Discover Stuttgart on this free walking tour through the heart of a city where history, modernity, and industry sit side by side.
Tour Details
At the designated time, we'll meet at Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof, the city's main train station, and set off on a fascinating walk through central Stuttgart, with 8 to 10 stops along the way.
We'll start at the beginning, with the settlement's earliest inhabitants, and follow its transformation into the capital of the former Kingdom of Württemberg. Standing before the Neues Schloss, the vast Baroque palace built for the dukes of Württemberg, and the medieval Altes Schloss that preceded it, we'll trace the shifting eras and political upheavals that gave the city its character. Nearby, the Landtag of Baden-Württemberg brings that story right up to the present as the seat of the regional parliament.
We'll pass the Stuttgart State Opera, one of the most respected opera houses in the German-speaking world, and head to Schillerplatz, the square named after the poet Friedrich Schiller, where the Stiftskirche has stood in some form since the Middle Ages. Its towers are a useful reminder of what the city lost and rebuilt, because we'll also confront one of the hardest chapters in Stuttgart's story here: the rise of Nazism and the devastation of the Second World War, which reduced much of the city to rubble and forced an almost total reconstruction in the decades that followed. The Rathaus, the city hall, is one of the clearest expressions of that postwar rebuilding.
From there, we'll turn to the present. You'll find out why Stuttgart is one of the engines of the German economy and a global reference point for innovation and technology. We'll talk about the automotive industry that defines it and the origins of household names like Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and Bosch.
After 2 hours exploring the contrasts that make this city unlike anywhere else in Germany, the tour comes to an end at Königstraße 28
Group Size
This free tour does not accept groups of more than 6 people, even if they book separately.