The Stuttgart Metropolitan Region is a

metropolitan region A metropolitan area or metro is a region that consists of a densely populated urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing. A metro area usually com ...

in south-west

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

consisting of the

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

and regions around

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

Heilbronn Heilbronn () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in northern Baden-Württemberg, Germany, surrounded by Heilbronn (district), Heilbronn District. With over 126,000 residents, it is the sixth-largest city in the state. From the late Mid ...

Tübingen Tübingen (, , Swabian: ''Dibenga'') is a traditional university city in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, and developed on both sides of the Neckar and Ammer rivers. about one in thr ...

Reutlingen Reutlingen (; Swabian: ''Reitlenga'') is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is the capital of the eponymous district of Reutlingen. As of June 2018, it has a population of 115,818. Reutlingen has a university of applied sciences, which ...

. These cities are arranged into three

agglomeration Agglomeration may refer to: * Urban agglomeration, in standard English * Megalopolis, in Chinese English, as defined in China's ''Standard for basic terminology of urban planning'' (GB/T 50280—98). Also known as " city cluster". * Economies of ag ...

areas. The

population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

of the area is about 5,300,000 and it is one of the biggest regions in Germany. This area covers an area of ca 15,000 km². The Stuttgart metropolitan region is roughly 200 km south of

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, 200 km west of

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

and about 600 km east of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. Other metropolitan areas around are

Rhine-Neckar The Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region (german: Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar, ), often referred to as Rhein-Neckar-Triangle, is a polycentric metropolitan region located in south western Germany, between the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main region to the North ...

Frankfurt Rhine-Main The Rhine-Main Metropolitan Region, often simply referred to as Frankfurt Rhine-Main, Frankfurt Rhine-Main area or Rhine-Main area (German: ''Rhein-Main-Gebiet'' or ''Frankfurt/Rhein-Main'', abbreviated FRM), is the second-largest Metropolitan reg ...

, Nuremberg Metropolitan and Munich Metropolitan. The region is one of the economically strongest regions in

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. Many well-known companies like Daimler,

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

, Bosch, Mahle,

Lidl Lidl Stiftung & Co. KG (; ) is a German international discount retailer chain that operates over 11,000 stores across Europe and the United States. Headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, the company belongs to the Schwarz Group, whi ...

Kaufland Kaufland is a German hypermarket chain, part of the Schwarz Gruppe which also owns Lidl. The hypermarket directly translates to English as 'buy-land'. It opened its first store in 1984 in Neckarsulm and quickly expanded to become a major chain ...

Würth The Würth Group (german: Würth-Gruppe, ) is a worldwide wholesaler of fasteners, screws and screw accessories, dowels, chemicals, electronic and electromechanical components, furniture and construction fittings, tools, machines, installation ma ...

Märklin Gebr. Märklin & Cie. GmbH or Märklin (MÄRKLIN or MAERKLIN in capital letters) is a German toy company. The company was founded in 1859 and is based at Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg. Although it originally specialised in doll house accesso ...

, Stihl,

Kärcher Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG is a German family-owned company that operates worldwide and is known for its high-pressure cleaners, floor care equipment, parts cleaning systems, wash water treatment, military decontamination equipment and window ...

Trumpf The TRUMPF Group is a German industrial machine manufacturing company. It is a family-owned company with its head office in Ditzingen near Stuttgart. TRUMPF is one of the world's biggest providers of machine tools. With more than 70 operative s ...

and

Festo Festo is a German automation company based in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Festo produces and sells pneumatic and electrical control systems and drive technology for factories and process automation. Festo Didactic also offers industrial ed ...

have their worldwide headquarters in the region. Furthermore many small and medium-size

hidden champions Hidden champions are relatively small but highly successful companies that are concealed behind a curtain of inconspicuousness, invisibility, and sometimes secrecy. The term was coined by Hermann Simon. He first used the term as a title of a public ...

are located in the region, forming the German

Mittelstand commonly refers to a group of stable business enterprises in Germany, Austria and Switzerland that have proved successful in enduring economic change and turbulence. The term is difficult to translate and may cause confusion for non-Germans. It ...

. International companies like IBM,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

, Intersport,

Euronics Euronics International Ltd. is an international association of over 11,000 independent electrical retailers in 37 countries. It functions as a leading international electrical retail group on behalf of its members, and is based in Amsterdam ...

and

FrieslandCampina Royal FrieslandCampina N.V. is a Dutch multinational dairy cooperative which is based in Amersfoort, Netherlands. It is the result of a merger between Friesland Foods and Campina on 30 December 2008. The European Commission approved this merger ...

have their German headquarters in the region as well. Culturally the region is mostly Swabian, with some Franconian parts in the north. The region has a strong

wine Wine is an alcoholic drink typically made from fermented grapes. Yeast consumes the sugar in the grapes and converts it to ethanol and carbon dioxide, releasing heat in the process. Different varieties of grapes and strains of yeasts are m ...

and

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

tradition with many wine and beer festivals round the year. Most notably are the Cannstatter Volksfest (an

Oktoberfest The Oktoberfest (; bar, Wiesn, Oktobafest) is the world's largest Volksfest, featuring a beer festival and a travelling carnival. It is held annually in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It is a 16- to 18-day folk festival running from mid- or ...

-like celebration that occurs twice a year), the Stuttgart wine festival and the Heilbronn wine festival. Typical dishes of the region are

Maultasche (singular ''Maultasche'' , ) are a kind of large meat-filled dumpling in Swabian cuisine. They consist of sheets of pasta dough filled with minced meat, smoked meat, spinach, bread crumbs and onions and flavored with various herbs and spice ...

Spätzle Spätzle (or spaetzle; ) is a type of pasta or dumpling made with eggs, typically serving as a side for meat dishes with gravy. Commonly associated with Swabia, it is also found in the cuisines of southern Germany and Austria, Switzerland, Hung ...

(e.g. as Linsen mit Spätzle), Flädle soup,

Schupfnudel Schupfnudel (German; plural ''Schupfnudeln''), also called Fingernudel (''finger noodle''), is a type of dumpling or thick noodle in southern German and Austrian cuisine. It is similar to the Central European kopytka. They take various forms and ...

n and Zwiebelrostbraten.

Maps

XkDE-BW bevdichte 2007-EMR-Stuttgart-o.svg, Location of the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region (orange) in Baden-Württemberg Metropolregion Stuttgart.png, Location of the Stuttgart Metropolitan Region in Germany

References

{{Authority control Metropolitan areas of Germany Stuttgart (region) Planning regions in Baden-Württemberg

Maps

See also

References