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Tubingen, Germany

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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A town of Germany, in the kingdom of Wurttemberg, picturesquely situated on the hilly and well-wooded banks of the Neckar, at its junction with the Ammer and Steinlach, 22 m. south of Stuttgart by road and 43 m. by rail. Pop. (1905), 16,809. The older town is irregularly built and unattractive, but the newer suburbs are handsome. The most conspicuous building is the old ducal castle of Hohentubingen, built in1507-1535on a hill overlooking the town, and now containing the university library of 460,000 volumes, the observatory, the chemical laboratory, &c. Among the other chief buildings are the quaint old Stiftskirche (1469-1483), a Gothic building containing the tombs of the rulers of Wurttemberg, the new aula and numerous institutes of the university, all of which are modern, and the town-hall dating from 1435 and restored in 1872. The university possesses a very important library. A monument was erected in 1873 to the poet Johann Ludwig Uhland (1787-1862), who was born and is buried here, and another, in 1881, to the poet Johann Christian Friedrich Hdlderlin (1770-1843). Tubingen's chief claim to attention lies in its famous university, founded in 1477 by Duke Eberhard of Wurttemberg. Melanchthon was a lecturer here (1512-1518). The university adopted the reformed faith in 1 534, and in 1537 a Protestant theological seminary, a residential college - the so-called Stift - was incorporated with it. In 1817 a Roman Catholic theological faculty was added, with a seminary called the Konvikt, and there are now also faculties of law, medicine, philosophy, political economy and natural science. The leading faculty has long been that of theology, and an advanced school of theological criticism, the founder and chief light of which was F. C. Baur, is known as the Tubingen school. The university was attended in 1908 by 1891 students and had a teaching staff of over Ioo. The commercial and manufacturing industries of the town are slight. Printing, book-selling, the manufacture of surgical and scientific instruments, chemicals, gloves and vinegar, and the cultivation of hops, fruit and vines are among the leading occupations of the inhabitants. The country in the neighbourhood of Tubingen is very attractive; one of the most interesting points is the former Cistercian monastery of Bebenhausen, founded in 1185, and now a royal hunting-château.

Tubingen is mentioned as a strong fortress in 1078, and was ruled from 1148 by counts palatine. In 1 3 42 it was purchased by the count of Wurttemberg, whose descendants afterwards acquired the title of duke. The treaty of Tubingen is the name given in German history to an arrangement made in 1514 between Duke Ulrich and his subjects, by which the latter acquired various rights and privileges on condition of relieving the former of his debts. The town was captured by the Swabian League in 1519, by Turenne in 1647, and again in 1688 by the French, who destroyed the walls.

See Eifert, Geschichte und Beschreibung der Stadt und Universitiit Tubingen (Tiibingen,1849); Maier, Die Musenstadt Tubingen (Tubingen, 1904); Tubingen und seine Umgebung (Tubingen, 1887-1889).