Reutlingen

Reutlingen is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of April 2008, it has a population of 109,828. Reutlingen has a university of applied sciences, which was founded in 1855, originally as a weavers' school. Today Reutlingen is home to an established textile industry and also houses machinery, leather goods and steel manufacturing facilities. It has the narrowest street in the world, Spreuerhofstraße (width 31 cm).GeographyReutlingen is located about 35km south of the State capital of Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. It lies in the Southwest corner of Germany, right next to the Swabian Jura, and that is why it is often called The gate to the Swabian Jura (Das Tor zur Schwäbischen Alb). The Echaz river, a tributary of the Neckar, flows through the town centre.Along with the old university town of Tübingen (about 15km to the west), Reutlingen is the centre of the Neckar-Alb region. It is also part of the larger Stuttgart Metropolitan Region.HistoryThe first settlements in the area are believed to date from the 4th or 5th century. Some time around 1030, Count Egino started to build a castle on top of the Achalm, one of the largest mountains in Reutlingen district (about 706 m). One of the towers of this castle was rebuilt in the 19th century and is open to visitors. The name Reutlingen was first mentioned in writing in the so-called Bempflingen Treaty (Bempflinger Vertrag) which is dated approximately 1089–90.