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The popular University City at the river Neckar has an enchanting half-timbered house scenery and unique kind of boats, called Stocherkähne. Come and experience Swabian life in a student town with idyllic flair.

Tübingen has 29,000 students and 84,000 inhabitants. This makes the historical town both young and interesting. The quiet banks of the river Neckar, Ammer and Steinlach are perfect for taking a walk and relaxing. Many street cafés offer cappuccino, tasty sundaes, chilling wheat beer or a fine wine – and this not only in summer. Many bars in Tübingen‘s Old Town invite you to stay.

A lovingly restored medieval city centre with old university buildings rises around an over 500 years old city hall on the marketplace. The front of Tübingen‘s city hall carries an astronomical clock which was constructed in 1511 by Johannes Stöffler, a mathematician, physicist and astronomer born in Tübingen. Till this day the clock indicates the phases of the moon and gives information about the state of the sun in the zodiac. In addition, the clock shows solar darkness and lunar eclipses as well as other astronomical data.

The Eberhard Karl University was founded in 1477 and is one of the oldest and most famous universities in Germany. Around 450 professors and more than 4,000 scientists teach and research at seven faculties. The University of Tübingen is one of eleven German universities that have been rated as excellent. To the university belongs a hospital with 17 different medical centres and approximately 1,500 beds.

In 1535 the Reformation began in Tübingen and the rest of Württemberg. The history of the city’s monasteries ended then. Since that time a Protestant home exists in which Hölderlin, Schlegel, Schelling and Hegel shared a study room and also Hermann Hesse did study. Still today Tübingen is characterized by Protestantism.

Worth seeing is that home‘s church whose bell tower can be climbed. From the top one has a miraculous view over the Old Town. The castle of Hohentübingen on mount Schlossberg, in 1078 for the first time mentioned as a castle of the counts of Tübingen, is today accommodating institutes and collections of the university as well as the University‘s Museum (MUT) whose varying exhibitions are worth visiting.

TIP: The Stocherkahn race is a unique event in Germany that attracts more than 10,000 visitors every year. This traditional boat race on the river Neckar takes place at Corpus Christi day. Participants are mostly students in motorless Stocherkähnen made of wood. A team consists of seven people and a "Stocherer", the person who’s poking while the rest of the crew either supports the Stocherer and paddle with their hands or try to fend off other boats. Only tool is a poking pole. Since the beginnings of this competition all teams dress up for the Stocherkahnrennen. Therefore, there is also an award for the most original costume.  

Interesting facts:

On the 8th of July 1514 the treaty of Tübingen was signed, which is regarded as Württemberg‘s most important constitutional document. Boris Palmer, mayor of Tübingen said „The treaty of Tübingen is the oldest constitution on German soil. Nowhere else were 500 years ago granted such extensive fundamental rights to even servants. The treaty of Tübingen impressively documents the early striving of Württemberg’s people for freedom.“

Johann Friedrich Cotta who published German classics like Goethe and Schiller, founded in the year 1798 in Tubingen the daily newspaper „Allgemeine Zeitung“ which soon became Germany’s leading political newspaper.

For further information: http://tuebingen-info.de/index.php?id=727

Photo: Alexander Erdbeer/Shutterstock