Locations: Aachen

Aachen

Aachen is Germany's most westerly city, with a population of some 250,000. It is situated directly on the border with Belgium and the Netherlands. Nearly 40,000 students attend Aachen's four major colleges and universities (RWTH Aachen University, Aachen University of Applied Sciences, Catholic University of Applied Sciences, and Academy of Music). Aachen unites tradition with progress. Charlemagne has left his mark throughout the city. The 8th-century cathedral - the first monument in Germany to be included in the UNESCO Cultural Heritage list - and the gothic City Hall, in which 32 German kings celebrated their coronations, still form the heart of Aachen's old city centre.

But Aachen is by no means just a museum; it is a modern city, open to the world, with political, economic and cultural contacts that reach far beyond Germany's borders. One example is Europe's first transnational industrial estate with the name Avantis, which was developed in cooperation with the Dutch town of Heerlen. At EXPO 2000 in Hannover, Aachen was presented as a European model region, as a fine example of successful structural change and a remarkable instance of a region's departure from mining and conventional industry to become one of Europe's major high-tech locations.

This success story is a result of the cooperation between the universities and the chambers of industry, research institutions, companies, business establishment centres, and the city's administration. The scientific competence available in Aachen has attracted famous international enterprises and research institutions including Ericsson, Ford, Philips, Takeda Pharma, and Microsoft, and enabled the successful placing of up-and-coming technology companies such as Aixtron and Parsytec. Some 500 new, forward-looking companies providing over 10,000 jobs have been established since 1985. Aachen's colleges and universities develop top technologies for high-tech industries such as information and telecommunication engineering, plastics engineering, computer science, materials science, and biotechnology.

Aachen has much to offer in respect of quality of life! The city has a flair and an atmosphere of its own. The attractive layout of the old city centre, the important historic monuments, the wells and baths over the hottest natural springs in Europe, the bustling activity in the streets and squares, the cultural diversity and quality, and the many recreational and leisure activities - for example the volcanic mountain region Eifel just at Aachens backdoor - make the city an exciting and pleasing whole.

More information for scientists and students can be found on this image homepage, more information on Aachen in generell here.

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