also to counter the tendency of urban sprawl and land consumption that has been endangering the preservation of rural landscapes of Southern Germany. [1] Tübingen has an oceanic climate, Cfb in the Köppen climate classification . Tübingen is twinned with: For their commitment to their international partnership,

1185-401: Is designated as a natural landmark, and today, the area provides a “transition biome” from a bog to a wetland. Birkensee allegedly emerged at the beginning of the 19th century in the base of an abandoned sandstone quarry. The bottom of the lake is stabilized by natural cementation; these stone formations have become impermeable to water. A resource from 1667 depicted Birkensee, the lake, but as

1264-623: Is home to many picturesque buildings from previous centuries and lies on the River Neckar. In 1995, the German weekly magazine Focus published a national survey, according to which Tübingen had the highest quality of life of all cities in Germany. Factors taken into consideration included the infrastructure, the integration of bicycle lanes into the road system, a bus system connecting surrounding hills and valleys, late-night services, areas of

1343-989: Is located within the rural districts of Böblingen and Tübingen, with smaller areas included in the Esslingen and Reutlingen rural districts. Bebenhausen is the only municipality located within the park itself. Beyond the villages of the Schönbuchlichtung clearing, other nearby settlements include (in clockwise order) Aichtal, Schlaitdorf, Walddorfhäslach, Pliezhausen, Kirchentellinsfurt, Tübingen, Ammerbuch, Herrenberg, Nufringen, und Gärtringen. Major parts of Schönbuch are also designated as FFH (Flora, Fauna, and Habitat) areas (No. 7420-341 totaling 11,249 hectares or ~27,797 acres), as well as Special Protection Areas, or SPAs (the EU’s bird reserve program) (No. 7420-441 totaling 15,362 hectares or ~37,960 acres). The Schönbuch conservation area contains 12,424 hectares (30,700 acres) over

1422-607: Is on the Bundesstraße 27 (a "federal road") that crosses through Baden-Württemberg, connecting the city with Würzburg , Heilbronn , Stuttgart and the Landesflughafen ( Stuttgart Airport ) to the north and Rottweil and Donaueschingen to the south. By rail: Tübingen Hauptbahnhof is on the regional train line Neckar-Alb Railway -Bahn ( Neckar-Alb-Bahn ) from Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof via Esslingen and Reutlingen to Tübingen. The average time of travel to Stuttgart

1501-568: Is particularly popular among runners, Nordic skiers, walkers, and cyclists. In addition, there are also special trails marked for horseback riding throughout the town. The large forest area of Schönbuch is ideal for running because it is only intersected by a few roads. Schönbuch is also increasing the events the town holds. The most well-known runs here are the Schönbuch Run, which is over 25 kilometers starting in Hildrizhausen, and

1580-418: Is still home to quite a large number of mammals. Tübingen scientists have counted 44 mammal species, 40% of which are already classified as endangered. The most common species in the nature park include: the red deer, wild boar, roe deer, badger, red fox, European hare, pine and stone marten, polecat, squirrel, hedgehog, stoat, weasel, mole, dormouse, muskrat, various shrews, and other mouse species. Schönbuch

1659-819: Is still maintained by the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Allgemeine Zeitung edited in Mainz . Writers for the Allgemeine Zeitung were Ludwig Börne , Carl Ludwig Fernow , Karl Gutzkow , Ferdinand Gregorovius , Friedrich Hebbel , Heinrich Heine, Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer , Friedrich List , Alfred von Reumont , August Schleicher , Friedrich Johann Lorenz Meyer , Fritz Anneke and Mathilde Franziska Anneke and many more. In German : This German newspaper-related article

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1738-405: Is threatened by deforestation of old oaks. There are also many fireflies that, like many species of butterflies and moths, need clean flowing bodies of water. On the topic of insects, relevant to mention are the fruit orchards on the outer edge of Schönbuch. In this area, 53 species of butterflies, 19 species of orthoptera, and 119 species of wild bees were recorded, the latter 32 of them being on

1817-589: Is today the fertile area on the border of Schönbuch. The central area of Schönbuch remained undeveloped. The seemingly impenetrable ancient forest was often cleared during the Hallstatt period (880 until 450 BCE) for wood and was further damaged for more forest pastures. One can find 300 Celtic mounds from this period, including a mound in Lehbühl near Schlaitdorf. In the eastern part of Schönbuch are three Celtic rectangular ditched enclosures that can be traced back to

1896-459: Is well-known for its red deer. Visitors can observe the red deer and wild boars in a specially designed observation enclosure along with special observation points in the park. Various bat species can also be observed in Schönbuch. In recent years, researchers from the University of Tübingen have detected over ten different bat species. These range from the brown long-eared bat, which lives in

1975-582: The Battle of Solicinium was fought at Spitzberg , a mountain in Tübingen, in AD 367, although there is no evidence for this. Tübingen first appears in official records in 1191. The local castle, Hohentübingen , has records going back to 1078, when it was besieged by Henry IV , king of Germany . Its name was transcribed in Medieval Latin as Tuingia and Twingia . From 1146, Count Hugo V (1125–52)

2054-549: The Cottahaus , a sign commemorates Goethe's stay of a few weeks while visiting his publisher. The German tendency to memorialize every minor presence of its historical greats (comparable to the statement " Washington slept here" in the United States) is parodied on the building next door. This simple building, once a dormitory, features a plain sign with the words "Hier kotzte Goethe" (lit.: " Goethe puked here"). In

2133-652: The Council of Europe awarded the Europe Prize to Tübingen and Aix-en-Provence in 1965. The city's dedication to European understanding is also reflected in the naming of several streets and squares, including the large Europaplatz (Europe Square) outside the railway station. By plane: Tübingen is about 35 km (21.75 mi) from the Baden-Württemberg state airport ( Landesflughafen Stuttgart , also called Stuttgart Airport ). By automobile: Tübingen

2212-497: The Plague . In 1638, Swedish troops conquered Tübingen. Towards the end of the war, French troops occupied the city from 1647 until 1649. In 1789, parts of the old town burned down, but were later rebuilt in the original style. In 1798 the Allgemeine Zeitung , a leading newspaper in early 19th-century Germany, was founded in Tübingen by Johann Friedrich Cotta . From 1807 until 1843, the poet Friedrich Hölderlin lived in Tübingen in

2291-926: The Rathaus is a quiet, residential street called the Judengasse , the former Jewish neighborhood of Tübingen until the city's Jews were expelled in 1477. On the street corner is a plaque commemorating the fate of Tübingen's Jews . The centre of Tübingen is the site of weekly and seasonal events, including regular market days on the Holzmarkt by the Stiftskirche and the Marktplatz by the Rathaus, an outdoor cinema in winter and summer, festive autumn and Christmas markets and (formerly) Europe's largest Afro-Brazilian festival. Students and tourists also come to

2370-547: The Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and many others. A modern technology park is growing in the northern part of the city, where science, industrial companies and start-ups are conducting joint research, primarily on biotechnology and artificial intelligence. The university also maintains a botanical garden , the Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen . Furthermore, there

2449-596: The 6th century. Only the central area between Herrenberg and Bebenhausen was never touched, and this area would later make up the center of the unsettled Schönbuch forest. Chapel of the hermitage with an altar on the Bromberg Hill In the Early Middle Ages, there were many imperially controlled forests. From the middle of the 12th century, the Palatine counts of Tübingen controlled the majority of

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2528-702: The Birch Trees that give the area its name. To protect the vegetation from trampling by visitors, a boulder dam and other paths made of bark mulch were laid in 1988. The typical form of fruit production in the past was orchards, which are in many places on the edge of the nature park, especially around the western Schönbuch slope. The extensively used meadows have shaped the landscape on the edge of Schönbuch for over 100 years, and today they are of particular importance from an ecological perspective. Around 3000 animal species have been identified in orchards, including 50 breeding birds, some of which are heavily dependent on

2607-638: The European Iron Age. Schönbuch was annexed by the Roman Empire in 80 A.D., and evidence from this time gives the impression of a lively marketplace. There were quarries, pottery, and farms. After the Romans withdrew, the Alemannic immigrants initially avoided Schönbuch so the forest could recover from its damaged areas. The reclamation and clearing of Schönbuch started from the north only in

2686-530: The Forestry Office of Herrenberg, the storm has felled around a third of the entire coniferous forest in its area, and eight percent of the deciduous forest. In the entire Schönbuch, the amount of damage was equivalent to approximately one million cubic meters of timber. The last storm "Kyrill" in January 2007 caused much less damage compared to the earlier storms. The resulting accumulated storm damage

2765-597: The Neckar River in the summer to visit beer gardens or go boating in Stocherkähne , the Tübingen equivalent of Oxford and Cambridge punts , only slimmer. A Stocherkahn carries up to 20 people. On the second Thursday of June, all Stocherkahn punts take part in a major race, the Stocherkahnrennen . Bebenhausen Abbey lies in the village of Bebenhausen, a district of Tübingen. A subdivision of

2844-470: The Nikolaus Run, which starts in Tübingen and is over a half marathon in length. The exercise trails from the fitness craze of the early 1970s are somewhat out of fashion now and are in unsatisfactory condition for working out. In 2005, employees of the park worked with Karls University in Tübingen to try and make the facilities better for the future. It remains to be seen if this project will serve as

2923-554: The S-Bahn system. The Schönbuch was awarded the title of "forest area of the year 2014" and "quality nature park". The Schönbuch Nature Park is the largest contiguous forest reserve in the Stuttgart region. The park boundaries were established in the 1974 Nature Park Ordnance. The reserve spans approximately 25 kilometers (about 15.5 miles) east to west and around 10 kilometers (about 6.2 miles) from north to south. Much of Schönbuch

3002-503: The Schönbuch, you are essentially dependent on self-sufficiency, as the places to stop for refreshments are not particularly numerous and are limited to the outskirts of the nature park, which underlines the originality of a hike. For example, you can stop off at the “castle Hohenentringen,” the “Weiler hut,” the “nature friend house Herrenberg,” and various restaurants in Bebenhausen. However, one looks in vain for waste containers in

3081-466: The area. The House of Württemberg gained control of Schönbuch in its entirety in the 14th century. The hermitage on Bromberg Hill stemmed from the Late Middle Ages (13th to 15th century). It had been previously considered a chapel. In 1974, the defensive walls of a chapel and a small residential building made of Rhaetian sandstone were exposed. The storm “Lothar” heavily damaged the remains of

3160-623: The areas of four districts and therefore additionally covers four nature reserve area numbers (1,15,016, 1,16,037, 4,15,009, and 4,16,004). Economic activity in the conservation area is allowed, although restricted. Numerous natural monuments in Schönbuch enjoy the strictest reserves, such as those in the nature reserves of Eisenbachhain, Grafenberg, Hirschauer Berg, Neuweiler Viehweide, Schaichtal, Schönbuch-Westhang/Ammerbuch, Spitzberg–Ödenburg, and Sulzeiche. Additionally, there are sections within Schönbuch which have even tighter restrictions, called “Bannwäldern” (protected forest) or forest areas with

3239-546: The city are hilly, with the Schlossberg and the Österberg in the city centre and the Schnarrenberg and Herrlesberg, among others, rising immediately adjacent to the inner city. The highest point is at about 500 m (1,640.42 ft) above sea level near Bebenhausen in the Schönbuch forest, while the lowest point is 305 m (1,000.66 ft) in the city's eastern Neckar valley. The geographical centre of

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3318-457: The city districts and places outside of Tübingen such as Ammerbuch , Gomaringen and Nagold . There are also several night bus lines in the early hours every day. A direct bus is available to Stuttgart Airport (via Leinfelden-Echterdingen ) as well as to Böblingen and Reutlingen . Tigers Tübingen are the city's only professional sports team, playing basketball . The Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen dates from 1477, making it one of

3397-490: The city is dominated by its roughly 28,000 students. Tübingen is best described as a mixture of old and distinguished academic flair, including liberal and green politics on one hand and traditional German-style student fraternities on the other, with rural - agricultural environs and shaped by typical Lutheran - Pietist characteristics, such as austerity and a Protestant work ethic , and traditional Swabian elements, such as frugality , order , and tidiness. The city

3476-493: The city should be climate-neutral by 2030. In 2022, the city was the first in Germany to tax disposable food packaging . Restaurants in Tübingen are charged 50 cents per disposable cup and cardboard bowl, and 20 cents per piece of cutlery. Tübingen is the capital of an eponymous district and an eponymous administrative region ( Regierungsbezirk ) , before 1973 called Südwürttemberg-Hohenzollern . Tübingen is, with nearby Reutlingen (about 15 km (9.3 mi) east), one of

3555-436: The city that can be reached on foot, the pedestrianised old town, and other amenities and cultural events offered by the university. Tübingen is the city with the youngest average population in Germany. In central Tübingen, the Neckar divides briefly into two streams, forming the elongated Neckarinsel (Neckar Island), famous for its Platanenallee with high plane trees , which are around 200 years old. Pedestrians can reach

3634-529: The clearing. The Schönbuch is located in central Baden-Württemberg – approximately 25 km south of the city center of Stuttgart and about 15 km southwest of Stuttgart Airport . It is also close to Reutlingen (south-east), the university city of Tübingen (south), Herrenberg (southwest), and Böblingen (northwest). A commuter train called the Schönbuchbahn runs through the Schönbuch, connecting Dettenhausen to Böblingen where it links to

3713-516: The coniferous forest, to the noctule bat and the mouse-eared bat, the largest native species. Deer herd on the Dickenberg pasture. Schönbuch has been home to the red deer for ages. Today, the red deer live in a 15 m² (40 km²) enclosed game reserve that was set up for them in 1959. Increasing hunting pressure and tourism heavily frightened the animals in Schönbuch that they were rarely found in grazing areas and instead peeled off tree bark in

3792-475: The forest, they often cause considerable damage to agricultural land. Roe deer have also benefited from the areas affected by the major storms of 1990 and 1999 and have increased considerably. Given that the Landesforstverwaltung (“Land Forest Administration”) declared its intent to conserve the red deer in Schönbuch for cultural consideration, five wildlife privacy zones have been added inside

3871-579: The former Augustinian monastery). Today, the university is still the biggest source of income for the residents of the city and one of the biggest universities in Germany with more than 26,000 students. Between 1622 and 1625, the Catholic League occupied Lutheran Württemberg in the course of the Thirty Years' War . In the summer of 1631, the city was raided. In 1635/36 the city was hit by

3950-618: The game reserve. There are 560 kilometers of marked hiking trails available in the nature park, only a small portion of which are asphalted. In spring 1998, a new, uniform indication system was installed throughout the entire nature park. This so-called “visitor guidance system” has now been awarded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment. Visitors also have access to over 100 parking spaces, 38 playgrounds, 84 fireplaces, and 75 shelters. However, on extended hikes through

4029-483: The habitat as species on the Red List are. The Schönbuch forest, because of its climate conditions and the popularity of trees, is especially suitable for mushrooms. The particularly special mushrooms are the stinkhorn and the dog-tail, the fly agaric, or the octopus stinkhorn, which was introduced and has now established itself. The number of different macrofungi species in the Schönbuch is estimated at about 800, and

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4108-567: The hermitage. The remains of the small residential building were restored in 2004 after a contract between the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen and the state monuments office of Baden-Württemberg. Schönbuch served as a timber source, woodland pasture (Hutewald), and hunting ground until the 19th century. Hunting was reserved only for the rulers of the House of Württemberg, whereas logging and pasture use were carried out by

4187-718: The hilly terrain, streets lined with canals, and well-maintained traditional half-timbered houses. Old city landmarks include the city hall on Markt Square and the Hohentübingen Castle, now part of the University of Tübingen. The central landmark is the Stiftskirche (Collegiate Church). Along with the rest of the city, the Stiftskirche was one of the first to convert to Martin Luther 's protestant church. As such, it maintains (and carefully defends) several " Roman Catholic " features, such as patron saints . Below

4266-451: The human-use of land outside of the park. Schönbuch, like other forests, is home to many insects that are useful, such as ants, and harmful, such as bark beetles. The beetles make up the largest proportion of the insect population in Schönbuch; there are thousands of different species. The stag beetle is the biggest in size and also one of the rarest found in Schönbuch; it has found a haven in Schönbuch. The stag beetle, due to its numerosity,

4345-568: The island via stairs on the narrow ends leading down from a bridge spanning the Neckar, and by a smaller foot bridge nearer the middle of the island. During the summer, the Neckarinsel is occasionally the venue for concerts, plays, and literary readings. The row of historical houses across one side of the elongated Neckarinsel is called the Neckarfront and includes the house with adjoining tower where poet Friedrich Hölderlin stayed for

4424-495: The journal was published in Stuttgart . From 1807 to 1882, it was published in Augsburg . Heinrich Heine was a major contributor to the journal. From 1831 he wrote reports on music and painting and became the newspaper's Parisian correspondent. He wrote articles on the French way of life but also about Louis-Philippe and German politics. In 1882, the Allgemeine Zeitung moved to Munich . The journal stopped publishing on 29 July 1929. The tradition of this major journal

4503-439: The last 36 years of his life, as he struggled with mental instability. Tübingen's Altstadt (old town) survived World War II due to the city's lack of heavy industry. The result is a growing domestic tourism business as visitors come to wander through one of the few completely intact historic Altstädte in Germany. The highlights of Tübingen include its crooked cobblestone lanes, narrow-stair alleyways picking their way through

4582-419: The leftist Rote Armee Fraktion terrorist group, with active member Gudrun Ensslin , a local and a Tübingen student from 1960 to 1963, joining the group in 1968. On May 27, 1968, the first ever automated teller machine in Germany was installed in Tübingen, into the wall of the local community bank Kreissparkasse Tübingen, built by Aalen -based safe builder Ostertag AG in cooperation with AEG-Telefunken . It

4661-411: The most significant event in Tübingen's history: the founding of the Eberhard Karls University by Duke Eberhard im Bart of Württemberg in 1477, thus making it one of the oldest universities in Central Europe. It became soon renowned as one of the most influential places of learning in the Holy Roman Empire , especially for theology (a Protestant faculty, Tübinger Stift , was established in 1535 in

4740-415: The nature park. The rubbish left behind by visitors had become an ecological and financial problem, so the nature park administration had the rubbish bins dismantled some time ago. Visitors are encouraged to take their trash home with them. In 2003, warning signs were put up at critical points such as barbecue areas. In addition to hiking and walking, Schönbuch is also home to many endurance sports. The park

4819-402: The northern edge of the region are the Siebenmühlental (Seven-Mill Valley), a clearing in the forest referred to as the “Schönbuchlichtung,” along with the surrounding woodlands. In the Schönbuchlichtung lie the villages of (from west clockwise) Hildrizhausen, Altdorf, Holzgerlingen, Schönaich, Steinenbronn, and Waldenbuch, with Weil im Schönbuch and Dettenhausen sitting in the southern portion of

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4898-411: The oldest in Germany. Including the university hospitals, it is also the city's largest employer. The town is also host to several research institutes including the Max Planck Institutes for Biological Cybernetics , Developmental Biology , Intelligent Systems , The Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the MPG , and the Max Planck Institute for Biology , the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research ,

4977-407: The pilgrimage route known as the Way of St. James starts here and runs through Tübingen. Tübingen is governed by the mayor, elected by citizens every eight years, and by the municipal council, elected by citizens every five years. Boris Palmer , a former member of the Greens , has been mayor since 2007, re-elected in 2014 and 2022 and on his third term until 2030. Tübingen's council decided that

5056-422: The pioneer tree species – the silver birch – the tree of the year 2000. Nevertheless, it will still take decades until Schönbuch is again at a comparable level before “Lothar.” The former intensive utilization of Schönbuch as a woodland pasture and the extraction of leaf litter has caused a nutrient deficiency in many areas, which is valuable from a nature conservation perspective. As a result, plants are provided

5135-405: The second half of the 20th century, Tübingen's administrative area was extended beyond what is now called the "core city" to include several outlying small towns and villages. Most notable among these is Bebenhausen , a village clustered around a castle and Bebenhausen Abbey , a Cistercian cloister about 2 miles (3.2 km) north of Tübingen. In 2020, the city had 90,000 inhabitants. Life in

5214-501: The shallow spruces, “Lothar” hit all the trees. A majority of them were knocked down in a domino effect. “Wiebke” toppled over most of the trees together with their roots, whereas “Lothar” simply broke off a good twenty percent, which was also detrimental to the utilization of the wood. “Lothar” raged throughout all of the Schönbuch. However, the worst was the western part that was affected. According to previous convictions, younger stormproof trees were damaged. According to calculations of

5293-490: The so-called Schönbuch comrades (Schönbuchgenossen). This involved around 70 townships and cities in the Schönbuch area, which exchanged money, grain, and chicken in return for the use of the land. The storms “Vivian” and “Wiebke” in the spring of 1990 caused Schönbuch considerable damage, exacerbated by a subsequent bark beetle plague in the hot and dry years that followed. Nevertheless, “Lothar” surpassed all previous expectations on Boxing Day 1999. While “Wiebke” knocked down

5372-402: The south, west, and east, the borders of the Nature Park and Schönbuch-Region are roughly the same; however, the region’s boundaries also include the cities and communities which lie on its edges. The southern border is defined by the Ammer and Neckar river valleys. The western boundary is generally accepted to lie within the Gäu flats, beginning east of the Filder Plateau. The features making up

5451-428: The spring are striking. The wet meadows are valuable for orchids. Today, the meadows are useful for agriculture. To preserve biodiversity and natural succession, they must be mowed once a year. The forestry administration mows the meadows in early summer to prevent bush growth in the valley. Stick Dam at Birkensee On the edge of Bromberg Hill lies Birkensee, a lake which is the location of rare plant communities. It

5530-436: The state of Baden-Württemberg is in a small forest called Elysium, near the Botanical Gardens of the city's university. The area was probably first settled by ancient humans in the 12th millennium BC. The Romans left some traces here in AD 85, when they built a limes frontier wall at the Neckar River. Tübingen dates from the 6th or 7th century, when the region was populated by the Alamanni people. Some historians argue that

5609-441: The state of Baden-Württemberg was created by merging Baden , Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. The French troops had a garrison stationed in the south of the city until the end of the Cold War in the 1990s. In the 1960s, Tübingen was one of the centres of the German student movement and the Protests of 1968 and has ever since shaped left and green political views. Some radicalized Tübingen students supported

5688-658: The two centre cities of the Neckar-Alb region. Administratively, it is not part of the Stuttgart Region , bordering it to the north and west ( Böblingen district ). However, the city and northern parts of its district can be regarded as belonging to that region in a wider regional and cultural context. Tübingen is divided into 22 districts, the city core of twelve districts (population of about 51,000) and ten outer districts (suburbs) (population of about 31,000): Core city districts: Outer districts: Tübingen has

5767-456: The woods. For the trees to recover from this damage, the original population of 16 deer per square kilometer was reduced to four to five in 1989. Currently, about 150 red deer live in the area. Today, the wild boar also plays an important and critical role in Schönbuch. Compared to red deer, wild boar are not as bound to their habitat, and the fencing around the red deer habitat is not a significant obstacle for them. During their migration outside

5846-490: The “Red List” of endangered species. The insects also benefit from the clearings provided by the storms of 1990 and 1999. Before people settled in the Schönbuch region, other mammals lived in the forest. Since many of the large carnivores became a danger to the settlers and competition for the red deer hunters, the animals were eradicated. The introduction of mammals in the region began with bears in 1600, followed by wolves, lynx, and finally wild cats in 1916. Today, Schönbuch

5925-461: Was easily within the normal scope of logging. On the one hand, the reason for the far less dramatic consequences was that “Kyrill” did not develop its full impact in the Schönbuch area. On the other hand, the soil was less soaked than usual. Today, the damage is also seen as an opportunity to change the composition of the forest to increase the proportion of deciduous tree species. The ecological winners after “Lothar” include many sun-hungry plants and

6004-621: Was founded. During the Protestant Reformation, which Duke Ulrich of Württemberg converted to, he disestablished the Franciscan monastery in 1535. In 1342, the county palatine was sold to Ulrich III, Count of Württemberg and incorporated into the County of Württemberg . Between 1470 and 1483, St. George's Collegiate Church was built. The collegiate church offices provided the opportunity for what soon afterwards became

6083-577: Was made available to use for 1000 selected clients of the bank. Although noticing such things today is largely impossible, as recently as the 1950s, Tübingen was a very socioeconomically divided city, with poor local farmers and tradesmen living along the Stadtgraben (City Canal) and students and academics residing around the Alte Aula and the Burse , the old university buildings. There, hanging on

6162-467: Was promoted to count palatine as Hugo I. Tübingen was established as the capital of a County Palatine of Tübingen . By 1231, Tübingen was a civitas , indicating recognition by the Crown of civil liberties and a court system. In 1262, an Augustinian monastery was established by Pope Alexander IV in Tübingen; in 1272, a Franciscan monastery was founded. In 1300, a Latin school (today's Uhland-Gymnasium)

6241-459: Was the leading political daily journal in Germany in the first part of the 19th century. It has been widely recognised as the first world-class German journal and a symbol of the German press abroad. The Allgemeine Zeitung ( lit. 'general newspaper') was founded in 1798 by Johann Friedrich Cotta in Tübingen . The works of Schiller and Goethe were published on its pages. After 1803,

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