The famous ode that Hölderlin dedicated to the city of Heidelberg is known to most readers only in the printed version. To mark Hölderlin's 250th birthday, Wunderhorn-Verlag is publishing a facsimile edition of the first draft, which brings together and makes accessible all of Hölderlin's manuscripts. It brings together the sheet preserved in the Kurpfälzisches Museum Heidelberg with the sheet now in the Württembergische Landesbibliothek (Stuttgart), which contains the conclusion of the draft poem. Hölderlin's manuscript not only contains two additional stanzas, which were later deleted - probably in order to bring the number of stanzas into correspondence with the eight pillars of the Old Bridge, which features prominently in the poem. It also features biographical references that Hölderlin retracted in the later editorial team. The verses "Ein vertriebener Wandrer / Der vor Menschen und Büchern fleh" refer to his abrupt departure from Jena, which immediately preceded the second documented visit to Heidelberg in 1795. In order to better orientate oneself in the complicated draft, the facsimiles are accompanied by an exact transcription. For a better understanding of Hölderlin's creative process, the different phases of work are highlighted in colour. The differentiated presentation of the text's genesis goes beyond what has been recorded in previous editions. For example, it is recognisable that the nucleus of the poem is formed by the verse parts "Lange lieb' ich Dich schon / Du der Vaterlandsstädte / Ländlichschönste" (I have loved you for a long time / You of the fatherland cities / Most rurally beautiful), which - themselves left untouched - were only developed in further revision steps into the first stanza of the poem as we know it today from the printed text.