Mannheim
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Mannheim (German pronunciation: [ˈmanhaɪm] ; Palatine German: Mannem or Monnem), officially the University City of Mannheim (German: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart, the state capital, and Germany's 21st-largest city, with a population of over 315,000. It is located at the border with Rhineland-Palatinate. The city is the cultural and economic centre of the Rhine-Neckar, Germany's seventh-largest metropolitan region, with nearly 2.4 million inhabitants. Mannheim is located at the confluence of the Upper Rhine and the Neckar in the Kurpfalz (Electoral Palatinate) region of northwestern Baden-Württemberg. The city lies in the Upper Rhine Plain, Germany's warmest region, between the Palatine Forest and the Oden Forest. Mannheim forms a continuous urban zone of around 500,000 inhabitants with Ludwigshafen am Rhein in the Rhineland-Palatinate, while some northern suburbs lie in Hesse; Hamburg is the only other German city with a presence in two states other than its own. Unusually for a German city, central Mannheim's streets and avenues are laid out in a grid pattern, leading to its nickname as the Quadratestadt (Square City) and the tourism slogan "Leben im Quadrat" ("Life in the Square"). At the southern base of this system is Mannheim Palace. It was the former home of the Prince-elector of the Electoral Palatinate, and now houses the University of Mannheim. The civic symbol of the city is the Mannheim Water Tower, completed in 1886 and rising to 60 metres (200 feet) above the art nouveau area Friedrichsplatz. Held annually, the May Market is the largest regional consumer exhibition of Germany. Mannheim is well-known for its inventions, including the automobile, the bicycle, and the tractor, leading to a nickname of the "city of inventions". The city is the starting and finishing point of the Bertha Benz Memorial Route, which follows the tracks of the first long-distance automobile trip in history. A Großstadt (major city with more than 100,000 inhabitants) since 1896, Mannheim is an important industrial and commercial city, a university town, and a major transportation hub between Frankfurt and Stuttgart, including an ICE interchange (the Mannheim Hauptbahnhof), Germany's second-largest marshalling yard (the Mannheim Rangierbahnhof), and Germany's largest inland port (the Mannheim Harbour). The city is home to many factories, offices and headquarters of several major corporations such as Roche, ABB, IBM, Siemens, Unilever and more. Mannheim's SAP Arena is home to German ice hockey record champions Adler Mannheim as well as the popular handball team Rhein-Neckar Löwen. Since 2014, Mannheim has been a member of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network and holds the title of "UNESCO City of Music". In 2020, Mannheim was classified as a global city with 'Sufficiency' status by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC). Mannheim is a smart city; the city's electrical grid is installed with a power-line communication network.