Marbach am Neckar is a town about 20 kilometres north of Stuttgart. It belongs to the district of Ludwigsburg, the Stuttgart region and the European metropolitan region of Stuttgart. Marbach is known as the birthplace of Friedrich Schiller, to whom it owes the additional designation of Schiller City, which it has officially held since 2022.[2] The town is home to the Schiller National Museum, the German Literature Archive and the Modern Literature Museum. Geography Geographical location Marbach is located in the Neckar Basin on the eastern bank of a loop of the Neckar, whose impact slope is interrupted by two deep cuts. The northern of the two cuts is flowed through by the largely blocked Strenzelbach stream, the southern by the Eichgraben ditch. Marbach's old town lies on the southern slope of the Strenzelbach valley, some 30 metres above the Neckar, while the newer residential and commercial areas are spread across the slopes further to the north-east, east and south. Even further south, somewhat secluded by the cutting of the Eichgraben, is the residential area of Hörnle with about 1600 inhabitants. The furrow formed by the Strenzelbach cuts short a loop of the Murr, which flows into the Neckar just north of the town, and forms an important traffic axis for Marbach and the surrounding area. Districts and exclaves In addition to the immediate surroundings of the Inner City, the urban area includes a narrow strip extending southwest along the Neckar River and incorporating the Marbach power plant. Furthermore, three exclaves belong to the urban area. Two of them are the districts of Rielingshausen and Siegelhausen, both of which are spatially separated from Marbach. While the area of the core town itself is almost free of forest, the largest part of the forest area of Marbach comprises the uninhabited exclave in the Hardtwald to the north-east of the district of Rielingshausen, which is assigned to the Schwäbisch-Fränkische Waldberge natural area. Rielingshausen, with about 2800 inhabitants, is located about five kilometres northeast of Marbach on a hill between the Murr and the Hardtwald. The hamlet of Hinterbirkenhof, one and a half kilometres to the north, also belongs to the village. The district is divided by several stream valleys, all of which lead to the Murr. The village centre lies in the shallow hollow of the Weidenbach, while the Kaisersbach forms a depression between Rielingshausen and Hinterbirkenhof. The eastern boundary of the