Mannheim

Mannheim (German pronunciation: [ˈmanhaɪm] ; Palatine German: Mannem or Monnem), officially the University City of Mannheim (German: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the state capital, and Germany's 21st-largest city, with a population of over 315,000. It is located at the border with Rhineland-Palatinate. The city is the cultural and economic centre of the Rhine-Neckar, Germany's seventh-largest metropolitan region, with nearly 2.4 million inhabitants. Mannheim is located at the confluence of the Upper Rhine and the Neckar in the Kurpfalz (Electoral Palatinate) region of northwestern Baden-Württemberg. The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, Germany's warmest region, between the Palatine Forest and the Oden Forest. Mannheim forms a continuous urban zone of around 500,000 inhabitants with Ludwigshafen am Rhein in the Rhineland-Palatinate, while some northern suburbs lie in Hesse; Hamburg is the only other German city with a presence in two states other than its own. Unusually for a German city, central Mannheim's streets and avenues are laid out in a grid pattern, leading to its nickname as the Quadratestadt (Square City) and the tourism slogan "Leben im Quadrat" ("Life in the Square"). Also, most of the streets in central Mannheim do not have street names; the city blocks are instead referred to by letter and number. At the southern base of this system is Mannheim Palace. It was the former home of the Prince-elector of the Electoral Palatinate, and now houses the University of Mannheim. The civic symbol of the city is the Mannheim Water Tower, completed in 1886 and rising to 60 metres (200 feet) above the art nouveau area Friedrichsplatz. Held annually, Mannheim's May Market is the largest regional consumer exhibition of Germany. Mannheim is well-known for its inventions, including the automobile, the bicycle, and the tractor, leading to a nickname of the...