Capital of Baden-Württemberg, Germany
About Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the Stuttgarter Kessel and lies an hour from the Swabian Jura and the Black Forest. Stuttgart has a population of 613,111 as of 2023, making it the sixth largest city in Germany, while over 2.8 million people live in the city's administrative region and nearly 5.5 million people live in its metropolitan area, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Germany. The city's metropolitan area is consistently ranked among the top 5 European metropolitan areas by GDP. Mercer listed Stuttgart as 21st on its 2015 list of cities by quality of living; innovation agency 2thinknow ranked the city 22nd globally out of 441 cities in its Innovation Cities Index; and the Globalization and World Cities Research Network ranked the city as a Beta-status global city in their 2020 survey. Stuttgart was one of the host cities for the official tournaments of the 1974 and 2006 FIFA World Cups.
Etymology
Stuttgart, often nicknamed the "Schwabenmetropole" (English: Swabian metropolis) in reference to its location in the centre of Swabia and the local dialect spoken by the native Swabians, has its etymological roots in the Old High German word Stuotgarten, or "stud farm", because the city was founded in 950 AD by Duke Liudolf of Swabia to breed warhorses. In the local dialects of Alemannic German it can be "Schtuegert", and in Swabian German "Stuagart"; with similar variant spellings, usually dropping the central T sound.
History
Originally, the most important location in the Neckar river valley was the hilly rim of the Stuttgart basin at what is today Bad Cannstatt. Thus, the first settlement of Stuttgart was a massive Roman Castra stativa (Cannstatt Castrum) built c. 90 AD to protect the vineyards blanketing the landscape and the road from Mogontiacum (now Mainz) to Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg). Cannstatt was a part of the Roman imperial province Germania Superior. As with many military installations, settlement sprang up nearby and remained there even after the limes moved further east. When they did, the town was left in the capable hands of a local brickwork that produced sophisticated architectural ceramics and pottery. When the Romans were driven back past the Rhine and Danube rivers in the third century by the Alamanni, the settlement temporarily vanished from history until the seventh century. …
Geography
The core area of Stuttgart lies in the 48° fertile bowl angle about 900 ft (270 m) above sea level, an hour from the Black Forest and Swabian Jura on the banks of the Neckar river at 48°47′N 9°11′E 115 mi (185 km) to the west and north of Munich. The city is often described as being "zwischen Wald und Reben" ("between forest and vines") because of its viticulture and surrounding forests. Stuttgart covers an area of 207.35 km2 (80 sq mi) and sits at elevation ranging from 207 m (679 ft) above sea level by the Neckar river to 549 m (1,801 ft) on Bernhartshöhe hill – something rather unique in large German cities. The most prominent elevated locales in Stuttgart are the Birkenkopf (511 m (1,677 ft)) on the edge of the 51° bowl angle to the Württemberg (411 m (1,348 ft)) rising above the 34° Neckar angle, and the Grüner Heiner (395 m (1,296 ft)) at the northeast end of the city. …
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