In the late 19th century, Stuttgart was booming. The southern German city was famously the cradle of an emerging automobile sector and had already established itself as an industrial powerhouse and centre for toolmaking, mechanical engineering and textiles. Rail connections in the Baden-Württemberg region accelerated development, transported workers and spread wealth.
One might think, then, that an obvious place for the nascent railways to reached out to would have been the historic university town of Tübingen, about 20 miles from Stuttgart. No so, Tilman Wörtz of the university’s communications department informed me, on a recent visit. In fact, explained Wörtz, an accomplished journalist, the story goes that the academic grandees of the era resisted a connection with the emerging financial and industrial powerhouse, perhaps regarding it as somewhat uncouth and vulgar to distract from deep cultural and scientific considerations to engage with the forces of commerce. So for a long time, the proposed railroad hit the buffers.
Fortunately today, thanks to the efforts of university leaders, the institution strives to connect, both with industry and the wider community. There is now a railway station, and I was thrilled to speak with a number of academics about relaying their research and knowledge to non-academic readers. Indeed, this fascinating read on rapper Haftbefehl, who is the subject of a Netflix documentary gripping Germany has already come out of the sessions, and do stay tuned in the coming weeks and months for more from the University of Tübingen, which was founded in 1477 and is now the first German member institution of The Conversation.
