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Image in Transition
"The arts are alive in Darmstadt" – is the slogan with which the city has been characterizing itself for years. But what does “alive” mean in this case? The cultural character of Darmstadt actually beckons us look to the past: when the city was the residence of the Grand Duke. Here you’ll find splendid Baroque buildings from the 18th century, a castle in the city center, the old Renaissance town hall on the main market square, numerous parks scattered across the whole city, and gardens with their Baroque pavilions and little castles. And then there are the architectural gems of the Jugendstil on the “Mathildenhöhe” – daring, progressive, yes, even revolutionary back then, a hundred years ago.
The Secret Software Capital
To characterize the present or the possibilities in Darmstadt, the old image projected is no longer of any use. The new image, the other trait of the city is a much more suitable description of the city’s present image: “Wissenschaftsstadt Darmstadt" (Darmstadt - City of Science.) The list of scientific institutions is long. At the top of the list is the Technical University, and then, various public and private research institutes, and of course, the numerous businesses in the area heavily involved in research and development .
Nowadays, the city is seen as the secret software capital of Germany. In the past years, the rate of information and communication companies moving to Darmstadt and the surrounding region has been increasing. Another reason, of course, is the fact that companies can find their future employees amidst all the university graduates.
Courage and Scientific Aspirations
Darmstadt’s profile as the Mecca of progress is really not that new. Over 150 years ago, “higher technical education” had already been established, even though the state was so poor at the time that it had always been questioned whether or not it could afford a technical university. But courage and scientific aspirations always saved it. New professorships and specialized departments were created and attracted a tide of new students to the city. For example, at the end of the 19th century the Faculty of Electrical Engineering was established – the first one in Germany, and a professorship for aeronautical engineering and flight technology was established in 1913.
Curiosity, the desire to travel, the urge to explore.
This is the soil in which the seeds of innovation are planted.
Darmstadt is one of the best examples of this. Once a stronghold of the Jugendstil movement, it is now a center for innovative research.
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