TUBINGEN

city, Baden-Wrttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. The city lies along the Neckar River at its junction with the Ammer and the Steinlach rivers. Originating as Castra Alamannorum around the castle of the counts palatine of Tbingen (first mentioned in 1078) and recorded as a town in 1231, it was purchased by the counts of Wrttemberg in 1342, and the county became a duchy in 1495. It was captured in 1519 by the Swabian League, and during the Thirty Years' War it fell to Holy Roman Empire troops (1634), the Swedes (1638), and the French (1647). Tbingen's important university was founded by Count Eberhard VI of Wrttemberg in 1477. The university's Protestant theological seminary, established by Duke Ulrich in 1534, numbered the astronomer Johannes Kepler, the poet Friedrich Hlderlin, and the philosopher G.W.F. Hegel among its students. The poet Ludwig Uhland was born (1787) in Tbingen. The city's most conspicuous building is the ducal castle of Hohentbingen, built in the 16th17th century on earlier foundations and now housing several institutes of the university. The Gothic Stiftskirche of St. George (147090) contains fine stained glass and tombs of the dukes of Wrttemberg. The town hall, dating from 1435, has been much restored. A publishing centre, modern Tbingen has metal and machinery, textile, woodworking, and paper industries. Pop. (1989 est.) 76,046. Regierungsbezirk (administrative district), southeastern Baden-Wrttemberg Land (state), southwestern Germany. Tbingen is bordered by Bavaria Land to the east, Lake Constance (Bodensee) to the south, and the Regierungsbezirke of Freiburg and Karlsruhe to the west and Stuttgart to the north. The district occupies an area of 3,443 square miles (8,918 square km) and is coextensive with a portion of the larger historic region of Swabia (q.v.). In 1952 the new Land of Baden-Wrttemberg was created. Wrttemberg-Hohenzollern became the new Land's southeastern Regierungsbezirk of Sdwrttemberg-Hohenzollern. In 1973 an administrative reform altered the borders of Sdwrttemberg-Hohenzollern and changed its name to Tbingen, after the district's administrative seat. Central Tbingen is drained from southwest to northeast by the upper Danube River. South of the Danube is the region of Upper Swabia, the westernmost lands of southern Germany's Alpine Foreland. Glaciers once covered nearly all of the Upper Swabian foreland, their deposits forming a morainic landscape with rolling hills. Meadow is dominant, although spruce and fir forests cover many hilltops, and small lakes and bogs fill depressions where drainage has been interrupted. Dairy farming is the chief source of income in the cool, moist region. Wetland nature reserves and numerous health spas featuring peat and mud baths attract many visitors. The population of Upper Swabia is concentrated in the south of Tbingen district along the shores of Lake Constance, Germany's largest lake. Popular lakefront tourist resorts offer swimming, sailing, and a spectacular view of the Swiss Alps. Vineyards, orchards, hop fields, and market gardens are abundant on warm slopes above the lake. Friedrichshafen, the district's chief city in the lake region, manufactures aircraft and machinery. The Swabian Mountains (Schwbische Alb), a dry upland plateau of Jurassic limestones, rise gradually from the Danube valley and extend to Tbingen's northern border. A sparsely populated and economically poor region, the mountains are characterized by karstic features such as sinkholes, caves, dry valleys, and underground watercourses. Forest is scarce on the windy and exposed mountain slopes, where sheep and stall-fed dairy cattle are raised on marginal pastureland. The upland villages and arable land are concentrated in valley troughs that traverse the mountains from north to south. Albstadt, the chief town of the upland, specializes in textile manufacturing. In Tbingen's northwest corner the Swabian Mountains descend abruptly into the Neckar River valley in a steep scarp some 1,300 feet (400 m) high. Many isolated outlier hills of the Swabian Mountains are topped by the castles of past imperial dynasties, among them Hohenzollern Castle, the home of the Prussian ruling family. Reutlingen and Tbingen are the leading cities of the middle Neckar valley and manufacture textiles, machinery, and electrical equipment. Located on the border with Bavaria at the confluence of the Blautopf and Danube rivers is Ulm, the largest city of Tbingen and an important industrial and transportation centre. The native population of Tbingen are Swabians, descendants of the Suebi, a Germanic people who occupied the territory from the 3rd century AD. They speak Swabian, one of three main German dialects in Baden-Wrttemberg. Upper Swabia is noted for the wealth of art and architecture in its famous Baroque churches and monasteries. Higher education in the Regierungsbezirk is centred in the old Swabian university town of Tbingen at the University of Tbingen, founded in 1477, and at the University of Ulm, founded in 1967. The population of Tbingen is predominantly Roman Catholic. Pop. (1989 est.) 1,555,262.