ADVERTISEMENT

The Castle in Flames at the Heidelberg Castle Illumination


The romantic stage-setting of Heidelberg


Print Media Academy Heidelberg

Heidelberg - Romantic City of Dreams in a Storybook Setting

"The city in its setting and with its entire surroundings has, one may say, something ideal..."(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, 1797).

Poets and artists from all over the world have immortalized in verse and paintings the romantic theatrical backdrop of Heidelberg. Classical and widely extolled is the view from the elevation of "Philosopher's Way" onto the Old Town and the Neckar, with the majestic castle ruin seated enthroned above it all. Where Goethe, Joseph von Eichendorff and Hölderlin once strolled along winding pathways through vineyards, today a hiking trail conducts the wanderer amid a world of small private gardens and lush foliage.

Since the destruction in 1693 during the Palatinate War of Succession and the subsequent baroque reconstruction in the eighteenth century, the layout of Heidelberg's Old Town has remained unchanged. To the greatest possible extent, Heidelberg was spared destruction in the World Wars, and is today a unique cultural landmark well worthy of discovery. Not only in its geographical and architectural endowments is Heidelberg ideal: this European city of scholarship and economic strength has a direct connection to the Frankfurt airport and is a lively gateway to the exploration of Europe.

Within the twisting alleyways of the Old Town reigns an animated bustle of students and university affiliates, tourists and long-established Heidelbergers. The avidly frequented little cafés and restaurants resound with the sounds of merry or intense exchanges. On Heidelberg's public squares, annual festivals for classical music, jazz, film, theater, and literature take place. A special highlight in December is the large Heidelberg Christmas Market: with more than 140 colourful stands and an ice skating rink, the city is bathed in a glow of light for the month before Christmas. In summer, the three evening illuminations of the castle, with fireworks bursting above the dark hills, castle, and town, are a not-to-be-missed spectacle.

The castle ruin is also the best known symbol of the city and one of the most significant German cultural monuments. This grouping of regal edifices and palaces, constructed through the intense building activity of the Counts Palatine from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries and destroyed in 1693 by the troops of the Sun King of France, already fascinated Mark Twain in his classic homage to Heidelberg, "A Tramp Abroad" (1878): "A ruin must be rightly situated to be effective. This one could not have been better placed. (...) Nature knows how to garnish a ruin to get the best effect."

The alleyways of Heidelberg's Old Town have (his)stories to tell: In the vicinity of the student-pub-mile "Untere Strasse" are still to be found above doorways the marks of old trade guilds, the interpretation of which is a fascinating and not uncomplicated guessing game. Chiseled into the outside wall of the Holy Ghost Church, on Market Square, is here and there the symbol of a Brezel, a typical bakery specialty of Germany. By holding his purchased Bretzel up to the symbol, the customer could ascertain whether he had received "his money's worth." Already in the Middle Ages, little shop stalls extended between the supporting pillars of the church exterior.

Formative for the intellectual life of the city was and is Germany's oldest University, the "Ruperto Carola," founded in 1386. For centuries the University has drawn to Heidelberg significant individuals from all over the world, who from here have gone on to make history. In worldwide university rankings, the University of Heidelberg consistently receives an excellent standing. Its international reputation is reflected also in the fact that twenty percent of the student body and ten percent of the faculty are from countries outside Germany. In 2008, Heidelberg was named one of nine "Elite Universities" in the Federal Republic. Currently some 28,000 students, approximately one fifth of the population, are matriculated here within twelve faculties and numerous areas of special research.

The life sciences, environmental management, and information technology are the core competencies of Heidelberg as a site of scholarship and economic strength. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), and Heidelberg's Max Planck Institutes are counted among the best in the world for their fundamental research. From their ranks was chosen this year Heidelberg's ninth Nobel Prize winner: Professor Harald zur Hausen, who from 1983 until his official retirement in 2003 was on the Executive Board of the German Cancer Research Centre, received the prize for the discovery that viruses are the cause of ovarian cancer.

One of the most important European centres for the life sciences is Heidelberg's Technology Park, with its more than 60 firms and establishments. The fruitful collaboration that exists between research and economy is a site-specific benefit. In September of this year, the metropolitan Rhine-Neckar region (Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, and Heidelberg) was named Germany's number one location for innovation and was awarded a prize in support of its achievements. "Heidelberg is a romantic city of dreams in a storybook setting," says Vera Cornelius, the Executive Director of Heidelberg Marketing GmbH, "but life here is characterized by internationality, innovation, and progress, an ideal mixture."

Culinary Heidelberg – a matter of taste