Göttingen, Germany - May 13, 2010

The Georg-August-Universität was founded in Göttingen in 1737 and currently has 24,000 students on campus - almost one in five of the total city population. Many students live in and around the old city and imbue it with a youthful energy. The city itself came into being in the second half of the 12th century.
Following the upheaval of the Reformation there was a dearth of Catholic churches in the entire region and it wasn't until 1787 that the first new one, Saint Michael's, was built. Saint Paul's was the second post-Reformation Catholic church and that didn't appear until 1929.

There has been an ongoing secular trend throughout Germany since WWII, more so in Eastern Germany, and a growing number of people choose not to be baptised or otherwise leave the church. This trend has slowed somewhat in the new millenium and the larger churches are more or less stable.
About two weeks after we visited Göttingen, an 1,100 lb WWII bomb exploded on the construction site of a new stadium. This was the second bomb found on the site - the first was disposed of safely - and three people were killed in the incident. 
More pictures from our walkabout are here.