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Intellectually Speaking
Nestled in the German countryside, Heidelberg is an Old World city with a decidedly cerebral twist.
Mark Twain was enchanted by Heidelberg, Goethe fell in love here, and composer Sigmund Romberg chose it as the setting for his much-loved operetta The Student Prince. Allied forces spared it during bombing raids and, after World War II, chose it as the location of the U.S. command headquarters, USAREUR. This combination of visitors (and in the case of the bombers, non-visitors) and romantic fancy has made Heidelberg almost a legend, vying with Munich as the most popular German destination for American travelers.First-time visitors still fall quickly under the spell of this atmospheric old city, just as writers, the fictional prince and post-war GIs did. Today, international meetings and conventions fill the hallowed halls of Heidelberg’s university during the summer, creating new waves of devotees to spread its fame.
From the first glance, it’s easy to see why. Few cities have such an idyllic setting, nestled along both banks of the winding Neckar River, which has shaped steep hillsides as it carved a course through the rolling southwest German countryside north of Stuttgart, near the river’s junction with the Rhine. Halfway up the wooded slope behind the city’s old center looms the red sandstone façade of Heidelberg Castle, romantic in semi-ruin.
For five centuries the castle was the home of the Electors of the Palatinate, princely governors of this region, but was largely destroyed — along with most of the town — in the late 1600s by Louis XIV of France during the French-Palatinate War. Early in the 19th century, Frenchman Charles de Graimburg, who lived in the castle at the time, rescued it from a fate of slow demise and ultimate destruction. In the process, he saved more than 3,000 historic items, which subsequently formed the basis of Heidelberg’s municipal museum.
Most of Heidelberg’s old center dates from after the town’s destruction; its streets are lined with buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries. About 28,000 of its 135,000 residents are students at the University of Heidelberg — although on a lively Saturday evening it may seem as if students make up closer to 50 percent of the population. The university, one of Europe’s oldest (it dates from 1386) and most prestigious, gives the city much of its character — and its abundance of watering holes.
The university influences both economic and intellectual life and has made Heidelberg a major center for medical research for at least a century. The European Laboratory for Molecular Biology, the German Cancer Research Center, four Max Planck Institutes and the Academy of Sciences are here, and 2008 marked the ninth Nobel Prize winner culled from their ranks.
The combination of the university and decades of U.S. military presence makes it easy for English speakers to travel or do business here, and the Heidelberg Economic Development Agency actively promotes the city as a center for science, economics and capital investments, assisting foreign companies in establishing operations, sales or production facilities. Among the larger companies based here are Heidelberger Druckmaschinen, HeidelbergCement, Springer Science, LION Bioscience and Lamy, a manufacturer of writing instruments. The metropolitan Rhine-Neckar region, which includes Mannheim, Ludwigshafen and Heidelberg, was named Germany’s No. 1 innovations site in 2008.
USAREUR headquarters are tentatively slated to move about 50 miles north by 2012 or 2013, and if this happens it will deal a significant blow to the Heidelberg economy — a $63.6 million blow, to be exact. But even without the U.S. military, Heidelberg will continue to draw Americans to its historic streets, rollicking beer halls and romantic ruins.
