Ingolstadt's most unexpected claim to literary fame is its role in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (1818), in which Victor Frankenstein pursues his obsessive experiments in human animation at the University of Ingolstadt. Shelley chose the city deliberately — the university had a genuine 18th-century reputation for medical research, and the anatomical theatre where the Medizinhistorisches Museum now stands is exactly the kind of place she imagined.
The University of Ingolstadt itself moved to Landshut in 1800 and then to Munich, where it became Ludwig Maximilian University. What remains in Ingolstadt is the anatomy theatre, a handful of related historical buildings, and a literary reputation that has grown as Frankenstein has aged from gothic novel to cultural touchstone. The Medizinhistorisches Museum plays up the connection tastefully. There are walking tour routes that trace Frankenstein-related sites around the old town; ask at the tourist information office.