Tübingen

Sister cities

• Monthey
• Aix-en-Provence
• Aigle
• Perugia
• Petrozavodsk
• Villa El Salvador
• Ann Arbor
• Moshi
• Durham
• Kremenchuk
• Kingersheim
• Kilchberg

History

The area was probably first settled in the 12th millennium BC. The Romans left some traces here in AD 85, when, in confrontation with the local Alamanni, they built a limes frontier wall at the Neckar River. The local castle, Hohentübingen, has records going back to 1078, when it was besieged by Henry IV, King of Germany. In the middle of the 12th century, the local the Counts of Zollern were raised to Imperial Counts Palatine, with their seat in Tübingen. By 1231, Tübingen was a civitas, indicating recognition by the Crown of civil liberties, a market and a court system. In the later decades of the 13th century, the town saw the establishment an Augustinian, and a Franciscan, monastery, and a Latin school (today's Uhland-Gymnasium). In 1342, the town and castle passed to the Counts of Württemberg. Coinciding with his expulsion of the town's Jewish community, in 1477 Count (later Duke) Eberhard V (Eberhard im Bart) founded the university. The university, for which St George's, built between 1430 and 1470, became the collegiate church (Stiftskirche), developed as one of the most influential places of learning in the Holy Roman Empire, particularly in theology. Today, the Eberhard Karl University is the largest source of income for the residents of the city and one of the biggest universities in Germany with more than 26,000 students. Faced with a popular rebellion, in the Treaty of Tübingen 1514, Eberhard's successor, Duke Ulrich, was obliged to submit to co-governance with the assembled Estates (knights, clergy and burghers) and to concede freedom of movement, profession, and enterprise, achievements that were still being fought for in other German states in 1848. In recognition of the treaty, the town assumed the right to bear the Ducal stag antlers above its…