The thriftiness of local residents is also often the subject of controversy and jokes of residents of the surrounding areas. Historically, Mannheim was formed in a fairly poor agricultural area. For hundreds of years, locals worked for the benefit of a rich harvest, and then put a lot of effort to save the grown vegetables. Despite the fact that the hard times for the city were far behind, thrift has remained a bright feature of the national character for local residents. They are not used to spend too much, always try to save money earned and lead a fairly modest lifestyle. Many foreign tourists may consider this behaviour as banal greed, in fact, these are the prevailing features of the local character for many years.
Mannheim has many interesting features, in terms of the layout of city streets, it is one of the most accurate and mathematically verified cities in Germany. The Central district of the city still has the layout of a chessboard which was formed hundreds of years ago. All streets are located strictly parallel and perpendicular to each other, the entire Central district is divided into blocks of regular square shape. There are no names for the streets, the letters of the Latin alphabet and the numbers from 1 to 9 are used for the designation of quarters. The Central area of Mannheim is a historic place and it is often called "city of squares".
The picturesque town has a rich cultural life and there are many interesting holidays and festivals during the year. Since 1952 Mannheim has been a permanent venue for the International film festival, which is always visited by a huge number of foreign guests. Every year, the festival is visited by more than 60,000 tourists, it is attended by famous producers, filmmakers and actors. The city has a school of fine arts, as well as a higher school of music, so it hosts interesting concerts and exhibitions throughout the year.
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