Heidelberg in the context of "Eberhard Grün"

The Electoral Palatinate was a constituent state of the Holy Roman Empire until it was annexed by the Electorate of Baden in 1803. From the end of the 13th century, its ruler was one of the Prince-electors who elected the Holy Roman Emperor, ranking them among the most significant secular Princes of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Palatinate consisted of a number of widely dispersed territories, ranging from the left bank of the Upper Rhine in the modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate, adjacent parts of the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine to the opposite territory on the east bank of the Rhine in present-day Hesse and Baden-Württemberg up to the Odenwald range and the southern Kraichgau region, containing the capital cities of Heidelberg and Mannheim.

The prince-electors (German: Kurfürst [ˈkuːɐ̯ˌfʏʁst] , pl. Kurfürsten [ˈkuːɐ̯ˌfʏʁstn̩] , Czech: Kurfiřt, Latin: Princeps Elector) were the members of the Electoral College of the Holy Roman Empire, which elected the Holy Roman Emperor. Usually, half of the electors were archbishops.

From the 13th century onwards, a small group of prince-electors gained the privilege of electing the King of the Romans. The king would then later be crowned Emperor by the pope. Charles V (elected in 1519) was the last emperor to be crowned (1530); his successors assumed the title "Elected Emperor of the Romans" (German: erwählter Römischer Kaiser; Latin: electus Romanorum imperator) upon their coronation as kings.

A lock is a device used for raising and lowering boats, ships and other watercraft between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a chamber in a permanently fixed position in which the water level can be varied. (In a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is the chamber itself (usually then called a caisson) that rises and falls.

Locks are used to make a river more easily navigable, or to allow a canal to cross land that is not level. Over time, more and larger locks have been used in canals to allow a more direct route to be taken.

Homo heidelbergensis is a species of archaic human from the Middle Pleistocene of Europe and Africa, as well as potentially Asia depending on the taxonomic convention used. The species-level classification of Homo during the Middle Pleistocene is controversial, called the "muddle in the middle", owing to the wide anatomical range of variation that populations exhibited during this time. H. heidelbergensis has been regarded as either the last common ancestor of modern humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans; or as a completely separate lineage.

H. heidelbergensis was described by German anthropologist Otto Schoetensack in 1908 based on a jawbone, Mauer 1, from a sand pit near the village of Mauer — 10 km (6.2 mi) southeast of Heidelberg. It was the oldest identified human fossil in Europe, and Schoetensack described it as an antediluvian race (before the Great Flood) which would eventually evolve into living Europeans. By the mid-20th century, all archaic human taxa were lumped as subspecies of either H. erectus or H. sapiens, with the former evolving into the latter without any coexistence. The species was usually lumped as H. e. heidelbergensis. While its utility was complicated by its definition on a jawbone (which is rarely ever found, and otherwise bears few diagnostic features) British physical anthropologist Chris Stringer revived the species in 1983, redefining it as a Euro-African ancestor of modern humans and Neanderthals using namely Kabwe 1, Petralona 1, Bodo, and Arago. These skulls are united mainly by their supraorbital torus (brow ridge) anatomy.

Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (German: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; Latin: Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis), is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is Germany's oldest university and one of the world's oldest surviving universities; it was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire after Prague (1347) and Vienna (1365). Since 1899, it has been a coeducational institution.

Heidelberg is one of the most prestigious universities in Europe. It is a German Excellence University, part of the U15, as well as a founding member of the League of European Research Universities and the Coimbra Group. The university consists of twelve faculties and offers degree programmes at undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels in some 100 disciplines. The language of instruction is usually German, while a considerable number of graduate degrees are offered in English as well as some in French.

Baden-Württemberg (/ˌbɑːdən ˈvɜːrtəmbɜːrɡ/ BAH-dən VURT-əm-burg; German: [ˌbaːdn̩ ˈvʏʁtəmbɛʁk] ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state (Land) in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants as of 2019 across a total area of nearly 35,752 km (13,804 sq mi), it is the third-largest German state by both area (behind Bavaria and Lower Saxony) and population (behind North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria). The largest city in Baden-Württemberg is the state capital of Stuttgart, followed by Mannheim and Karlsruhe. Other major cities are Freiburg im Breisgau, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Konstanz, Pforzheim, Reutlingen, Tübingen, and Ulm.

Modern Baden-Württemberg includes the historical territories of Baden, Prussian Hohenzollern, and Württemberg. Baden-Württemberg became a state of West Germany in April 1952 through the merger of South Baden, Württemberg-Baden, and Württemberg-Hohenzollern. These states had been created by the Allies as they separated traditional states into occupation zones after World War II.

The Neckar (German pronunciation: [ˈnɛkaʁ] ) is a 362-kilometre-long (225 mi) river in Germany, mainly flowing through the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg, with a short section through Hesse. The Neckar is a major right tributary of the Rhine. Rising in the Schwarzwald-Baar-Kreis near Schwenningen in the Schwenninger Moos conservation area, at a height of 706 m (2,316 ft) above sea level, it passes through Rottweil, Rottenburg am Neckar, Kilchberg, Tübingen, Wernau, Nürtingen, Plochingen, Esslingen, Stuttgart, Ludwigsburg, Marbach, Heilbronn and Heidelberg, before discharging on average 145 m/s (5,100 cu ft/s) of water into the Rhine at Mannheim, at 95 m (312 ft) above sea level, making the Neckar its 4th largest tributary, and the 10th largest river in Germany. Since 1968, the Neckar has been navigable for cargo ships via 27 locks for about 200 kilometres (120 mi) upstream from Mannheim to the river port of Plochingen, at the confluence with the Fils.

From Plochingen to Stuttgart, the Neckar valley is densely populated and heavily industrialised, with several well-known companies. Between Stuttgart and Lauffen, the Neckar cuts a scenic, meandering, and in many places steep-sided, valley into fossiliferous Triassic limestones and Pleistocene travertine. Along the Neckar's valley in the Odenwald hills many castles can be found, including Hornberg Castle and Guttenberg Castle [de] in Haßmersheim; the decommissioned Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant and Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant are also located there.