Welcome to Gerlingen!
Gerlingen
On the outskirts of Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg, a proud, self-confident town, with almost 19,000 inhabitants, has grown up from a small Swabian agricultural village. Comfortable homes and good shops. Everyone can enjoy their work as well as their leisure. Everything you need. Everything on tap.
Gerlingen – the town where everyone feels at home.
Living and Working
Craftsmen belong among the 8,000 jobs just as much as the manager from Bosch. Business people mingle with farmers. The Town Hall acts as “The People’s House” and as the centre for all services.
Attractive Housing
A lot of new small estates have grown up on the edge of the town. For any new buildings in the town itself, the emphasis is on in-filling. The re-development of the town centre is in its final stage. Retail traders shape the town’s image. The U6 metro links Gerlingen with the heart of Stuttgart in just 26 minutes. The A8 (Karlsruhe – Munich) and the A81 (Heilbronn – Singen) run close by the town. Anyone who lands at Stuttgart Airport can cover the 15 miles to Gerlingen along fast roads.
Young and Old Together
Several years ago Gerlingen was chosen as a “family-friendly” town. There are many facilities for the care of its children and young people. Pupils can attend all the different kinds of schools in Gerlingen. The town offers very attractive choices for leisure activities such as the Youth Club, the Children’s Theatre and the children’s summer holiday scheme. An active Youth Council looks after the interests of Gerlingen’s young people. Leisure activities for the disabled are well catered for.
The older generation plays an important role in Gerlingen. With the creation of “The Network of ‘People With One Another – For One Another’ ” individual groups have all been drawn together. The Social Services offer more help. Apart from the facilities for the elderly at Breitwiesen House, the town can also offer its senior citizens “sheltered accommodation”.
Gerlingen in Action
It is in the sports halls that Gerlingen really comes alive. You can sweat it out in the civic saunas and Turkish baths apart from also enjoying the swimming pool. There are also playgrounds, a minigolf course and a boule rink, gymnastics studios, jogging and walking groups and fitness centres.
And everywhere you can hear the slogan: “Join a club for the best sport!”
People in Gerlingen can pass their spare time in more than 100 clubs. Sport and cultural activities are most popular. The whole of Gerlingen comes out to the Music Festival or to the Street Festival. The commitment of the town’s churches is praise-worthy. A great deal is achieved by the commitment of the community. It is not without a sense of pride that many Gerlingen men and women can be heard to say: “We come from Gerlingen!”
Friends All Over the World
People from more than 80 different countries live together in Gerlingen. Town twinning means more for Gerlingen than just the exchange of delegations. Since 1969 Gerlingen has taken over the responsibility for the welfare and cultural association for all those ethnic Germans who had their home in Hungary until the end of the second world war. The people of Vesoul (France, 1964), of Tata (Hungary, 1987) and Seaham (England, 1988) have become our friends. Through their regular school exchanges, the young people continue to further this international understanding. In 1999 Gerlingen was awarded the Plaque of Honour by the European Parliament for its exceptional international commitment – an honour for every citizen of the town.
Plaque of Honour by the European Parliament
Culture for Everyone
Many important roles are played out within the cultural life of the town. Art lovers meet at exhibitions in the Town Hall Gallery, theatre-goers in the Concert Hall at performances by well-known touring companies and film freaks love the mobile cinema. The bookworm can lose himself among the shelves in the Town Library. The special exhibitions in the Town Museum and the concert evenings are all a part of the cultural scene. But it is quite definitely the clubs who put their stamp on the cultural life of the town.
Looking Back
History also has its place in Gerlingen. The Town Museum also houses the Museum for the Germans from Hungary, who from 1945 onwards quite definitely contributed to the town’s economic upturn. The Golden Jubilee, celebrating the official raising of the village of Gerlingen to the status of a town, has already been entered in the diary for 2008.
The family of Friedrich Schiller, the Prince of Poets, lived from 1775 until 1796 at Schloss Solitude, which had belonged within the boundaries of Gerlingen until 1942. The poet’s father, Johann Caspar, and his sister, Nanette, are buried at the side of St. Peter’s Church, the oldest architectural monument in the town.
Visitors can sense a breath of history in the Missionary Room in Johann Rebmann’s birthplace which was lovingly restored in 2004. He was the first European in the 18th century to discover the snow-capped peak of Kilimanjaro.
Relaxation
On your very own doorstep you can find real nature. Walks, vine-clad slopes and green meadows. Relaxation in the most forested community in the region of Ludwigsburg. Out of the town’s total of 3,500 acres, 2,800 are either woods, meadows, fields or gardens. The people of Gerlingen feel well and happy in their town – on their doorstep: total relaxation.
Keep Talking
Gerlingen has enormous potential for development. The town is never silent. People are talking to one another all the time. Just visit the weekly market on Saturdays. There you’ll meet your neighbours and your friends or you can have a friendly chat with the mayor on one of his regular Saturday morning appearances. Contacts are soon established. You might bump into someone you know at every corner.
The people of Gerlingen all have plenty to say to one another – about and in Gerlingen – the town where everyone feels at home.