Heidelberg Travel Guide

More about the History of Heidelberg

Approximately 1,000,000 years ago, the Heidelberg Man, whose jaw-bone was discovered in 1907, the earliest evidence of human life in Europe, died at nearby Mauer.

In the 5th century BC there was a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of worship on the Heiligenberg, or Mountain of Saints. Both places can still be identified.

In 40 a fort was built and occupied by the 24th Roman cohort and the 2nd Cyrenaican cohort (CCG XXIIII and CCH II CYR). The Romans built and maintained castra (permanent camps) and a signaling tower on the bank of the Neckar, and built a wooden bridge across the Neckar. The first civilian settlements would develop under the protection of the camp. The Romans remained until 260, when the camp was conquered by German tribes.

Modern Heidelberg can trace its beginnings to the 5th century when the village Bergheim (Mountain Home) is first mentioned in documents dated to 769. Bergheim (Bergheim vacation rentals | Bergheim travel guide) now lies in the middle of modern Heidelberg.

In 863 the monastery of St. Michael was founded on the Heiligenberg inside the double rampart of the Celtic fortress, and around 1130 the Neuberg (Neuberg vacation rentals | Neuberg travel guide) Monastery was founded in the Neckar valley. At the same time the bishopric of Worms extended its influence into the valley, founding Schönau Abbey in 1142. Modern Heidelberg can trace its roots to this monastery.

In 1155, Heidelberg castle and its neighboring settlement are taken over by the house of Hohenstaufen, and Conrad of Hohenstaufen becomes "Count Palatine of the Rhine" (German: Pfalzgraf bei Rhein).

In 1195, the Palatinate passed to the House of Welf through marriage.

The first reference to Heidelberg can be found in a document in Schönau Abbey dated to 1196. This is considered the founding date for Heidelberg. View of castle from town square.

In 1225, Louis I, Duke of Bavaria obtained the Palatinate, and thus also the castle, which is mentioned in a document.

In 1303, two castles are mentioned; the one located further up the mountain was destroyed in a gunpowder explosion in 1537. The palace of today was then built at the site of the lower castle. In 1356, the Counts Palatine were granted far-reaching rights in the Golden Bull in addition to becoming Electors.

In 1386, the University of Heidelberg was founded by Rupert I, Elector Palatine. The University played a leading part in the era of humanism and reformation and the conflict between Lutheranism and Calvinism in the 15th and 16th centuries. Heidelberg's library, founded in 1421, is the oldest public library in Germany still intact. A few months after the proclamation of the 95 theses, in April 1518, Martin Luther was received in Heidelberg, to defend them.

In 1620, the royal crown of Bohemia was offered to the Elector, Frederick V (married to Elizabeth, eldest daughter of James VI of Scotland). He became known as the "winter king", as he only reigned for one winter until the Imperial house of Habsburg regained the crown by force. This marked the beginning of the Thirty Years' War.

In 1622, after a siege of two months, the armies of the Catholic League, commanded by Johann Tserclaes, Count of Tilly, captured Heidelberg. He gave the famous Bibliotheca Palatina from the Church of the Holy Ghost to the Pope as a present. The Catholic, Bavarian branch of the house of Wittelsbach gained control over the Palatinate and the title of Prince-Elector. In 1648, at the end of the war, Frederick V's son Charles I Louis, Elector Palatine, was able to recover his titles and lands.

In order to strengthen his dynastic power, he married his daughter Liselotte to Philip I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of Louis XIV, king of France. In 1685, after the death of Charles Louis' son Elector Charles II, Louis XIV laid claim to his sister in law's inheritance. The claim was rejected, and war ensued. In 1689, city and castle were both taken by French troops, who brought about an almost total destruction in 1693.

In 1720, religious conflicts with the citizens of Heidelberg caused the Prince-Elector Charles III Philip to transfer his residence to nearby Mannheim (Mannheim vacation rentals | Mannheim travel guide), where it remained until the Elector Charles Theodore became Elector of Bavaria in 1777 and established his court in Munich (Munich vacation rentals | Munich travel guide).

In 1742, Elector Karl Theodor began rebuilding the Palace. In 1764, a lightning bolt destroyed other palace buildings during reconstruction, causing the work to be discontinued. Heidelberg fell to the Grand Duchy of Baden in the year 1803. Charles Frederick, Grand Duke of Baden re-founded the University, named "Ruperto-Carola" after its two founders. Notable scholars soon earned it a reputation as a "royal residence of the intellect".

In 1810, the French revolution-emigrant Count Charles Graimberg began with the preservation of the palace ruins and the establishment of a historical collection.

In the 18th century, the city was rebuilt in Baroque style on the old Gothic layout.

In 1815, the Emperor of Austria, the Emperor of Russia and the King of Prussia formed the "Holy Alliance" in Heidelberg.

In 1848, it was decided to have a German National Assembly in Heidelberg. In 1849, during the Palatinate-Baden rebellion, Heidelberg was the headquarters of a revolutionary army which was defeated by a Prussian army near Waghaeusel. Until 1850, the city was occupied by Prussian troops.

Between 1920 and 1933, the University of Heidelberg's reputation was enhanced by a number of notable physicians (Czerny, Erb, Krehl) and humanists (Rohde, Weber, Gundolf).

Nazi era

During the Nazi regime (1933-1945), Heidelberg was a stronghold of the NSDAP, which was the strongest party in the elections before 1933. Non-Aryan university staff were discriminated against, and by 1939 the University had "lost" one third of its staff due to racial and political reasons. During the Kristallnacht on November 9, 1938, Nazis burned down synagogues at two locations in the city. The next day systematic deportation of Jews started, and 150 Jews were sent to the Dachau (Dachau vacation rentals | Dachau travel guide) concentration camp. On October 22, 1940 during the "Wagner Buerckel event", 6000 local Jews, including 280 from Heidelberg, were deported to a concentration camp in France, Camp Gurs. Between 1934 to 1935, the Nazi regime built a huge amphitheatre on the Heiligenberg north of the old part of Heidelberg for the SS events. The theatre is called Thingstätte and is still used for occasional concerts and events.

On March 30, 1945, US forces liberated Heidelberg from the Nazi regime. German troops left the day before, after destroying the old bridge, Heidelberg's treasured river crossing and at that time the only crossing of the river Neckar for larger vehicles.

It has been theorized that Heidelberg escaped bombing in the Second World War because the US Army wanted to use the city as a garrison after the war. In fact, as Heidelberg was neither an industrial center nor a transport hub, there was nothing worth bombing in Heidelberg and Allied air raids focused on the nearby industrial cities of Mannheim and Ludwigshafen. In 1945, the University re-opened at the initiative of surgeon Karl Heinrich Bauer and philosopher Karl Jaspers.

[ source: Wikipedia ]