Mannheim is a city in the southwestern part of Germany, the third-largest in the German state of Baden-Württemberg with a 2015 population of approximately 305,000 inhabitants. The city is at the centre of the larger densely populated Rhine-Neckar Metropolitan Region which has a population of 2,400,000 and is Germany's eighth-largest metropolitan region.
Mannheim is unusual among German cities in that its streets and avenues are laid out in a grid pattern, leading to its nickname "die Quadratestadt" ("The City of Squares"). The city's tourism slogan is "Leben. Im Quadrat." (Life. Squared.).
The University of Mannheim is one of Germany's younger universities. Although founded in 1967, it has its origins in the 1763-established Palatine Academy of Sciences and the former Handelshochschule. Situated in Mannheim Palace, it is Germany's leading university in business and economics and attracts students from around the world.
The university town also houses one of the medical schools of Heidelberg University, the Hochschule Mannheim, a branch of the Duale Hochschule of the State of Baden-Württemberg and several musical and theatrical academies, including the Pop Academy Mannheim, the Musikhochschule and the Theaterakademie. These institutions draw a large and diverse student body.
The city is home to major corporations including Daimler, John Deere, Caterpillar, ABB, Fuchs Petrolub, IBM, Roche, Reckitt Benckiser, Unilever, Phoenix Group, Siemens, and several other well-known companies. The successor to the Karl Benz automobile manufacturing companies begun in Mannheim, Daimler AG, has had a large presence in Mannheim. Today, diesel engines and buses are assembled there.
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