Frauenkopf

The Frauenkopf is a wooded hill reaching 462.7 metres above sea level, lying south-east of Stuttgart’s centre. Its slopes drop eastwards into the Hedelfingen district and the land around it carries traces of early settlement. A medieval chapel dedicated to ‘Our Lady’ once stood on the summit, giving the hill its name. Beneath the trees lie a prehistoric burial mound and a Neolithic settlement site known as Fuchsrain. The hill carries the 192-metre Stuttgart Fernmeldeturm, a concrete telecommunications tower built between 1970 and 1972. Unlike the nearby television tower, its low but wide viewing gallery sits just above the treetops and houses technical equipment rather than visitors. Close by is an evangelical holiday forest home for children aged four to fourteen, set among the same woods. The Frauenkopf district was created in 1956 on land once belonging to Rohracker, which was incorporated into Stuttgart in 1937. Today it covers about five square kilometres yet holds only around eight hundred residents, most living in the eastern fringe near Hedelfingen. A quiet residential area with high property prices, it is bordered by Gablenberg, Wangen, Sillenbuch and Stuttgart-Süd. A narrow lane called the Speidelweg links the hill with Rohracker and the Neckar valley, while the Merz-Schule with its boarding house sits on the northern edge.