Heidelberg

The jaw of 'Heidelberg Man', found at nearby Mauer in 1907, has been dated to about 609,000 years ago. Celts built a refuge fort on the Heiligenberg in the 5th century BC, and the Romans kept a fort and a bridge on the Neckar from 40 AD. Bergheim, now in the middle of the city, is recorded in 769, a monastery rose on the Heiligenberg in 870, and Heidelberg itself is first named in 1196. The castle passed to the Counts Palatine of the Rhine, who became prince-electors under the Golden Bull of 1356, and in 1386 Elector Rupert I founded the university.

Heidelberg became a centre of Renaissance humanism and the Reformation; Martin Luther defended his theses here in 1518, and the Heidelberg Catechism was composed here for Elector Frederick III. Elector Frederick V's brief reign as 'Winter King' of Bohemia set off the Thirty Years' War, and Tilly's Catholic army took the town in 1622 and sent its great library to the Pope. In 1689 and 1693 French troops all but destroyed town and castle, thousands of Palatines emigrated, and in 1720 the court left for Mannheim after a quarrel over the Church of the Holy Spirit. The town was rebuilt in Baroque style on its medieval plan, and in 1764 lightning ended the rebuilding of the castle.

Heidelberg passed to Baden in 1803, Count Charles de Graimberg began preserving the castle ruins in 1810, and the city was a revolutionary headquarters in 1849. The Nazis were strong here; synagogues were burnt in 1938 and Jews deported to Gurs in 1940. The city escaped Allied bombing, and from 1945 it was a major US Army base until the last American forces left by 2015.

Heidelberg's identity is bound up with its university. Hegel, Karl Jaspers, Hans-Georg Gadamer, Jürgen Habermas and Hannah Arendt are among the thinkers associated with it, the Philosophers' Walk recalls the professors who walked and talked above the river, and about a quarter of residents are students, which keeps the old town lively and the bars of the Untere Straße full. The research institutes around the university, including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and four Max Planck Institutes, make it one of Germany's scientific hubs.

The city has long attracted writers and artists drawn by its romantic setting, and UNESCO has named it a City of Literature. The festival year runs from the Heidelberger Frühling classical festival in spring through the castle festival and illuminations of summer to the autumn festival, the Enjoy Jazz festival, the theatre days and the film festival shared with Mannheim, and ends with the Christmas market. On 30 April, Walpurgis Night, thousands of young people long gathered at the Thingstätte on the Heiligenberg to drum and juggle, until the city banned the unofficial celebration there after 2017.

The city is Protestant in tradition but lived for centuries with a divided church, the Church of the Holy Spirit, partitioned between Catholics and Protestants. Politics leans Green — the city has long been a stronghold of the Greens — and the US Army kept a major presence here from 1945 until its last forces left by 2015.

Heidelberg had 156,092 residents at the end of 2025, making it the fifth-largest city in Baden-Württemberg, and it belongs to the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region centred on Mannheim. The old town lies in the narrow Neckar valley, but most people live in the districts out on the Upper Rhine Plain and along the Bergstraße, from Bergheim and Weststadt to Handschuhsheim, Kirchheim and the new Bahnstadt.

The university, the research institutes and the university hospitals on the Neuenheimer Feld campus shape the local economy, and most jobs are in services, tourism among them. Foreign citizens make up more than a fifth of the population.

The day has a student rhythm in term time — bicycles everywhere, lectures in historic buildings, crowded bakeries on the Hauptstraße and a late night in the old town. On sunny days the Neckarwiese across the river fills with people sunbathing and barbecuing, and the Philosophers' Walk and the Königstuhl woods are the weekend escapes.

Heidelberg eats the cooking of Baden and the Palatinate, and its everyday food is that of a student city: bakeries along the Hauptstraße selling local Brezeln, or pretzels, quick lunches, and the university canteen in the Marstall, a 16th-century stable on the river, open to everyone. The broader region's dishes — Spätzle, Maultaschen and Flammkuchen among them — appear on restaurant menus, and asparagus, grown around nearby Schwetzingen, is a popular seasonal dish.

Beer has a strong local following. Vetter's in the old town is famous for brewing Vetter 33, one of the strongest beers in the world, the Kulturbrauerei near the Old Bridge brews its own, and Welde beer, known for its twisted bottle necks, is served at the Marstall. Winegrowing on the slope of the Philosophers' Walk was restarted in 2000, and in season fruit farmers around the city sell their own wine, apple wine and new wine still fermenting, straight from the barrel.

The city's sweet souvenir is the Heidelberger Studentenkuss, the 'student kiss', a chocolate sold as the classic gift from Heidelberg. In summer the Marktplatz terraces beside the Church of the Holy Spirit become the place for an afternoon coffee or a beer in the sun.