Stuttgart Schwabenpower flag 90 x 150 cm
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 (December 2008) while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million (2008).
The city lies at the centre of a heavily populated area, circled by a ring of smaller towns. This area called Stuttgart Region has a population of 2.7 million making greater Stuttgart the third biggest urban area in Germany after the Ruhr Area and Berlin. With over 5 million inhabitants, the larger Stuttgart Metropolitan Region is the fourth-biggest in Germany after the Rhine-Ruhr area, Berlin/Brandenburg and Frankfurt/Rhine-Main.
Stuttgart is spread across a variety of hills (some of them vineyards), valleys and parks - unusual for a German city and often a source of surprise to visitors who primarily associate the city with its industrial reputation as the cradle of the automobile.
Stuttgart has the status of Stadtkreis, a type of self-administrating urban county. It is also the seat of the state legislature, the regional parliament, local council and the Protestant State Church in Württemberg as well as one of the two co-seats of the bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Rottenburg-Stuttgart.
The city of Stuttgart ranked 30 globally in Mercers 2010 liveability rankings, and 7th in Germany behind top-ranked cities such as Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Munich. For economic and social innovation the city was ranked 11 globally, 2nd in Germany after Hamburg and 7th in Europe in 2009 out of 256 cities.
The citys tourism slogan is -Stuttgart is more-. Under current plans to improve transport links to the international infrastructure (as part of the Stuttgart 21 project), in March 2008 the city unveiled a new logo and slogan, describing itself as -Das neue Herz Europas- (-The new heart of Europe-). For business it describes itself as -Standort Zukunft-, -Where business meets the future-). In 2007 the Bürgermeister marketed Stuttgart to foreign investors as -The creative power of Germany-. In July 2010, Stuttgart unveiled a new city logo, designed to entice more business people to stay in the city and enjoy breaks in the area.
Stuttgart is nicknamed the Schwabenmetropole (Swabian metropolis), a reference to the Swabian dialect spoken by the locals. In that dialect, the citys name is pronounced Schturget or Schtuagerd.
Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart, is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, the capital of Baden-Württemberg. The club is best known for its football team, which has participated in all but two Bundesliga seasons. The team has won the national championship five times in total most recently in the 2006 07 season and the DFB-Pokal (German cup) three times.
The football team plays its home games at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, situated in the Cannstatter Wasen sports complex. It is famous for its talented reserve team, VfB Stuttgart II, which currently plays in the 3rd Liga, two divisions below the first team, in the highest division allowed for a reserve team.
VfB Stuttgart is a membership-based club and with 45.037 (as of: January 2009), VfB is the largest sports club in the state and the fifth largest in the country. In addition to the successes of the professional, amateur and youth football teams, athletes from the clubs athletics department have won numerous titles and medals. The club also has departments for fistball, hockey, table-tennis and football referees. These five departments only compete at amateur level. The club also maintains a social department, the VfB-Garde.
source: Wikipedia