The central objective

Mark Twain Center - the idea

The Mark Twain Center for Transatlantic Relations (MTC) is a cultural and educational center in Heidelberg’s Südstadt district that opened in May 2022. It features a large multimedia exhibition that brings the shared history of Germans and Americans to life in a novel way and invites visitors to reflect on it. Against this historical backdrop, the MTC team organizes academic projects as well as cultural and educational programs on the topics of global security, peace policy, and human rights.
 
The MTC is housed in a building that was constructed in 1937 as an officers’ mess for an infantry regiment of the German Wehrmacht and bears striking architectural traces of this chapter in its history. After World War II, it served as the headquarters of the U.S. Army in Europe until 2013, from which up to 250,000 soldiers were commanded.
 
With the establishment of the MTC, the city of Heidelberg commemorates its multifaceted ties to the United States and the transformation of relations from wartime adversaries to partners and friends in the postwar era. The center’s namesake, Samuel L. Clemens—better known as Mark Twain—spent three months of his life in Heidelberg, and his critical and reflective approach to prejudice and stereotypes serves as a source of inspiration for the MTC’s work.