Iqbal-Ufer of Heidelberg

Owais Mughal and Umar Marwat

My firend Umar Marwat recently drove on Iqbal-Ufer in Heidelberg, Germany. He sends us following photos of signs and views along this road named after one of the greatest poets of the sub-continent, Allama Mohammad Iqbal.

Allama earned his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg in philosophy. Germans have paid tribute to him by naming a road after him.

Clicking on photos below will take you to their large size images.

One website here describes the bank (ufer in German) of river Neckar has been named after Iqbal. It is said that many tourists, Pakistanis and others come to Heidelberg just looking for this road.

An excerpt from Dr Thomas Stemmer’s write up on Iqbal where, among other things, he tells about his experience of finding Iqbal-ufer in Heidelberg.

I came across the name Muhammad Iqbal in a very poetic way. The year was 1985 and I had just celebrated my 22nd birthday. My parents had driven me to Heidelberg so that I could start my studies at the South Asia Institute and at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Heidelberg. I was new to the city, and therefore I enjoyed late evening walks through the streets trying to catch the atmosphere. While strolling through the dawn I developed the habit of reading the names of the streets trying to put them to memory. One evening I felt a strong attraction to the river Neckar. Readily I gave in to that urge, since walking alongside a river surely is an uplifting experience. It was there that I followed a noisy street at the river known as B 37. I already knew this B 37 as Vangerowstraße, but here, close to the city’s centre, the name was different: Iqbal-Ufer. That struck me as odd. Who was Iqbal? I pondered. While walking around I even discovered some sort of a memorial stone with the very same name on it: Iqbal.

I have always had a love for unknown things and I thought I’ve got to find out more about this… However, I might have forgotten about it, since my mind was absorbed in getting accustomed to university life. But the name Iqbal would show up a second time. While selecting the courses I came to know that at the South Asia Institute there was an Iqbal Chair, held by a visiting guest professor from Pakistan. Since the name Iqbal had now presented itself again, I quickly enrolled in the course on Sufi poetry offered by Prof. Malik, who held the Iqbal Chair in those days.

Clicking on photos below will take you to their large size images.

And here is a portion of Heidelberg map showing the location of Iqbal-Ufer.

Photo Credits: Photos are by Umar Marwat

References:

(1) Iqbal-Ufer Heidelberg by Farood Ahmed Kiani, includes photos.
(2) Iqbal The Poet by Dr. Thomas Stemmer
(3) A century of Iqbal in Heidelberg
(4) Map of Heidelberg – showing Iqbal-ufer
(5) Iqbal-Ufer Google Map