Heidelberg (; ; ) is the fifth-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of students, it is Germany's 51st-largest city. Located about south of Frankfurt, Heidelberg is part of the densely populated Rhine-Neckar which has its centre in Mannheim.
Heidelberg is located on the Neckar River, at the point where it leaves its narrow valley between the Oden Forest and the Kleiner Odenwald, and enters the wide Upper Rhine Plain. The old town lies in the valley, the end of which is flanked by the Königstuhl in the south and the Heiligenberg in the north. The majority of the population lives in the districts west of the mountains in the Upper Rhine Plain, into which the city has expanded over time.
Heidelberg University, founded in 1386, is Germany's oldest and one of Europe's most reputable universities.Its latest overall ranking positions range from 5th to 18th in Europe; the peer review scores, reflecting academic esteem, are usually higher. It was never ranked outside Europe's top 20 by any major university ranking. See rankings. Heidelberg is a Science in Germany and home to several internationally renowned research facilities adjacent to its university, including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and four Max Planck Institutes. The city has also been a hub for the arts, especially literature, throughout the centuries, and it was designated a "City of Literature" by the UNESCO Creative Cities Network.
Heidelberg was a seat of government of the former Electorate of the Palatinate and is a popular tourism due to its Romanticism cityscape, including Heidelberg Castle, the Philosophers' Walk, and the Baroque old town.
A part of Heidelberg, including the historical old town and the famous Heidelberg Castle, is located in the narrow Neckar valley. Other parts (mostly quarters from around the 19th century or newer, or originally independent, later incorporated villages) sprawl out into the Rhine Plain and along the Bergstraße (), the narrow strip of characteristic landscape along the sharp border between the plain and the Odenwald mountains.
The town is bordered by the Königstuhl (568 m), the Gaisberg (375 m), and the Heiligenberg (445 m) mountains.
Heidelberg is on European walking route E1 (Sweden-Umbria).
There is a wild population of African rose-ringed parakeets,Stefanie Wegener: Verbreitung und Arealnutzung der Halsbandsittiche (Psittacula krameri) in Heidelberg, published by: Ornithologische Gesellschaft Baden-Württemberg e. V., Ornithol. Jh. Bad.-Württ. 23: 39–55 (2007) and a wild population of swan goose, which can be seen mainly on the islands in the Neckar near the district of Bergheim.
This region consists of the southern part of the State of Hessen, the southern part of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate (Vorderpfalz), the administrative districts of Mannheim and Heidelberg, and the municipalities of the Rhein-Neckar-Kreis. The Rhein-Neckar Triangle became a European metropolitan area in 2005.
Heidelberg consists of 15 districts distributed in six sectors of the town. In the central area are Altstadt (the Old Town), Bergheim and Weststadt; in the north, Neuenheim and Handschuhsheim; in the east, Ziegelhausen and Schlierbach; in the south, Südstadt, Rohrbach, Emmertsgrund, and Boxberg; in the southwest, Kirchheim; in the west, Pfaffengrund, Wieblingen, and a new district, named Bahnstadt, is built on land in Weststadt and Wieblingen. The new district will have approximately 5,000–6,000 residents and employment for 7,000. Further, new residential space for 10,000–15,000 residents was made available in Patrick Henry Village following the departure of the US Armed Forces.
Spring starts earlier than the average in Germany (usually mid February in the recent years). While the weather in spring is typically warm, it is also known to change far more often than in the summer.
Summer starts typically in June and stays until September. In this time the weather is typically stable, with single thunderstorms marking the only precipitation. Day temperatures of around 30 °C are typical, but can reach up to 40 °C during heat waves.
Autumn starts warm in September and cools down to typical winter temperatures for the region by the end of November. Precipitation levels begin to increase and, due to the decreasing sunlight, the region is affected by fog more frequently from the second part of October onwards.
Winters are mostly mild, though light nighttime frosts do occur in the coldest months. Snow is a rare event, and precipitation normally falls as rain. Winters are the wettest time of the year, with frequent western winds blowing from the Atlantic. Storms ("Orkane") can create severe damage, and the Neckar is often affected by floods.
According to the German Meteorological Service, Heidelberg was the warmest place in Germany in 2009.Mechthild Henneke: Wetterextreme in Deutschland 2009. In: Südkurier, 28. April 2010 Kreisbeschreibung Bd. 1, S. 54ff
Heidelberg's library, founded in 1421, is the oldest existing public library in Germany.
In 1537, the castle located higher up the mountain was destroyed by a gunpowder explosion. The duke's palace was built at the site of the lower castle.
Elector Frederick III, sovereign of the Electoral Palatinate from 1559 to 1576, commissioned the composition of a new Catechism for his territory. While the catechism's introduction credits the "entire theological faculty here" (at the University of Heidelberg) and "all the superintendents and prominent servants of the church" for the composition of the Catechism, Zacharius Ursinus is commonly regarded as the catechism's principal author. Caspar Olevianus (1536–1587) was formerly asserted as a co-author of the document, though this theory has been largely discarded by modern scholarship. Johann Sylvan, Adam Neuser, Johannes Willing, Thomas Erastus, Michael Diller, Johannes Brunner, Tilemann Mumius, Petrus Macheropoeus, Johannes Eisenmenger, Immanuel Tremellius, and Pierre Boquin are all likely to have contributed to the Catechism in some way. Frederick himself wrote the preface to the Catechism and closely oversaw its composition and publication. Frederick, who was officially Lutheran but had strong Reformed leanings, wanted to even out the religious situation of his highly Lutheran territory within the primarily Catholic Holy Roman Empire. The Council of Trent had just concluded with its conclusions and decrees against the Protestant faiths, and the Peace of Augsburg had only granted toleration for Lutheranism within the empire where the ruler was Lutheran. One of the aims of the catechism was to counteract the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church as well as Anabaptism and "strict" Gnesio-Lutherans like Tilemann Heshusius and Matthias Flacius, who were resisting Frederick's Reformed influences, particularly on the matter of Eucharist (Eucharist). The Catechism-based each of its statements on biblical Prooftext, and Frederick himself would defend it as biblical, not reformed, at the 1566 Diet of Augsburg when he was called to answer to charges of violating the Peace of Augsburg. This was the Heidelberg Catechism, officially called the ″Catechism, or Christian Instruction, according to the Usages of the Churches and Schools of the Electoral Palatinate.″
In November 1619, the Royal Crown of Bohemia was offered to the Elector, Frederick V. (He was married to Princess Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James VI and I of Scotland and England, respectively.) Frederick became known as the "Winter King", as he reigned for only one winter before the Imperial House of Habsburg regained Bohemia by force. His overthrow in 1621 marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War. In 1622, after a siege of two months, the armies of the Catholic League, commanded by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, captured the town. Tilly gave the famous Bibliotheca Palatina from the Church of the Holy Spirit to the Pope as a present. The Catholic and Bavarian House of Wittelsbach gained control over the Palatinate and the title of Prince-Elector.
In late 1634, after the Swedish army had conquered Heidelberg, imperial forces attempted to recapture the city. They quickly took the city, but were unable to take the castle. As they prepared to blow up its fortifications with gunpowder the French army arrived, 30,000 men strong, led by Urbain de Maillé-Brézé, who had fought in many battles and participated in the Siege of La Rochelle (1627–1628), and Jacques-Nompar de Caumont, duc de La Force. They broke the siege and drove off the Imperial forces.Helfferich, Tryntje, The Thirty Years War: A Documentary History (Cambridge, 2009), pp. 289–90.
In 1648, at the end of the war, Frederick V's son Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, was able to recover his titles and lands. To strengthen his dynasty, Charles I Louis arranged the marriage of his daughter Liselotte to Philip I, Duke of Orléans, brother of Louis XIV, King of France. In 1685, after the death of Charles Louis' son, Elector Charles II, King Louis XIV laid claim to his sister-in-law's inheritance. The Germans rejected the claim, in part because of religious differences between local Protestants and the French Catholics, as the Protestant Reformation had divided the peoples of Europe. The War of the Grand Alliance ensued. In 1689, French troops took the town and castle, bringing nearly total destruction to the area in 1693. As a result of the destruction due to repeated French invasions related to the War of the Palatinate Succession coupled with severe winters, thousands of German Calvinist Palatines emigrated in the early 18th century. They fled to other European cities and especially to London (where the refugees were called "the poor Palatines"). In sympathy for the Protestants, in 1709–1710, Queen Anne's government arranged transport for nearly 6,000 Palatines to New York. Others were transported to Pennsylvania, and to South Carolina. They worked their passage and later settled in the English colonies there.
In 1720, after assigning a major church for exclusively Catholic use, religious conflicts with the mostly Protestant inhabitants of Heidelberg caused the Roman Catholic Prince-Elector Charles III Philip to transfer his court to nearby Mannheim. The court remained there until the Elector Charles Theodore became Elector of Bavaria in 1777 and established his court in Munich. In 1742, Elector Charles Theodore began rebuilding the Palace. In 1764, a lightning bolt destroyed other palace buildings during reconstruction, causing the work to be discontinued.
In 1810 the French Revolution refugee Count Charles Graimberg began to preserve the palace ruins and establish a historical collection. In 1815, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia formed the "Holy Alliance" in Heidelberg. In 1848, the German National Assembly was held there. In 1849, during the Palatinate-Baden rebellion of the 1848 Revolutions, Heidelberg was the headquarters of a revolutionary army. It was defeated by a Prussian army near Waghaeusel. The city was occupied by Prussian troops until 1850. Between 1920 and 1933, Heidelberg University became a center of notable physicians Czerny, Erb, and Krehl; and humanists Rohde, Weber, and Gundolf.Hartmut Ellrich, Photographic Documents: Das historische Heidelberg. Imhof. ISBN 978-3-86568-505-6
The U.S. 44th Infantry Division took part in combat in Western Europe throughout 1944 and early 1945, and the division's artillery commander, Brigadier General William A. Beiderlinden, became the subject of international headlines in March 1945, when he helped save Heidelberg from bombing by persuading Nazi troops to withdraw. When his command was ordered to shell the city, Beiderlinden took the initiative to contact the burgomaster and attempt to persuade Nazi soldiers to abandon their positions. Though burgomasters were forbidden from conducting such talks, Heidelberg's burgomaster ignored warnings from the local Nazi gauleiter and discussed the matter with Beiderlinden. The negotiations focused on the importance of sparing Heidelberg University and other historic and culturally significant sites. Beiderlinden and the burgomaster agreed to terms, and the Nazis spared the city by evacuating.
On 29 March 1945, German troops left the city after destroying three arches of the old bridge, Heidelberg's treasured river crossing. They also destroyed the more modern bridge downstream. The U.S. Army (63rd Infantry, 7th Army) entered the town on 30 March 1945. The civilian population surrendered without resistance.
Heidelberg, unlike most German cities and towns, was spared from Allied bombing raids during the war. A popular belief is that Heidelberg escaped bombing because the U.S. Army wanted to use the city as a garrison after the war, but, as Heidelberg was neither an industrial center nor a transport hub, it did not present a tactical or strategic target. Other notable university towns, such as Tübingen and Göttingen, were spared bombing as well. Allied air raids focused extensively on the nearby industrial cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen.
The U.S. Army may have chosen Heidelberg as a garrison base because of its excellent infrastructure, including the Heidelberg–Mannheim Autobahn (motorway), which connected to the Mannheim–Darmstadt–Frankfurt Autobahn, and the U.S. Army installations in Mannheim and Frankfurt. The intact rail infrastructure was more important in the late 1940s and early 1950s when most heavy loads were still carried by train, not by truck. Heidelberg had the untouched Wehrmacht barracks, the "Grossdeutschland Kaserne" which the US Army occupied soon after, renaming it the Campbell Barracks.
On 9 December 1945, US Army General George S. Patton was involved in a car accident in the adjacent city of Mannheim and died in the Heidelberg US Army hospital on 21 December 1945. His funeral ceremony was held at the Heidelberg-Weststadt Christuskirche , and he was buried in the 3rd Army cemetery in Luxembourg.George S. Patton#Accident and death
During the post-war military occupation, the U.S. Army used the Thingstätte for cultural and religious events. Civilian use started in the early to mid-1980s for occasional concerts and other cultural events. Today, the celebrations on , also called Walpurgis Night, the night of 30 April, are a regular "underground" fixture at the Thingstätte. Thousands of mostly young people congregate there to drum, to breathe fire, and to juggle. The event has gained fame throughout the region, as well as a certain notoriety due to the amount of litter left behind. Officially, this event is forbidden due to security concerns. The City declares it will fence the Thingstätte and prosecute any trespassers.
In 2022, a mass shooting occurred in the university, killing a woman and injuring three other people. The gunman then committed suicide.
The following table shows the number of inhabitants within the boundaries of the city at the time. To 1833 they are mostly estimates, then census results or official updates of the statistical offices of the time or the city administration. The data refer from 1843 to the "local population", from 1925 to the resident population and since 1987 the "population at the site of their main dwelling." Prior to 1843 the population was determined by non-uniform collection procedures.
Heidelberg has currently a population of about 160,000 and is the 5th largest city in Baden-Württemberg. About 37,000 (24% of the population) are students, which makes Heidelberg one of the largest university city in Germany. Heidelberg's population has grown since 1945 (after the WWII) and has almost never declined due to its popularity of this city where many workers, students and entrepreneurs moved to Heidelberg.
2,921 |
1,670 |
1,538 |
1,453 |
1,283 |
1,135 |
1,067 |
972 |
915 |
864 |
With a fertility rate of 1.1 children per woman in the Stadtkreis , Heidelberg had the lowest fertility rate in Baden-Württemberg in 2008.
The council consists of 48 members with the mayor as chairman. The council is directly elected for a term of five years. The task of the council is to decide all the affairs of the city, with the mayor presiding. The council controls the city administration and oversees the enforcement of its decisions.
Heidelberg has always been a stronghold of The Greens. For the municipal elections in 2009, they split into the Green Alternative List and Alliance 90/The Greens and each ran their own lists. Together they gained 10 seats to become the strongest force for the first time. In September 2011, two members of the GAL Group joined the Alliance 90/The Greens, so that together with the members of , they formed the largest group in the council.
For elections to the Bundestag, the city is part of the Heidelberg constituency.
! rowspan=2 colspan=2| Candidate ! rowspan=2| Party ! colspan=2| First round ! colspan=2| Second round |- ! Votes ! % ! Votes ! % |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Eckart Würzner | align=left| Independent (CDU/FDP/Free Voters) | 25,111 | 45.9 | 25,487 | 54.0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Theresia Bauer | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens | 15,655 | 28.6 | 20,010 | 42.4 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Sören Michelsburg | align=left| Social Democratic Party | 7,410 | 13.5 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Sofia Leser | align=left| Independent | 2,097 | 3.8 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Bernd Zieger | align=left| The Left | 1,991 | 3.6 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Björn Leuzinger | align=left| Die PARTEI | 982 | 1.8 | 1,562 | 3.3 |- | | align=left| Alina Papagiannaki-Sönmez | align=left| Heidelberg in Motion | 799 | 1.5 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Mathias Schmitz | align=left| Independent | 342 | 0.6 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Sassan Khajehali | align=left| Independent | 271 | 0.5 | align=center colspan=2| Withdrew |- | colspan=3 align=left| Other | 67 | 0.1 | 113 | 0.2 |- ! colspan=3| Valid votes ! 54,715 ! 99.7 ! 47,172 ! 99.5 |- ! colspan=3| Invalid votes ! 186 ! 0.3 ! 237 ! 0.5 |- ! colspan=3| Total ! 54,901 ! 100.0 ! 47,409 ! 100.0 |- ! colspan=3| Electorate/voter turnout ! 107,030 ! 51.3 ! 107,410 ! 44.1 |- | colspan=7| Source: City of Heidelberg ( 1st round, 2nd round) |}
The Heidelberg city council governs the city alongside the Mayor. The most recent city council election was held on 9 June 2024, and the results were as follows:
! colspan=2| Party ! Votes ! % ! +/- ! Seats ! +/- |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alliance 90/The Greens (Grüne) | 828,031 | 26.4 | 5.5 | 13 | 3 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Christian Democratic Union (CDU) | 457,787 | 14.6 | 0.4 | 7 | 0 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Social Democratic Party (SPD) | 388,434 | 12.4 | 1.5 | 6 | 1 |- | | align=left| The Heidelbergers | 336,053 | 10.7 | 3.7 | 5 | 2 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Volt Germany (Volt) | 180,828 | 5.8 | New | 3 | New |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Alternative for Germany (AfD) | 174,115 | 5.5 | 0.5 | 3 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| The Left (Die Linke) | 160,535 | 5.1 | 0.8 | 2 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Free Democratic Party (FDP) | 156,307 | 5.0 | 0.7 | 2 | 1 |- | | align=left| Heidelberg in Motion (HiB) | 99,525 | 3.2 | 0.6 | 2 | 1 |- | | align=left| Green Alternative List (GAL) | 96,971 | 3.1 | 1.6 | 1 | 1 |- | bgcolor=| | align=left| Die PARTEI | 82,226 | 2.6 | 0.1 | 1 | 0 |- | | align=left| Colourful Left (Bunte Linke) | 66,997 | 2.1 | 1.8 | 1 | 1 |- | | align=left| Initiative for Democracy and Education (IDA) | 55,975 | 1.8 | New | 1 | New |- | | align=left| Free Voter Association (FWV) | 38,910 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 1 | 0 |- | | align=left| Sofia Leser List | 12,619 | 0.4 | New | 0 | New |- ! colspan=2| Valid votes ! 3,135,313 ! 100.0 ! ! 48 ! ±0 |- ! colspan=2| Invalid ballots ! 1,449 ! 2.0 | ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Total ballots ! 69,807 ! 100.0 ! ! ! |- ! colspan=2| Electorate/voter turnout ! 107,904 ! 66.0 ! 1.1 ! ! |- | colspan=7| Source: City of Heidelberg |}
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Prince Electors added two palace buildings and turned the fortress into a castle. The two dominant buildings at the eastern and northern side of the courtyard were erected during the rule of Ottheinrich (1556–1559) and Friedrich IV (1583–1610). Under Friedrich V (1613–1619), the main building of the west side was erected, the so-called "English Building".
The castle and its garden were destroyed several times during the Thirty Years' War and the Palatine War of Succession. As Prince Elector Karl Theodor tried to restore the castle, lightning struck in 1764, and ended all attempts at rebuilding. Later on, the castle was misused as a quarry; stones from the castle were taken to build new houses in Heidelberg. This was stopped in 1800 by Count Charles de Graimberg, who then began the process of preserving the castle.
Although the interior is in Gothic style, the King's Hall was not built until 1934. Today, the hall is used for festivities, e.g. dinner banquets, balls and theatre performances. During the Heidelberg Castle Festival in the summer, the courtyard is the site of open air musicals, operas, theatre performances, and classical concerts performed by the Heidelberg Philharmonics.
The castle is surrounded by a park, where the famous poet Johann von Goethe once walked. The Heidelberger Bergbahn funicular railway runs from Kornmakt to the summit of the Königstuhl via the castle.
The castle looks over the entire city of Heidelberg and the Neckar Valley.
[[File:View on the old Heidelberg.jpg|thumb|700px|center|View from the so-called "Philosophers' Walk" () towards the Old Town, with Heidelberg Castle, Heiliggeist Church and the Old Bridge]]
The campus of Heidelberg University has a total undergraduate enrollment of 30,898 as of 2014. The enrollment rate of this university is 16.3 percent. Less than 20 percent of the total student body is international. This university has many areas of study for national students such as; theology, law, philosophy, modern languages, economics, and social sciences. The university does not charge students for tuition. The school's academic calendar is semester based, and the majority of the language for instruction is in German. For international students the academic calendar is based on a block schedule. The international students attend in block periods of 5 weeks. The University or "Uni" is spread across three campuses each containing different fields of study. Since 1904 there has been a College of Educational Science, the Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg; since 1979 there has been a college of Jewish Studies, the Hochschule für Jüdische Studien Heidelberg. It comprises nine branches specializing in both religion and Judaism. The Schiller International University, a private American university is also represented with a campus in Heidelberg offering several undergraduate and graduate programs in the fields of International Business and International Relations and Diplomacy.
The gymnasiums include the , , Helmholtz-Gymnasium, Hölderlin-Gymnasium and Elisabeth-von-Thadden-Schule. Then there are seven Realschule, ten Hauptschule, and nine vocational schools (the so-called Berufsschule). In addition, there are several folk high schools with different specialisations.[5] Heidelberg International School serves the local expatriate community.
Furthermore, the B 3 (Frankfurt–Karlsruhe) runs north–south through the town, and the B 37 (Mannheim–Eberbach) runs east–west. Both meet in the city center at the Bismarckplatz. The B 535 begin in the south of Heidelberg and runs to Schwetzingen.
Heidelberg has had a public transport service since 1883, when horse-drawn trams were established. Due to the rapidly rising patronage it was decided on 20 December 1901 to convert the Heidelberg tramway network to electrical operation. On 16 March 1902, the first electric tram ran on Rohrbacher Straße, sharing use of the suburban tracks built by the Deutsche Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft in 1901 between Heidelberg and Wiesloch. Until the 1950s, the tram network was expanded a bit at a time. The rapidly growing popularity of car transport presented the operator of the trams with increasingly difficult problems and the tram network was gradually dismantled. It was not until 10 December 2006 that the network was extended again with the opening of a new tram line from Kirchheim. Tram and bus services are now operated by Rhein-Neckar-Verkehr (RNV). Since 1989, all fares are set under a uniform scheme by the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar (Rhine-Neckar Transport Association, VRN). Carsharing increasingly provides a complement to public transport. More than 50 car-sharing stations are available to users in 12 of the 14 districts of Heidelberg offering a total of more than 100 cars.
Since 14 December 2003, Heidelberg has been connected to the network of the Rhine-Neckar S-Bahn, which opens up the entire Rhine-Neckar region, with lines connecting with the Palatinate, the Saarland, and southern Hesse.
The Heidelberger Bergbahn (Heidelberg Mountain Railway) has run since 2005 with new cars on the lower part from Kornmarkt to Molkenkur and historic cars built in 1907 on the upper section of the funicular from Molkenkur to Königstuhl. It is one of the most popular means to reach Heidelberg Castle. The first plans for the funicular were drawn up in 1873. Due to a lack of funds, the first section of the funicular was not opened until 1890. In 2004, the upper section of the funicular was listed as part of the heritage of the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Campbell Barracks and Mark Twain Village were both in Südstadt; Patton Barracks was in nearby Kirchheim. Nachrichten Kaserne in Rohrbach was home to the former Heidelberg Army Hospital, later designated the Heidelberg Health Center. Patrick Henry Village, the largest U.S. military housing area in the Heidelberg area, was west of Kirchheim. These installations, including Tompkins Barracks and Kilbourne Kaserne in nearby Schwetzingen, plus the Germersheim Depot, made up the U.S. Army Garrison Heidelberg. Tompkins Barracks was home to U.S. Army Installation Management Command Europe Region . The Heidelberg U.S. Army Air Field (Heidelberg AAF) was converted to an heliport (mostly Blackhawk Helicopters) after the NATO Kosovo campaign. The children of United States Department of Defense employees based in Heidelberg attended on-base schools operated by the DODDS-E (Department of Defense Dependents Schools – Europe). There were three schools of this kind: Heidelberg High School in Mark Twain Village (Mark Twain Elementary School closed at the completion of the 2010–2011 school year), and Heidelberg Middle School and Patrick Henry Elementary in Patrick Henry Village. Our Districts and Schools Dependents Schools Europe website, accessed: 19 April 2009
On 19 October 2009, the U.S. Army announced that it would be building new headquarters for USAREUR in Wiesbaden. The move from Heidelberg took place in 2012 and 2013, and was completed in 2014. Heidelberg, Mannheim to close by 2015 , HeraldPost Vol. 35 No. 38, accessed: 22 October 2011. By 2015 all United States forces had left Heidelberg. The barracks and the housing areas were returned to the German state for conversion to civilian use.
Recent years saw the low-point of this development, when in this city of over 150,000 people there were just three small cinemas left, with a total capacity of under 450 seats. The situation has slightly improved since late 2017, when Heidelberg got a new multiplex adjacent to the new Bahnstadt development, the "Luxor Filmpalast".
Luxor shows mainly Blockbuster movies in German, but some showings in English are on offer for selected films.heidelberg-bahnstadt-teileroeffnung-vom-kino-luxor-filmpalast-am-23-november-9388433.html
The small 2-screen cinema "Gloria/Gloriette" (Old Town), together with the affiliated "Kamera" (Neuenheim) offers arthouse and independent films, with some showings being offered in the films original language, usually with German subtitles.
The non-profit "Karlstorkino" (at the far eastern edge of the Old Town, next to the river) offers international arthouse fare and the occasional documentary. The vast majority of non-German films at this cinema are shown in their original language with either English or German subtitles, depending on the film.
The Romantik epoch of German philosophy and literature, was described as a movement against classical and realistic theories of literature, a contrast to the rationality of the Age of Enlightenment. It elevated medievalism and elements of art and narrative perceived to be from the medieval period. It also emphasized folk art, nature, and an epistemology based on nature, which included human activity conditioned by nature in the form of language, custom and usage.
Rugby League Deutschland has two teams based in Heidelberg, Heidelberg Sharks formed in 2005 and Rohrbach Hornets formed in 2007. The city is also home to the USC Heidelberg (Academics Heidelberg), which won 9 German Basketball Championships and remains the second most successful team in the history of German professional basketball. Today, the club plays in Germany's second division ProA. It is primarily known for its youth department which developed several members of Germany's senior national basketball team.
and SG Heidelberg-Kirchheim are local football teams.
The city hosted events during the 1972 Summer Paralympics.
They also hosted the 2019 WU24 Championships from 13 to 20 July. It was the fifth edition of this world championship and marked the third time Germany has hosted an ultimate frisbee tournament.
Germany's oldest tennis club, which was founded in the year 1890, is located in Heidelberg.
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