Darmstadt is proud of its brilliant minds, proud of Justus von Liebig, Georg Büchner, Peter Behrens, and Bert Rürup. In other words, without Merck, there would be no liquid-crystal displays (LCD), without Röhm, no Plexiglas®. Darmstadt unites esprit, science, research, industry, culture, and quality of life in a very special way and occupies a prominent position in the Greater Rhein-Main-Neckar Metropolitan Area. Although Darmstadt has a population of just 140,000, it plays in the major leagues of the world’s superior-achievement centres, and has been playing there for centuries, since the roots of this “Science City,” a title it has richly earned, go way back and fertilize the budding advances of the present.

Thousands of Students, a Raft of Universities, and Close Contacts

The Technische Universität’s more than 17,000 students obtain an excellent education. The TU regularly receives top rankings for research and academic programs. The Hochschule Darmstadt, one of Germany’s largest polytechnics, and the Evangelische Fachhochschule enrich the spectrum of educational facilities the city has to offer. Among others, three Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft institutes enhance the city’s position as a centre for basic and applied research. Numerous multinational corporations and medium-sized companies domiciled in the area stand for progress and innovation in the fields of, e.g., aerospace technology, mechatronics, software development, and information and communications technologies. Research and development frequently take place side by side here. Darmstadt, the “Science City” is thus also an “Inventors’ City” that participates in various international programs and collaborations.

Experience Pays Off

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, the sharp-witted, 18th-century aphorist, prominent nature scholar, and first German professor of experimental physics, is another personage who exemplifies Darmstadt’s intellectual and scholarly history. Justus von Liebig is also closely associated with Darmstadt. The first airplane factory was built in Darmstadt in 1908. It was built by August Euler, who also founded the first German flying school two years later.

Prominent personages, innovative ideas and products, radiate outward from Darmstadt and into the rest of the world. Germany’s first passive (zero-energy-input) house was built in Darmstadt in 1991. Professors at the TU invented the radio-controlled clock and the electret and silicon-transducer microphones, billions of which have been manufactured to date, worldwide. The first enzyme-based laundry detergent and Plexiglas® also originated in Darmstadt, the “Science City.”