Reutlingen

Reutlingen got market rights around 1180 and city status in the first half of the thirteenth century, and it later became a free imperial city before falling to Württemberg in 1803. A fire in 1726 destroyed about 80 per cent of the houses, so the old centre you walk through is mostly rebuilt after that. What survived includes the Marienkirche, a Gothic church finished in 1343 whose spire still defines the skyline, and the Tübinger Tor, a gate from the old city wall.

The city grew rich on textiles, knitting machines and paper goods in the nineteenth century, and the weaving school founded in 1855 in the Spendhaus became today's Reutlingen University. Friedrich List, the economist who argued for industrial development and a German customs union, was born here. After the Second World War Reutlingen was known as a town of millionaires, which tells you it was an industrial place first and a university town second.

That order is still visible. You will meet engineers, designers and managers in the cafes along the Echaz as often as you meet professors. If you want a city that never sleeps, Stuttgart is a train ride away.

The Achalm is a wooded hill of 706 m right above the city. A castle began there around 1030, it was taken down in the seventeenth century, and in 1822 a lookout tower was built on its old foundations. Walking up takes an afternoon and rewards you with a view over the valley and the Alb edge. Locals go up for a sunset or for a Sunday walk, and students use the paths for running too.

The Swabian Alb itself starts at the edge of town. The city lies next to it and is often called the gateway to the Alb. In practice that means forest paths, orchards and limestone cliffs within a bus or bike ride, plus the Listhof nature reserve inside the city's own area, 123 hectares and the largest of the city's four nature reserves.

The largest sports club is the Reutlingen section of the German Alpine Club, with 11,771 members at the end of 2025, a sign of how many people here spend weekends outdoors. If you hike, climb or ride a bike, Reutlingen is a very good base. If you are used to a tropical climate, expect real winters on the Alb, and bring a proper coat.

The calendar is full of small local events. The Toskanischer Markt in April, the KuRT festival and the Stadtfest in June and July (the Stadtfest every second year), the Schwörtag in July, the Weindorf Reutlinger Herbst in September and the Reutlinger Kulturnacht in October all take place in the centre. The Christmas market closes the year. None of them is huge, but they are free to walk through and a good way to meet people outside the university.

Evenings are quiet by big-city standards. The larger cultural programme is at Stuttgart, where trains leave from the Hauptbahnhof, and Tübingen, about 15 km away on the same regional line, is a much larger student town.

The Hauptbahnhof is the hub. Regional trains run hourly to Plochingen, Herrenberg and Bad Urach, a Regional-Express connects Stuttgart and Tübingen through Reutlingen, and the RE 6a runs every two hours towards Stuttgart or Aulendorf. City buses are run by the Reutlinger Stadtverkehrsgesellschaft in the NALDO transport association, and the eXpresso airport bus to Stuttgart Airport runs hourly.

Reutlingen has no motorway junction of its own, and the A8 and A81 are about 25 to 30 minutes away by car. You will not need a car as a student. For a day out, Tübingen, Esslingen and Stuttgart are each a train ride away, and the international office organises group trips such as the winter-semester outings to Waldenbuch and Esslingen.

The fee breakdown of 199.30 EUR lists no transport ticket, so ask the StudentServiceCenter what applies before you budget your travel.

The campus is on the Alteburg, a compact set of buildings numbered one to nine on the hill above the city centre. It is small enough that you will meet the same people in the hallway, the refectory and the library, and the schools run their own student councils (Fachschaften). Lecture groups are small, projects are common, and many degrees include a practical semester in industry.

Study culture is practical. The ESB Business School has more than 1,500 students from over 70 nationalities and works with more than 100 partner universities, and the TEXOVERSUM School of Textiles has twelve labs for weaving, knitting, nonwovens and electronic textiles. Informatics, Engineering and Life Sciences share the same site. If you want a degree that ends in a clear profession, this is a good place. If you want a broad humanities education, look at Tübingen.

The university offers German courses at the Institute for Foreign Languages, writing consultations in German or English and a Central Student Advisory Service for personal and financial questions. Take them early.

The Studierendenwerk runs the Reutlingen refectory with a published daily menu. Beyond that the town has the usual German mix of bakeries, doner shops, Italian places and Swabian restaurants, plus the S-Haus restaurant at Rommelsbacher Straße 1, a volunteer-run place that cooks warm meals for people with little money and is open to everyone.

For sport, the Hochschulsport offers courses from Aikido to Zumba, many of them free. The wider town has large clubs such as the TSG Reutlingen and TSV Betzingen, and the German Alpine Club section is the biggest of all. Evenings are quiet: student parties are organised by the Fachschaften and the StuPa, and anything bigger means a train to Tübingen or Stuttgart.

Students from outside the EU may work 140 full days or 280 half days a year. Working beyond that needs approval from the Agentur für Arbeit and the Ausländerbehörde. A minijob earning up to 556 EUR a month is tax free, and academic assistant positions at the university do not count against the day limit, though you must tell the Ausländerbehörde. The statutory minimum wage has been 13.90 EUR an hour since January 2026.

Reutlingen has industrial employers close to the campus, and the Center for Entrepreneurship offers seminars on careers and start-ups. The Diakonieverband Reutlingen offers internships, mostly for students, if you prefer a social-sector placement.