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Marburg is the seat of the oldest Protestant university in the world, the University of Marburg, or Philipps-Universität, founded in 1527. It is one of the four classical "university villages" in Germany, the other three being Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Tübingen.
In 1529, Philipp I of Hesse arranged the Conference of Marburg, to propitiate Luther and Zwingli.
Due to its neglect during the entire 18th century Marburg - like Rye or Chartres - survived as a relatively intact Gothic town, simply because there was no money spent on any new architecture or expansion. When Romanticism became the dominant cultural and artistic paradigm in Germany, Marburg became interesting once again, and many of the leaders of the movement lived, taught, or studied in Marburg. They formed a circle of friends that was of great importance, especially in literature, philology, folklore, and law. The group included Friedrich Carl v. Savingy , the most important jurist of his day and father of the Roman Law adaption in Germany; the poets, writers, and social activists Achim von Arnim, Clemens Brentano, and especially the latter's sister and former's later wife, Bettina von Arnim. Most famous internationally, however, were the Brothers Grimm, who collected many of their fairy tales here - Rapunzel's Tower stands in Marburg, and across the Lahn hills, in the area called Schwalm, little girls' costumes included a red hood...
It has to be said, however, that this circle had disappeared from Marburg by the 1820s, and for another 45 years, Marburg became a Hessian backwater again.
In the Austro-Prussian War of 1866, the reactionary Elector of Hesse had foolsihly backed Austria; Prussia won, and invaded (without any bloodshed) and annexed Hesse-Kassel (as well as Hanover, the City of Frankfurt, and other territories), while pro-Prussian Hesse-Darmstadt remained independent. For Marburg, this turn of events was very positive, because Prussia decided to make Marburg its main administrative center in this part of her province, and to turn the university in the regional academic center. Thus, Marburg's rise as an administrative and university city began; since the Prussian university system would become the indubitably best in the world, Marburg would now attract very famous scholars. There was, on the other hand, hardly any industry to speak of, so that students, professors, and civil servants - who generally had enough but not much money and paid very little taxes - dominated the town, which tended to be very conservative.
Marburg is famous for its medieval churches, especially the Elisabethkirche, one of the two or three first purely Gothic churches North of the Alps outside of France and thus an incunable of Gothic architecture in Germany, as well as for the castle.
More important, however, is Marburg's city as such, an unspoilt, spire-dominated, castle-crowned Gothic/Renaissance city on a hill, intact because Marburg was an extreme backwater between 1600 and 1850. Contrary to e.g. Rothenburg ob der Tauber , Marburg regained some of its importance in later centuries, so it is not a "museum village" or EuroDisney, no tourist trap but rather a student-dominated university town.
Much of the physical attractiveness of Marburg today is the legacy of the legendary Lord Mayor Dr. Hanno Drechsler (in office 1970-1992), who promoted urban renewal and the restoration, for the first time, by object and not by area, i.e. areas were not pulled down but rather buildings restored. Thus, at a time when other cities were still pulling down medieval quarters, Marburg already protected its unique heritage. Marburg also had one of the first pedestrian zones in Germany. Marburg Altstadtsanierung (since 1972) received many awards and prizes.
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