Heidelberg

Heidelberg is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. As of 2002, there are 140,000 people living on the city's 109 km².

Heidelberg lies on the river Neckar at the point where the Neckar leaves its narrow, steep valley in the Odenwald hills to flow into the Rhine valley where, 20 kilometers northwest of Heidelberg it joins the Rhine at Mannheim. The old city is long and narrow and is dominated by Heidelberg Castle which perches 200 metres above the Neckar on the steep wooded hill of the Königstuhl.

The city is a vibrant mixture of tradition and modernity. In the past it has been a centre for both science and the arts and today this tradition is carried on with many research centres located in or around the city.

Heidelberg is undoubtedly most famous for the University of Heidelberg. Among the prominent thinkers to have been associated with the University over the centuries are Hegel, the philosopher of hermeneutics Hans-Georg Gadamer, the critical theorist Jürgen Habermas, and the discourse philosopher Karl-Otto Apel.

History

• Heidelberg was first mentioned in 1196.
• Its university, the oldest in Germany, was founded in 1386.
• City burned and castle partly destroyed by the French during the War of the Palatinate Succession 1693
• Discovery of spectral analysis by Robert Bunsen and Kirchhoff in 1860.
• Heidelberg is declared World Heritage Site by the UNESCO on October 23, 1998.

External link

• Official site of Heidelberg (a small English section is available)