Tübingen, Germany

Me and Lisa just came from a nice weekend in Tübingen (Baden-Württemberg) in the south of Germany, not far from Stuttgart. I was enrolled in a Behavioural Pharmacology congress but also took the opportunity to visit this small city with a medieval touch. The old town has buidings as old as from the 1400's and is most famous for its University, where famous people studied or lived (Alois Alzheimer, the discoverer of Alzheimer's disease), the philosophers Hermann Hesse and Hegel, the astronomer Kepler and the new pope Ratzinger (Benedictus XVI), who was appointed to a chair in dogmatic theology in this University between 1966 and 1969.
Once a military stronghold in medieval times, with a strategically located castle, the city became more and more dependent on students, which comprise 25-30% of the total population (around 85.000).
After world war II, the french army had a monitoring base here until Germany reunited in 1991. Similarly to many other german cities, great efforts were put in renovating the city, returning it to its medieval splendor, not without controversy (some scholars argued the choice of colours and materials to be used).
The Neckar river gives this small town a venetian romantic touch and plenty of gondolieri (or students taking a summer job) will be there to guide you under the bridges of Tübingen...





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