Heidelberg is a beautiful city located in middle south Germany at the place where the valley of the Neckar River meets the Rhine Plain.

I could resume a description of Heidelberg in three words: history, culture and science.

On the first subjects I could quote that the first evidence of human life around Heidelberg, the Homo heidelbergensis, date from 500.000 years ago. About 800 B.C., the Celts settled in the region, later the Romans who were driven away by the Alemannic tribe in 260 A.D.

The history of the castle starts in 1225, with Ludwig I of the Wittelsbach family, Prince of the Palatinate. In 1356, the electoral title is embodied in the constitution: from that date on, the Princes of the Palatinate held one of the seven titles as Imperial Electors in Germany.

In 1386, Ruprecht I founded the University. In the following years Heidelberg and its castle flourished. Heidelberg and its Electors became repeatedly involved in political and theological arguments about popes and the question of the true faith. Although the University of Prag was historically the first German university in Europe, the University of Heidelberg remains nowadays the oldest university in Germany.

In the midst of the 30 years war, in 1622 the Imperial General Tilly captured Heidelberg and had the famous Bibliotheca Palatina with invaluable unique medieval books carried off to the Vatican.

Important names such as Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim and Joseph von Eichendorff as well the first foreign guests like Edward Bulwer, William Turner or Mark Twain depict the scene, consisting of river landscape, town and castle in impressive pictures.

On the last subject I could add, that Heidelberg is seat of a number of renowned research institutions like the German Center of Cancer Research, some Max-Planck-Intitutes (Astronomy, Medical Research, Comparative Public and International Law, Nuclear Physics) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory. Research is also conducted at the University in different fields. Numerous Nobel Price laureates in the last decades stand for the success of the University of Heidelberg.

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