1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Stuttgart

​STUTTGART, a city of Germany, capital of the kingdom ofWürttemberg. It lies in a basin watered by the Nesenbachjust above its confluence with the Neckar, 115 m. N.W. fromMunich, and at the centre of a network of railways placing itin direct communication with all the principal towns of southGermany. Pop. (1905), 249,443, of whom about one-half residein the suburbs of Cannstatt, Berg, Gaisburg, Gablenburg andothers. Charmingly situated among vine-clad and woodedhills, Stuttgart stands at a height of nearly 900 ft. above thesea and enjoys a healthy climate. It is intersected from south-westto north-east by the long and handsome Königsstrasse,dividing it into an upper and a lower town. In all its mainfeatures it is essentially a modern town, and few of its principalbuildings are older than the 19th century. Many of them,however, are of considerable architectural importance and therevival of the Renaissance style is perhaps illustrated nowherebetter than in Stuttgart. The lower, or south-eastern, partcontains both the small group of streets belonging to old Stuttgart,and also the most important part of the new town. Ofthe numerous churches in the city the most interesting are theStiftskirche, with two towers, a fine specimen of 15th-centuryGothic; the Leonhardskirche, also a Gothic building of the 15thcentury; the Hospitalkirche, restored in 1841, the cloisters ofwhich contain the tomb of Johann Reuchlin; the fine modernGothic church of St John; the new Roman Catholic church ofSt Nicholas; the Friedenskirche; and the English church. Alarge proportion of the most prominent buildings are clusteredround the spacious Schlossplatz, with its fine promenades.Among these are the new palace, an imposing structure of the18th century, finished in 1807; the old palace, a 16th-centurybuilding, with a picturesque arcaded court; the Königsbau, ahuge modern building with a fine colonnade, containing balland concert rooms; the so-called Akademie, formerly the seatof the Karlschule, where Schiller received part of his education,and now containing the royal library; and the court theatre,destroyed by fire in 1902, and subsequently rebuilt. In thecentre of the Schlossplatz is the lofty jubilee column, erectedin 1841 in memory of the king of Württemberg, William I.,and in the courtyard of the old palace is a bronze equestrianstatue of Duke Eberhard the Bearded. On or near the Schlossplatzalso are the new courts of justice; the Wilhelmspalastand the palace of the crown prince; the large royal stables;the new post office; and the central railway station, one of thehandsomest structures of the kind in Germany. The citycontains a fine statue of Schiller, designed by Thorvaldsen; abronze statue of Christopher, duke of Württemberg; a monumentto the emperor William I.; an equestrian statue of KingWilliam I. in the court of the museum of the plastic arts; anda large monumental fountain in the Eugensplatte. Otherprominent buildings are: the Queen Olga buildings, erected in1893-1895 in the Renaissance style; the national industrialmuseum (1890-1896) in the late Renaissance style, flanked bytwo cupola-crowned towers and decorated with medallions offamous Swabians; the magnificent new town-hall; and therailway viaduct across the valley of the Neckar, 740 yds. long.

The art collections of Stuttgart are numerous and valuable.The museum of art comprises a picture gallery, a collection ofcasts of Thorvaldsen's works and a cabinet of engravings. Theroyal library contains about 400,000 printed volumes, includingone of the largest collections of Bibles in the world, and alsoabout 20,000 MSS., many of great rarity. To these may beadded the industrial museum, the cabinet of coins, the museumof natural history, the collection of majolica vases in the newpalace, and the Württemberg museum of antiquities. The city also contains numerous excellent educational establishments, although the state university is not here but at Tübingen, and its conservatorium of music has long been renowned. The technical high school, which since 1899 has possessed the right to confer the degree of doctor of engineering, practically enjoys academic status and so do the veterinary high school and the school of art.

Stuttgart is the centre of the publishing trade of south Germany, and it has busy industries in everything connected with the production of books. Its other manufactures include machinery, pianos and other musical instruments, cotton goods, cigars, furniture, leather, paper, colours and chemicals. Its trade also in books, hops, horses, and cloth is considerable, and a large banking and exchange business is done here. The beauty of its situation and its educational advantages attract numerous foreign residents, especially English and American. Stuttgart is the headquarters of the XIII. corps of the German army,and contains a fairly large garrison for which accommodation is provided in the extensive barracks in and around the city.

To the north-east of the new palace lies the beautiful palace park, embellished with statuary and artificial sheets of water, and extending nearly all the way to Cannstatt, a distance of ​over two miles. Cannstatt, which was incorporated with Stuttgart in 1903, attracts numerous visitors owing to its beautiful situation on the Neckar and its saline and chalybeate springs. In the environs of Stuttgart and Cannstatt lie Rosenstein, Wilhelma and other residences of the royal family of Württemberg.

Stuttgart seems to have originated in a stud (Stuten Garten) of the early counts of Württemberg, and is first mentioned in a document of 1229. Its importance, however, is of comparatively modern growth and in the early history of Württemberg it was overshadowed by Cannstatt, the central situation of which on the Neckar seemed to mark it out as the natural capital of the country. After the destruction of the castle of Württemberg early in the 14th century, Count Eberhard transferred hisresidence to Stuttgart, which about 1500 became the recognized capital of Württemberg. But even as capital its growth was slow. At the beginning of the 19th century it did not contain 20,000 inhabitants, and its real advance began with the reigns of Kings Frederick and William I., who exerted themselves in every way to improve and beautify it. In 1849 Stuttgart was the place of meeting of the assembly called the Rumpfparlament.