Tübingen: Five centuries of tradition

Pope Benedict XVI was a professor here, while Germany's current president studied political science. They're just two of the famous faces lured by Tübingen's 500-year-old university tradition. Thousands more come to study every year, with many of them choosing to stay on and carve out niches in Tübingen's vibrant small and medium-sized enterprise sector or to work with German giants in nearby Stuttgart.

Tübingen introduced

Tübingen, Photo: Wikimedia Commons (cc) Prissantenbär The quintessential German university town, Tübingen is situated some 25 miles southwest of Stuttgart on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers in the state of Baden-Württemberg. The city has a population of roughly 90,000, of whom some 24,000 are students attending Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. Founded more than five centuries ago, the University of Tübingen is one of the oldest universities in Germany. The city also hosts several top research institutes, including the Max Planck Institute for Biology, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology and the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft.
On the business front, Tübingen is home to a vibrant community of successful small and medium-sized companies, and Stuttgart, only 40 minutes away, is home to German giants including DaimlerChrysler, Porsche and Bosch. Major multinationals such as Hewlett Packard and IBM also have offices in the area, while the regional economy is dominated by highly versatile and dynamic medium-sized enterprises.

Overview of the universities

Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen
Founded in 1477, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen is one of Germany's oldest and best schools. Its buildings spread throughout the entire city, attracting students to its internationally renowned programs in medicine, the natural sciences and the humanities. Innovation is a tradition here: In 1863, it became the first German university to establish a faculty of natural sciences; only five years later, the faculty's Friedrich Miescher paved the way for the discovery of DNA.
Uni Tübingen, photo by Sandra Schönbrunner Tübingen has for decades attracted some of the world's top professors, many of whom have become Nobel laureates, especially in the fields of medicine and chemistry. Its alumni roll reads like a social, political and religious Who's Who: Among those who have taught here are the philosopher Ernst Bloch and Joseph Ratzinger, better known as Pope Benedict XIV, who in the late 1960s taught courses in Catholic dogma. Former students include current German President Horst Koehler as well as former German Justice and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel. Alumni of the closely university-related Tübinger Stift (a hall of residence and teaching of the Protestant Church) include the mathematician Johannes Kepler, famous poets such as Friedrich Hölderlin and Eduard Mörike, as well as the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
Today, some 24,000 students are enrolled in the 14 faculties with over 70 different programs of study. All of the 17 hospitals in Tübingen are affiliated with the university's faculty of medicine; they have some 1,500 patient beds and cater to 66,000 in-patients and 200,000 out-patients on an annual basis. Alois Alzheimer, a former medical student, discovered the notorious brain disease of the same name here.
The University of Tübingen is a research powerhouse, particularly in the natural sciences. The Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, for instance, focuses on general, cognitive and cellular neurology as well as neuro-degeneration. The Center for Interdisciplinary Clinical Research deals primarily with cell biology in diagnostics and therapy of organ system diseases.

What Tübingen is like

Danielle Megyeri was born in the US and studied photography and conceptual art at San Francisco State University, before she decided to move to Tübingen to learn German.

Why did you come to Germany?

I have a rich family history: My father was born in Germany because my grandfather left Hungary for Germany in the 1950s. I tried to learn German in college, but I soon realized that I actually had to live there to really learn the language. The two-semester exchange program at the University of Tübingen was designed specifically to teach German to students from all over the world. I liked the course, the university and the city so much that I decided to stay on and pursue a master's degree in American studies. It's really exciting: I am looking at my own culture through the eyes of Europe, so that's a unique perspective.

What are your favorite places?

I like to hang out at Neckar Park or in one of the city's many roadside cafés. Tübingen is a great student town. It's small but has a large international community and a great intellectual and café culture.

What's next for you?

After my master's, I may stay in Germany or move somewhere else in Europe. Very likely I will continue my family's globetrotting tradition.

Did you know?

Siddhartha author Hermann Hesse worked in Tübingen as a trainee bookseller from 1895 to 1899. Dieter Baumann, winner of 5,000-meters at the 1992 Summer Olympics, was born and raised here.

Things to check out

At night, young people usually hang out in the numerous sidewalk cafes, wine taverns and cozy pubs that dot the city center, which luckily survived the bombing campaign of the Second World War largely intact.
Taking a boat trip in a famous "Stocherkahn", the boat exclusive to Tübingen that is propelled by a long wooden pole, offers a scenic view of the picturesque Neckar waterfront with the famous Hölderlin Tower. Green oases including the Old Botanical Garden or the plane tree alley on the Neckar Island invite you to kick back in between courses.