The Luxor Stuttgart Leinfelden-Echterdingen (D)

Leinfelden-Echterdingen

Stuttgart

Capital of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg

Name origin: Stuotengarten (Old High German, = horse garden, stud farm)

First documented mention: approx. 948 AD

Population: 631,000

Area: 207.32 km²

Administrative region: Stuttgart

District: /

Vehicle registration: S

River: Neckar

The club The Luxor near Stuttgart is located in Echterdingen.

The Stuttgarter drives a Mercedes, votes CDU and is very thrifty, or so they say. At the latest since the Greens came to power in the land of the Swabians, everyone knows that can't quite be true. For a Mercedes or even a Porsche from the local automobile manufacturing, there's still likely to be enough money in many cases in the state capital of one of the wealthiest regions in Europe. "Stuttgart is sexy and still has cash too," countered Harald Schmidt, born in Neu-Ulm, in response to former Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit's statement that Berlin is poor but sexy.

The lively metropolis on the Neckar isn't quite as big as Berlin and the three other German cities with over a million inhabitants, but it can certainly hold its own with them when it comes to quality of life. Stuttgart looks back on centuries of proud and rich tradition, boasts magnificent cultural treasures, is lined with wonderful landscapes and offers a modern and efficient infrastructure.

Stuttgart 21: The transport and urban development project to reorganise the so-called Stuttgart railway hub is one of the most ambitious construction projects in the history of the Federal Republic. Although the project is considered a billion-euro money pit and has triggered numerous protests among the local population, it could ultimately result in a groundbreaking, high-performance and hypermodern urban infrastructure and transport concept, serving as a model for the whole of Europe.

The tension between tradition and modernity that the city must bridge becomes vividly clear when you walk a few steps from the station along Königstraße, Stuttgart's dominant promenade, and suddenly find yourself standing in front of the Schlosspark: the city's central gathering place is a successful ensemble of various buildings and green spaces from different eras, at the centre of which the Jubiläumssäule, the opera house, the Altes Schloss and the Neues Schloss provide an impressive testimony to, in particular, the former baroque splendour of the Württemberg rulers.

Just opposite, after a few steps through the arcades of the Königsbau-Passagen, you then take the step back into high-tech modernity on Börsenstraße: the Stuttgart Stock Exchange is Germany's second most important trading venue after Frankfurt. If, on the other hand, you stroll straight down Königstraße heading south, you pass the Altes Schauspielhaus and the Gerber-Passagen and arrive not only at FKK Phönix, Stuttgart's centrally located FKK club, but also eventually stand before the Karlshöhe, the walkable city hill in the heart of the city, the sight of which transports you to Athens with its Lykavettos and its Acropolis.

Stuttgart is rich in theatres and museums, and being the world's most renowned location for automotive technology, it's no surprise that there's both a Mercedes museum and a Porsche museum here. Anyone who ventures beyond the hills of the roaring valley basin in which Stuttgart is nestled will find, in the south, in the panorama café of the 217 m high television tower — the city's modern landmark, situated at an elevation of 483 m above sea level — a breathtaking view. From up here, the view reaches not only as far as the Cannstatter Wasen on the Neckar, where the Stuttgart Oktoberfest, which rivals Munich's Wiesn, is held every year, but on a clear day also as far as the mountain ranges of the Schwäbische Alb, and you can take in many of the pretty surrounding little towns, each of which, nestled in a magnificent cultural landscape, bears eloquent testimony to charming Swabian tradition and way of life.

Among Stuttgart's well-known sons and daughters are Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Karl Friedrich Alexander von Württemberg, Wilhelm Hauff, Gustav Schwab, Feodora zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg, Max Horkheimer, Fritz Bauer, Richard von Weizsäcker, Joachim Fuchsberger, Wolfgang Dauner, Eberhard Weber, Michael Pfleghar, Fritz Umgelter, Roland Emmerich, Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, Hansi Müller, Jürgen Klopp, Sami Khedira, Michael Beck, Natalia Wörner and Nina Hoss.