Stuttgart’s Prehistory

Prior to present-day Stuttgart, the Romans established a fort on the banks of the River Neckar around the year 90 AD. It happened to protect the trade routes that ran together here and the fort was in the present Cannstatt. Around the fort, a village grew, and the Roman presence lasted until the twentieth century, when the Germanic Alemanner tribe began to penetrate. In 260 the Romans were forced back, with time to the opposite sides of the rivers Danube and the Rhine.

From the following centuries not much documentation or effects were found, but it is believed that the attractive location was inhabited throughout the period up to about the year 700, when a monastery was established here. Tombs from the period indicate that the population became Christian in the early 500s.

The city is founded and developed

Stuttgart itself is believed to be founded as a stud farm, from which the name Stuttgart was later developed. It happened in the period 926-948, but there is some uncertainty. Often, Duke Liudolf von Schwaben is credited as a founder, and that may be some years later. The location in the valley between the mountains was good for a stud farm to feed the cavalry with horses. It was on the site of today’s downtown.

Settlements near the stud grew and Field Count Hermann V formally changed the village’s status to actual town in 1219. In 1251, Stuttgart was granted dowry for Hermann V’s daughter, Mechthild, to Count Württemberg’s founder, Count Ulrich I.

In 1292 Count Eberhard I of Württemberg established a castle in Stuttgart, and from 1317 he expanded the city’s defenses and the castle so that it could become the county’s residence in the Württemberg territorial state. In the 1320s, significant ecclesiastical powers were established in Stuttgart, and thus the city had gained importance and status, replacing other buildings in the area such as Cannstatt and Esslingen.

Throughout the 1300-1400s, the city was expanded several times with new neighborhoods. This included, among others, Count Ulrich V’s Obere Vorstadt, where a central Dominican monastery was established; this is the area where Hospital Church today stands.

New Political Governance

With the Nürtingen Treaty of 1442, Württemberg was divided between the brothers and Countess Ludwig I and Ulrich V. Ulrich I gained the northeastern part of Stuttgart, and the city was thus a transition for only part of the region.

In 1457 the representation Württembergische Landstände was established. It served as the Württemberg Parliament, the Land Day, and except in the Napoleonic years, this institution was in operation until 1918.

Count Eberhard V was abolished in 1495 to Duke. He was now Eberhard I, Duke of Württemberg, and thereby Stuttgart was the Duke’s residence.

Duke Ulrich and the 16th century

The beginning of the 16th century offered many international efforts by Duke Ulrich, who at home in Württemberg had to suffer the torture of being considered extravagant and of having created a large debt. The so-called Armer Konrad in 1514 was a peasant revolt against the feudal duke. It arose as a result of increased taxes in 1513 and the introduction of smaller units of weight that gave rise to prices. Duke Ulrich turned down the rebellion with the help of the nobility, who was granted concessions against financial aid.

In 1511, Count Ulrich had married the Duke of Bavaria’s daughter, Sabina, who was also the Habsburg emperor Maximilian’s niece. The marriage was unhappy, and in 1515 Sabina fled, obtaining the support and support of the emperor, who put Ulrich in distress. After the death of the emperor, the Schwäbischer Bund state union intervened and displaced Duke Ulrich. On the same occasion, the union sold Württemberg to Emperor Karl V.

The following decades saw the Reformation, which the exiled Duke Ulrich called himself a supporter of 1523. From his exile he again sought to become Duke of Stuttgart, and with the German Peasant War 1524-1526 he seized the opportunity and invaded the city in 1525. Few weeks later, however, he was forced back into exile from which he returned the next time in 1534.

The Schwäbischer Bund had been disbanded and the Habsburg troops were weak. With the support of French King François I, Duke Ulrich was able to re-invade Stuttgart in May 1534, and a treaty was negotiated in place that formally reinstated him as Duke. The treaty maintained Austrian supremacy over Württemberg. Duke Ulrich completed the Reformation upon his return.

Under Fort Christoph, new fortifications were erected around the city, and they now included the suburbs. During the same period, the old residence castle was rebuilt into a Renaissance castle in roughly the style seen today.

The decline and growth

of the 1600s-1700s Since the end of the 16th century, several new plants were established in Stuttgart, which was hit by the plague in 1637. The population was halved to about 5,000 inhabitants, of which only 10% were men. However, that did not stop development during the latter part of the century, when a high school and the city’s first bookstore were founded.

In 1718, Stuttgart lost its status as a residence city when Duke Eberhard Ludwig relocated to Ludwigsburg north of Stuttgart. However, it regained the city with the then Duke, Karl Alexander, who used Stuttgart as the primary residence.

With Duke Carl Eugen declared in authority in 1744, this position was emphasized. In 1746 he laid the foundation stone for the city’s new castle, Neue Schloß, whose inspiration was to be found in Versailles.

Despite Stuttgart’s status as its capital and city of residence, it remained a modest size by the end of the 18th century. Excluding the staff of the court and the military, about 20,000 people lived here.

The Kingdom of Württemberg

During the Napoleonic era, the Rhine federation was formed in 1806. It consisted of a number of German states that had left the German-Roman Empire. The alliance was formed with pressure from Napoleon, and in it Württemberg was upgraded from a duchy to a kingdom, thus increasing Stuttgart’s reputation. The Vienna Congress after the Napoleonic Wars upheld the status of the state, and the kingdom remained in Württemberg until the dissolution of the German monarchs in 1918.

The beginning of the 19th century meant growth for Stuttgart, where many new buildings were established; eg Königsbau, Wilhelmpalais and Staatsgalerie. The construction and the institutions that were established gave the city new attractiveness. In 1841, King Wilhelm had a 25-year anniversary, and the celebration drew 200,000 spectators.

In 1845, the first train departed from the city. It was on the track between Cannstatt and Untertürkheim, and the following year brought the opening of Württemberg’s first railway tunnel, the Rosensteintunnel, to bring the trains all the way to Stuttgart’s first main railway station in the center of the city.

An international meeting was held in the city from 24-29. September 1857. Here the French Emperor Napoleon III met with Russia’s czar Alexander.

In 1871, the Kingdom of Württemberg entered the new German state of unity in line with other German states. At this time, there were 91,000 inhabitants in Stuttgart; a figure that doubled 30 years later.

The last decades of the 19th century were also where one of Stuttgart’s most famous products was founded today. Gottlieb Daimler established the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft in 1887; the company is today a manufacturer of Mercedes-Benz cars.

1918 was the end of the Kingdom of Württemberg. As a result of the German November revolution that started in Kiel, Emperor Wilhelm II abdicated, and with the introduction of the Weimar Republic, the country’s many monarchies were over.

The interwar period to today

Stuttgart industries grew steadily throughout the early 1900s and in the Weimar Republic. Not least, the industry was further developed during the Nazi era, when Stuttgart received an honorary title that went to selected cities. Stuttgart became the city of expatriate Germans / Stadt der Auslandsdeutschen in 1936.

During World War II, Stuttgart was attacked from the air 53 times, and the majority of both buildings and industrial plants were destroyed; among others during the firestorm following the most powerful attack, which took place on September 12, 1944.

In 1946, Stuttgart became the capital of the state of Württemberg-Baden, becoming part of the Federal Republic of Germany. Together with Bonn, Kassel and Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart was considered as a possible candidate to become the country’s capital, but that status accrued to Bonn. In 1952, Württemberg-Baden was merged with the states of Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern, and together they formed the state of Baden-Württemberg.

The reconstruction of the city was chosen to be a mixture of the historic buildings of the past centuries and a modern metropolis of the 20th century. Thus, several buildings were demolished to make room for wider streets and, on the whole, a school of thought to meet the needs of the times.

After a sharp decline in population during World War II, people moved to Stuttgart in a grand style from the late 1940s. After having built 266,000 in 1945, 640,000 lived in 1962. Among the successes were the German Wirtschaftswunder and the city’s big companies with Mercedes-Benz, Porsche and Bosch as examples. The world’s first concrete television tower with viewing platforms was built here, and it remains a symbol of engineering.

The city also received many prominent visits over the years. In 1962, Charles de Gaulle of France visited and three years later the English Queen Elisabeth II. In 1989, Mikhail Gorbachev came to town.

Major exhibitions and events have also been conducted; in 1993, when the big garden exhibition, the International Gartenschau, and the European Championships in athletics were held here. Stuttgart is today South Germany’s second largest city and a popular tourist destination.