Nearly all visitors to Heidelberg Palace meet the dwarf Perkeo. He is one of the favorite figures of the palace guides. His statue stands on a pedestal opposite the enormous wooden wine barrel, the largest in the world. It had a capacity of 195,000 liters (approx. 51,514 gal.). The South Tirolian Perkeo was court jester and barrel watchman under Elector Karl Philipp (1716-1742) and held his wine well. As the legend goes, he died after drinking a glass of water once instead of wine. His name is supposedly derived from his reply to every offer of a drink, "Perche No?" ("Why not?").
The poet Friedrich Hölderlin (1770-1843) wrote an ode to Heidelberg:
"Aber schwer in das Tal hing die gigantische
Schicksalskundige Burg nieder bis auf den Grund
Von den Wettern zerissen;
Doch die ewige Sonne goß
Ihr verjüngend Licht über das alternde
Riesenbild, und umher grünte lebendiger
Efeu; freundliche Wälder
Rauschten über die Burg herab (...)"
Much has been sung and written about Heidelberg, primarily during the Romantic period. Clemens Brentano composed the "Lied von eines Studenten Ankunft in Heidelberg" (Song of a Student's Arrival in Heidelberg):
"Der Neckar rauscht aus grünen Hallen
Und giebt am Fels ein freudig Schallen,
Die Stadt streckt sich den Fluß hinunter,
Mia Adt viel Geräusch und lärmt ganz munter,
Und drüber an grüner Berge Brust,
Ruht groß das Schloß und sieht die Lust,
Und da ich auf zum Himmel schaut´,
Sah ich ein Gottes Werk gebaut,
Vom Königstuhl zum heil´gen Berges Rücken
Sah ich gesprengt eine goldne Brücken,
Sah ich gewölbt des Friedens Regenbogen
Und sah ihn wieder in Flusses Wogen (...)"
In the 19th century Heidelberg attracted the most famous German poets, including Jean Paul, who was treated like a prince in the city:
"I have experienced students here, as I have found them under my life's most beautiful heaven, especially the boat trip, the three cheers of the students, and yesterday's songs (...) The gregarious tone here is lightness, decency and joy; four partially emptied bowls of punch at Voß's and 100 emptied wine bottles on the boat allowed this tone to persist."
The distance to tourism and to the cliché of romantic love to the student town on the Neckar River has changed the literary attitude toward Heidelberg in the 20th century.
The author Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935) once remarked sarcastically, "For the prettiest place on this my earth, that is my Heidelberg in Vienna on the Rhine".