Pforzheim is a city with 127,849 inhabitants (December 31, 2022) in
north-western Baden-Württemberg on the northern edge of the Black Forest
at the confluence of the Enz, Nagold and Würm rivers. Pforzheim is an
urban district and at the same time the administrative seat of the
Enzkreis, which almost completely encloses the urban area. The city is a
center of the Karlsruhe/Pforzheim conurbation, which has around 650,000
inhabitants. The city is also the main center of the northern Black
Forest region. The nearest larger cities are Karlsruhe (about 25
kilometers north-west) and the state capital Stuttgart (about 37
kilometers south-east). Pforzheim is home to numerous secondary schools
and a university of applied sciences (Hochschule Pforzheim).
Pforzheim was originally founded by the Romans. The name derives from
the Latin Port(us) (= perhaps river port or stacking area), the Roman
(partial) name of the Roman settlement in today's urban area of
Pforzheim handed down on the Leugenstein of Friolzheim. As the capital
of a civitas in the province of Germania superior, the Roman city of
Portus was an administrative center. The Latin name was also
Phorcen(sis) in the Middle Ages.
In 1067, Pforzheim was first
mentioned in a document from King Heinrich IV. As a residential town in
Baden, Pforzheim was repeatedly destroyed by French troops at the end of
the 17th century. The British air raid on Pforzheim on February 23, 1945
destroyed 80 percent of the city area and claimed almost 18,000 lives.
Pforzheim became world famous for the jewelery and watch industry
founded in 1767 by Margrave Karl Friedrich von Baden. This is what the
nickname Goldstadt or Gold, Jewelery and Watch City refers to. About 75
percent of German jewelery is produced in the city; In addition, the
only goldsmith school with watchmaking school in Germany is located
here.
Pforzheim is also called the gateway to the Black Forest.
The Black Forest hiking trails to Basel (west route), Waldshut (middle
route) and Schaffhausen (east route) start here. The
Schwarzwald-Schwäbische-Alb-Allgäu-Weg also has its starting point
there, it leads over 311 kilometers into the Allgäu. The place is also
the end point of the Bertha Benz Memorial Route.
By plane
The nearest airport is Stuttgart Airport (IATA: STR) .
By train
Pforzheim Hbf has direct connections to Karlsruhe and to
Mühlacker, Vaihingen an der Enz and Stuttgart. The Nagoldbahn runs from
Pforzheim to Horb am Neckar. The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn runs its line S5 to
Pforzheim and on to Bietigheim-Bissingen. The S6 line also runs through
Pforzheim and on through the Enz Valley, ending in Bad Wildbad.
By bus
Pforzheim is connected to the long-distance bus network. There
are connections to Stuttgart, to Frankfurt/M. and to Croatia. The
Pforzheim long-distance bus stop on Lindenstrasse is close to the train
station.
Public transport is served by the Verkehrsverbund
Pforzheim-Enzkreis (VPE lines).
In the street
In Pforzheim,
environmental zones have been set up in accordance with the Fine Dust
Ordinance. If you don't have the appropriate badge, you risk a fine of
€100 when entering an environmental zone. This also applies to foreign
road users.
Pforzheim can be easily reached via the A8, symbol:
AS 43 to 45. The B10 comes from Karlsruhe and leads to Mühlacker and
Vaihingen, the B294 comes from Bretten and the B463 leads through the
Nagoldtal via Calw to Horb. The city can also be reached via various
country roads.
Taxi-Funk-Zentrale Pforzheim e.V., Güterbahnhof 11, Tel. 07231 / 13
99 99
Night taxi, the Pforzheim night taxi is always on the road from
Friday to Saturday and Saturday to Sunday from 2.20 a.m. to 4.15 a.m. to
drive all “night actives” through Pforzheim. According to the timetable,
of course. Anyone who has had enough of Pforzheim's nightlife can get on
or change into a "shared taxi" at Leopoldplatz, which takes its
passengers right to the front door - to the Enzkreis and Dobel. TAXI
tickets are available from all pubs and discotheques involved in the
night taxi campaign. Of course, the taxi drivers also have tickets in
stock. Info on Tel. 07231 / 13 99 99.
Women's night taxi, daily from
7:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. discounted trips are possible with the women's
night taxi. Info on Tel. 07231 / 13 99 99.
Minicar Pforzheim,
Büchenbronner Str. 70, Tel. 07231 / 44 44 44
Archaeological site of Kappelhof - Roman and medieval excavations
Rural Museum Eutingen
GDR Museum 'Against Oblivion'
Home of the
country teams
Gasometer Pforzheim: Since December 2014, the world's
largest 360° circular paintings by the artist Yadegar Asisi have been on
display in a renovated and converted former gas storage facility in
Enzauenpark.
City Gallery Pforzheim
Reuchlin house
Jewelery
Museum Pforzheim in the Reuchlinhaus
Pforzheim City Museum (city
history)
Technical Museum of the Pforzheim Jewelery and Watch
Industry
Weißenstein station - railway history in the Pforzheim area
Roman estate in the Chancellor Forest
Gemstone exhibition widow
Schütt
Mineral Museum and World of Jewelery Pforzheim: a shopping and
adventure center for jewelery and watches
Museum Johannes Reuchlin:
The museum was opened in September 2008 and is at the same time the
completion of the reconstruction of the castle and collegiate church of
St. Michael. The exhibits in the exhibition report on four levels about
the origin, life, work and impact of Johannes Reuchlin, Germany's first
humanist.
Complaints about an inconsistent and unattractive cityscape have been
affecting the city's image to this day. They are often associated with
the reconstruction of Pforzheim in the style of post-war modernism in
the late 1940s and early 1950s. However, such complaints existed long
before the air raid on Pforzheim in 1945. The lack of a classic,
representative old town due to the repeated destruction of the city,
changes of ruler and internal shifts in the focus of settlements was
already noticed negatively in Pforzheim beforehand.
However, a
number of the early post-war buildings in Pforzheim are important
pioneer buildings for post-war architecture in Germany: such as the
Evangelical Church of the Resurrection, 1948 by Otto Bartning, the first
Bartning emergency church in Germany; also the Matthäuskirche, 1953–1956
by Egon Eiermann; and the Reuchlinhaus.
Old town hall on the market square
new town hall
archive
building
Former Grand Ducal Baden district office building
Emma-Jaeger-Bad, Art Nouveau building
Industrial building Pforzheim
with jewelry worlds
Sparkassenturm, a 75 meter high office tower in
the city center
Reuchlinhaus with jewelery museum
Arch bridge in
Dillweißenstein
lead guest tower
lake house
Old wine press
Brötzingen
Water tower on the Rodrücken, a 45 meter high water and
observation tower at the Reuchlin high school, completed in 1900
Hachelturm, a 10 meter high listed observation tower built in 1903/1904
in the Hachelanlage
copper hammer
Büchenbronn observation tower
Schlössle gallery (shopping center)
Il Tronco (administrative center
of the mail order company Klingel, built in 2011/12)
Villa Becker at
the eastern end of the Wilferdingerhöhe
Wartturm on the Wartberg, an
11 meter high former fortification and signal tower from the 15th
century, which is now used as an observation tower
Buckenberg
barracks
Hohe Warte, 40 meter high wooden observation tower in the
district of Hohenwart
Villa Rothschild on Hachelallee
Former Villa
Kahn
Central bus station (ZOB) with remarkable concrete roof (2016)
Customs office (Pforzheim) on Durlacher Strasse
Pregizer Pharmacy on
Leopoldplatz, the oldest pharmacy in Pforzheim
Melanchthon house
Hoheneck Castle, Pforzheim-Dillweißenstein
Castle ruins of
Kräheneck, Pforzheim-Dillweißenstein, see Weißenstein (nobility)
Liebeneck castle ruins, Pforzheim-Würm
Castle ruins Pforzheim
Rabeneck castle ruins (Weissenstein, Dillweißenstein),
Pforzheim-Dillweißenstein
Castle Church of St. Michael, the landmark of the city
Old Town
Church of St. Martin (Protestant)
Church of the Resurrection
(Protestant), 1948 by Otto Bartning and first Bartning emergency church
in Germany
Barefoot Church (Catholic)
Evangelical City Church,
1965-1968 by Heinrich Otto Vogel
Herz-Jesu-Kirche (Catholic),
1928-1929 by Otto Linder
Matthew Church (Protestant), 1953–1956 by
Egon Eiermann
St. Francis Church (Catholic), 1888–1891 by Adolf
Willard
Lutheran Church (Protestant), 1954 by Olaf Andreas
Gulbransson
former St. Martin in Brötzingen, today local history
museum
Christ Church in Brötzingen (Protestant), 1909–1912
St.
Antonius in Brötzingen (Catholic), 1934–1935
Main cemetery: Pforzheim's main cemetery was created from the
municipal cemetery on the Schanz, which was laid out in 1877. The
cemetery features the Campo Santo building ensemble from 1914 to 1917,
in whose arcade numerous historical tombs from older burial sites were
translocated. The funeral parlor of Pforzheim's main cemetery is also a
cultural monument. In the cemetery there are several honorary graves of
local dignitaries as well as numerous artistically significant tombs. In
addition to the mass graves for the victims of February 23, 1945, the
cemetery, which is considered a cultural monument, also contains
honorary graves for those who fell in World War I and World War II, a
Jewish part of the cemetery and various memorials, including a memorial
with the names of the euthanasia murders during the action T4 as well as
an urn field and gravestones with the names of murdered concentration
camp prisoners from eleven countries.
Brötzinger Friedhof: The
'Brötzinger Friedhof' contains the graves and a commemorative plaque for
32 women, children and men who were deported to Germany during World War
II and became victims of forced labour.
Kollmar & Jourdan House with
Technical Museum
Pforzheim Gallery
Carlo Schmid School
Kneeling
youth, First World War memorial
Old Jewish Cemetery (Pforzheim):
Memorial plaque at the site of the Old Jewish Cemetery on Eutinger
Strasse to commemorate the Good Place and over 200 Jewish residents who
were victims of the Shoah during the Nazi era
Memorial stone
commemorating the Jewish doctor Rudolf Kuppenheim and his wife with a
bronze plaque from 1981 opposite the Siloah Hospital on
Kuppenheimstrasse am Wallberg to commemorate the Jewish doctor Rudolf
Kuppenheim and his wife Lily, who committed suicide in 1940 to save the
to escape deportation to Camp de Gurs
Memorial stone commemorating
the November 1938 pogrom of 1967 on Zerrennerstraße at the site of the
former synagogue
Stadion Brötzinger Tal: The stadium, opened in 1913,
is the football stadium of the 1st CfR Pforzheim from 1896.
Sculpture
trail Seehaus Pforzheim: 14 artists are exhibiting their works in the
Hagenschiess forest area (as of 2016). The sculpture trail is designed
as a constantly evolving permanent exhibition. About two to three new
objects are added every year, other works are dismantled or replaced.
Enzauenpark: built for the State Garden Show in 1992, the last heavily
attended State Garden Show in Baden-Württemberg with 1.33 million
visitors.
Wildlife park with high ropes course:
Bertha Benz
Monument: Monument by René Dantes in front of the CongressCentrum
Pforzheim, as well as directly in front of the Bertha Benz Memorial
Route, from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back, which leads past numerous
sights.
Weststadtpark: a green space in the Maihälden residential
area of Pforzheim. It was built on the slopes of the Wallberg in the
course of the 19th century, abandoned around 1907 and subsequently
restructured into a park landscape.
Hindu Temple Sri Nagapoosani
Amman Aalayam:
Wallberg memorial: Steel steles on the top of the
Wallberg commemorate the air raid on Pforzheim on February 23, 1945.
The Theater Pforzheim is a multi-genre theater with opera, operetta,
musical, drama, ballet and young stage. The Kulturhaus Osterfeld sees
itself as a socio-cultural center and is also a performance venue for
independent groups (e.g. amateur theatre) and a meeting place for
various groups and associations.
Evening events, children's
performances and short programs take place in the Moth Cage Puppet
Theater.
Badische Philharmonie Pforzheim: The Badische Philharmonie Pforzheim
under the direction of Markus Huber is the concert and opera orchestra
at the Stadttheater Pforzheim.
Fool's Garden: The German Britpop band
from Pforzheim named their hit song "Lemon Tree" after a local lemon
tree.
Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim: The
Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim was founded in 1950 by
Friedrich Tilegant. Among other things, it took part in the premiere of
a work by Boris Blacher. As a pure string ensemble, it includes 14
musicians from seven nations.
Congress Center Pforzheim (CCP):
KOKI municipal cinema: Since
2003, the program cinema has been showing films in the cinema with 106
seats in the new venue at Schlossberg 20.
City library: In 2012, the
city library borrowed 981,000 media from a stock of 213,000 media. In
addition to the main office, there are two branches in
Buckenberg-Haidach and Huchenfeld, and there is also a mobile library
for the districts without branches. Online lending is also offered (2400
media are available digitally).
Kulturhaus Osterfeld:
Kupferdächle
(Jugendkulturtreff): Offers free band rehearsal rooms, theatre, photo
workshops and more for young people from the area. Other events such as
B. Concerts and poetry slams.
Kappelhof Roman estate:
Youth House
(youth house opened on December 9, 1949, thanks to an American
initiative. To this day, it is a facility for open child and youth work
of the SJR Betriebs GmbH - Stadtjugendring.)
Black Forest Wave -
https://www.blackforestwave.de/
A project is planned in
Pforzheim which, similar to the well-known wave in Munich's Eisbach,
should enable river surfing in the northern Black Forest. A group of
students founded an association for planning and financing and carried
out numerous preliminary investigations on a voluntary basis. In
addition, cooperation partners in research and industry could be found
who support the project. There will soon be a unique and also
interesting offer for river surfing in Pforzheim in the Black Forest. An
offer that appeals to young people.
Pforzheim is the starting
point for the well-known long-distance hiking trails of the Black Forest
Association. All three are over 200km long and cross the Black Forest:
the legendary Westweg leads to Basel - a must for every hiker,
the
east route to Schaffhausen
and the middle way leads to Waldshut
January: Rudolf Reinacher tournament, international AH football
indoor tournament of 1. FC Pforzheim (oldest indoor tournament in the
world)
January: The Goldstadtpokal, large international dance
tournament, organized by the Schwarz-Weiss-Club Pforzheim
June:
Pforzemer Mass
August: Oechsle Festival; Wine festival with culinary
delicacies from the region, named after Pforzheimer Christian Ferdinand
Oechsle, who gave his name to the wine and must scales
November:
Sparkassen Cross Pforzheim, at the Lohwiesenhof in the Huchenfeld
district
December: Golden Christmas Market Pforzheim
1 Schlössle Gallery, Kiehnlestraße 14. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 1540810.
2 jewelry worlds, Poststraße 1. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 80006-0. Shop for
watches and jewelry, housed in the building of the former industrial
building.
1 Dinkelacker-Pilsstuben (kickers restaurant), Heidenheimer Straße 4.
Tel.: +49(0)7231-32990. down-to-earth German cuisine.
2 Goldener
Bock, Ebersteinstrasse 1, 75177 Pforzheim. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 105123.
Sophisticated regional cuisine.
3 Landgasthof Seehaus, Tiefenbronner
Strasse 201. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 651185. 48.867836, 8.745982.
4
Landgasthof Hoheneck, Huchenfelder Str. 70. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 4153362,
email: info@gaststaette-holzhof.de. Reservations only by phone.
5
Hoppe's, Weiherstraße 15. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 105776. Baden-Alsatian
cuisine.
6 Arlinger Restaurant, Arlingerstrasse 49A. Tel.: +49
(0)7231 464756. Baden-Swabian cuisine, reservation required.
7
Kupferhammer, Am Kupferhammer 1. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 67712 .
Irish Pub
Night Groove - the pub night in Pforzheim
1 Rabeneck Castle Pforzheim Youth Hostel, Kraheneckstr. 4 75180
Pforzheim-Dillweißenstein. Phone: +49 (0)7231 972660 .
2 Hotel Gute
Hoffnung, Dillsteiner Str. 9-11. Phone: +49 (0)7231 92290.
3
Parkhotel Pforzheim, Deimlingstrasse 32-36. Phone: +49 (0)7231 1610.
4 Hotel Royal, Wilferdinger Str. 64. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 14250.
5 City
Hotel Pforzheim, Bahnhofstrasse 8. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 31000.
1 Pforzheim University (faculties: design, technology, economics and law), Tiefenbronner Straße 65 75175 Pforzheim. Phone: +49 (0)7231 28-5.
1 Helios Klinikum, Kanzlerstrasse 2-6. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 9690.
Largest hospital in the city.
2 Siloah St. Trudpert Klinikum
Pforzheim, Wilferdinger Str. 67. Tel.: +49 (0)7231 4980.
Bad Wilbad -
Thermen - Palais Thermal and Vital Therme (approx. 20 to 30 min by car /
approx. 35 min by S-Bahn - S6 or S5) -
https://www.bad-wildbad.de/thermen -schwarzwald/vital-therme/
https://www.bad-wildbad.de/thermen-schwarzwald/oeffnungszeiten-preise/
Telephone code: 07231, 07234
ZIP Codes: 75090-75181
Tourist
Information, Schloßberg 15 - 17 (opposite the Castle Church). Phone: +49
(0)7231 39-3700. Open: Mon-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat 10am-1pm.
Before the Roman conquest in the first century AD, the area of
today's Pforzheim was in the territory of the Celts. Direct traces of
the Celts can be found from the period 500 to 300 BC. A bronze horse
figurine found near Pforzheim dates from this early Celtic period. A
statue of the Celtic goddess of healing, Sirona, was recovered in a
well. A fragment of an altar found near the old town church during the
great de-regulation of 1909 is attributed to the Celtic Black Forest
goddess Abnoba. The discovery led to the Enzuferweg being named
Abnobastraße. The Roman era lasted until the 3rd century, when a ford
was built on the Enz for the Roman road from Strasbourg to Cannstatt.
The resulting settlement was called Portus. At Neuenbürg/Waldrennach
there is evidence of smelting furnaces/running furnaces used by the
Celts for iron production (mine "Grube Frischglück", Neuenbürg). Roads
or waterways were necessary for the further processing and transport of
the iron products. It can therefore be assumed that the Enzfurt was
already important in Celtic times.
Alemannic population groups
conquered the Limes around 259/260. Alemannia was incorporated into the
Frankish Empire around 500. The northern border of Alemannia was thereby
shifted far to the south; previously close to the Main, it now ran far
south of Pforzheim, near Calw. Possibly in the 11th century Pforzheim
was part of Salian territories and in 1125 passed from the Salians to
the Staufers.
By marriage, Pforzheim came to the Welfs in 1195
and a few years later, 1220-1227, again by marriage, from the Welfs via
Friedrich II to those of Baden. The process of becoming a town may have
already begun in the Staufer period and lasted until the 14th century.
In 1344 ownership of the parish church (including both St. Martin and
St. Michael) passed from Hirsau Abbey to Lichtenthal Abbey. Between 1462
and 1750 Pforzheim was only a fief of the Electorate of Palatinate near
Baden. An order issued by Margrave Christoph I of Baden in 1486 resulted
in the city losing its political autonomy.
During the peasant
revolt in 1525, Jörg Ratgeb supported the rebels in the Duchy of
Württemberg. That was his undoing. After the uprising on May 18, 1525
near Böblingen was suppressed by the steward of Waldburg-Zeil, he was
arrested and sentenced in Pforzheim on the basis of the Bamberg court
order. The verdict was "due to the Pauren war and Hertzog Ulrich's sake"
to quartering by horses alive and was carried out on the market square
in front of today's town hall.
After the division of Baden,
Pforzheim (at that time also Pfortzhaim) belonged from 1515/1535 to 1771
(with interruptions) to the lower margraviate of Baden (Ernestine line,
later also called margraviate of Baden-Durlach). In 1535 Pforzheim was
chosen as the place of residence of the lower margraviate, but the
residence was already relocated to Durlach in 1565. In 1538 Pforzheim
also became the central burial place of the Ernestine line and remained
so for the unified Baden after 1771.
Between 1519 and 1556 the
Reformation was introduced in Pforzheim and Baden-Durlach. With the sale
of Liebenzell and other areas to Württemberg in 1594 and the years that
followed, Pforzheim came to the periphery of Baden-Durlach. During the
Thirty Years' War (1618-1648) the city was mostly out of reach of Baden
(1624-1635 occupation by imperial or Swedish troops, 1635-1645 Pforzheim
belonged to Bavaria).
In 1803 Baden became an electorate and in
1806 a grand duchy. Between 1871 and 1933 Baden was a federal state of
the German Empire, since 1918 as the Republic of Baden. Under the Nazi
regime of the German Reich, Baden and Pforzheim were brought into line
in 1933 (abolition of the rights of the sub-states, appointment of the
mayor of Pforzheim by the NSDAP, reorganization of the city council
based on the March 1933 Reichstag election results). From April 1945,
the city belonged to the French occupation zone for a few months, from
July 1945 to 1949 to the US occupation zone, in which the state of
Württemberg-Baden was established. In 1952, Württemberg-Baden became
part of the state of Baden-Württemberg.
Before the Napoleonic cleansing in 1803/1806, the districts in what is now Pforzheim's urban area were predominantly part of the Baden-Durlach Oberamt Pforzheim. Other municipalities of the Pforzheim district (e.g. Dietlingen, Isprung, Eisingen, Bauschlott, Dürrn, Niefern) were primarily in the north and north-west, as were other Baden areas, namely the districts of Stein and Frauenalb. Today's Pforzheim districts of Würm and Hohenwart belonged to family territories organized in the Reichsritterschaft, both under Baden sovereignty. Hohenwart was part of the land of the Imperial Knights von Gemmingen-Steinegg, the so-called Biets, which remained Catholic and was located in the south-east along the Würm River. In the east and south-west were Württemberg territories, above all the offices of Neuenbürg and Liebenzell in the south-west and the extensive territory of the Maulbronn monastery office in the east.
The city goes back to a Roman settlement at an Enz ford (around 90
AD), the name probably comes from the Latin portus = port/stacking
place.
The first document, the Roman Leugenstein from Friolzheim
from 245 AD, refers to the Roman settlement portus. The settlement was
on the Roman military road between the Upper Rhine and Neckar regions,
right there where the long-distance trade and military road crossed the
Enz in a ford shortly after it had been merged with the Nagold. It was
probably at this time that rafting was established in the Roman
settlement, since the Enz is navigable from Portus through the
tributaries of the Nagold and Würm. Nothing is known about a suspected
port facility on the Enz. With some probability, the Latin name has been
handed down incompletely and had other components. A widespread
misconception, going back to Philipp Melanchthon, is that the name
Pforzheim can be traced back to porta = Tor/Porta Hercyniae (to the
Black Forest). Reuchlin's speculative derivation of the name from the
Trojan Phorkys as the mythical founder of the city is also wrong.
Large Roman buildings that began in the 3rd century lead to the
conclusion that the small craftsmen's settlement was to be expanded into
an administrative center, such as a Civitas main town. In 259 and 260,
the Franks and Alemanni conquered the areas of the Roman Empire on the
right bank of the Rhine. The Portus settlement was razed to the ground.
The tradition about the settlement breaks off for the time being.
Some pottery shards and coins suggest that the settlement continued
to exist, but the settlement continuity could also have been very weak
in real terms. A settlement is actually only really tangible again with
the rows of graves from the 6th and 7th centuries, which, however, are
about 800 m downstream of the Roman settlement. Later in the Carolingian
period, the old town of Pforzheim grew over the Roman settlement itself.
A testimony to this time is, among other things, the excavation site at
the Kappelhof in the basement of the Caritas building.
In 1067 Pforzheim was mentioned for the first time in a document by
King Heinrich IV. Around 1080 the settlement received market rights.
Documented visits to Pforzheim by Henry IV were in the years 1067 and
1074. In 1100 the codex of the Hirsau monastery stated that the old town
of Pforzheim already had market rights before 1100 and was owned by the
Hirsau monastery. In the 12th century, the old town was monastic and
ecclesiastical with a St. Nicholas chapel (patron saint of raftsmen and
boatmen), protected by an early St. Martin's church, and faced
competition from a new settlement core (New Town), below a castle hill
800 m upstream with a St. Michael's chapel (today's castle hill with
castle church). The new town grew rapidly.
In 1220 the Margraves
of Baden chose Pforzheim as their residence. The focus shifted in favor
of the new town; the old town lost its importance. A Pforzheim mayor was
first mentioned in a document in 1240. In 1447, the marriage of the
Margrave Karl I of Baden to Catherine of Austria, the sister of Emperor
Friedrich III, was celebrated with great pomp at the Pforzheim Princely
Wedding.
In the second half of the 15th and 16th centuries, the
Pforzheim Latin School developed into one of the most important
scholarly schools in southern Germany. Her teachers and students played
an important and prominent role in the spread of humanism and the
Reformation. Among the best-known students were Philipp Melanchthon and
the humanist Johannes Reuchlin, who was born in Pforzheim. He gave his
name to the Reuchlinhaus cultural center, which was inaugurated in 1961
and also includes an international jewelery museum, and to the Reuchlin
high school. In addition, the Reuchlin Prize was named after the
scholar. The award was first presented in 1955 on the occasion of the
celebration of Johannes Reuchlin's 500th birthday.
In 1501, Margrave Christoph I decreed the order of flötzer or
skippers in Pfortzheim. Rafting is one of the oldest trades in
Pforzheim. The individual trunks and small rafts from the Black Forest
(the long, straight fir trees were ideal as building material) that were
floated via the Enz, Nagold and Würm were tied to large rafts in the
Pforzheimer Au for the lower Enz and the Neckar/Rhein water line. The
rafting stations of Weißenstein, Dillstein and Pforzheim were well-known
to every raft driver in the past centuries. At that time, Pforzheim also
had a customs post where raftsmen had to pay a fee for navigating the
waterways.
From 1535 to 1565 the town became the residence of
Margrave Ernst I of Baden when the Baden lands were divided up. The
residence was then moved to Durlach, which is why one speaks of the
Baden-Durlach line. However, the city remained the seat of a Baden
office and the castle church continued to be the burial place of the
Baden margraves. Ernst's son Karl II introduced the Reformation in 1556.
The monastery church of the Dominicans became a Lutheran town church. In
1618, at the beginning of the Thirty Years' War, Pforzheim had around
2,500 to 3,000 inhabitants, making it by far the largest of the cities
of the Margraves of Baden. By this time, Pforzheim had lost much of its
importance, partly because many upper-class (patrician) families left
the city in the 15th century.
In 1645, towards the end of the
Thirty Years' War, Bavarian troops burned down the old town. It was
rebuilt without fortifications; this sealed its status as a village-like
hamlet, and it disappeared from history, save for a few marginal notes.
The new town continued to exist. In the 13th-15th In the 19th century,
Pforzheim flourished economically thanks to the active support of the
Margraves of Baden, who regarded the city as the most important base of
their family power, and its favorable location at the crossroads of
major trade routes. Timber trading and rafting, tanning, cloth and tool
making contributed to the wealth of the city alongside the crafts. Three
religious orders settled in the city. The last decades of this heyday,
in which the political and economic supremacy began to falter, are high
points in the city's history from an intellectual point of view.
From 1689 to 1697, the Palatinate War of Succession caused great
destruction in south-west Germany. Pforzheim was plundered and burned
down three times by French troops under the command of King Louis XIV.
Brigadier Comte Ezéchiel de Mélac was responsible for the occupation of
the city in October 1688, the devastating burning of the city in January
1689, the artillery shelling and a second burning in August 1689.
Further destruction was under the orders of Marshal Joseph de Montclar
and Marshal Duc de Lorge. Furthermore, the Duc de Villeroy was
responsible for the artillery bombardment of the city and the sack in
August 1691. Under General Chamilly, the city was again occupied and
sacked in September 1692. The princely crypt in the castle church was
devastated.
In 1718 the Pforzheim orphanage (state orphanage) was
opened in the building of the former Dominican convent. This orphanage,
madhouse, hospital, penitentiary and workhouse later became the nucleus
of the jewelery and watch industry that still exists today.
In
1767 the jewelry and clock industry was founded in Pforzheim by Margrave
Karl-Friedrich. With the support of an entrepreneur from Switzerland, a
clock factory was set up in the orphanage to employ the orphans. Some
time later the production of jewelry was added. The company developed
rapidly and was soon exporting all over the world, although watch
production soon disappeared and only experienced a renaissance from 1920
with the manufacture of wristwatches. Around 1800, Pforzheim, with 900
factories, was the first factory town in Baden and the most important
center of jewelry manufacturing in the world. Many of the 26,000
employees came from the surrounding area and were therefore commuters.
These were called rattles. In 1809, the Pforzheim office in Baden was
divided into a city office and a first and second country office.
However, the latter two were reunited in 1813 to form the Landamt
Pforzheim. In 1819, the Pforzheim city and district offices were
combined to form the Pforzheim district office, which was transferred to
the Pforzheim district office in 1864.
In 1836, Ferdinand Oechsle developed the must scale in the city,
which is still used today to measure the must weight of freshly pressed
grape juice in degrees Oechsle. From 1861 to 1863, the construction of
the Karlsruhe–Mühlacker railway connected Pforzheim to the railway
network. In 1868 and 1874, with the construction of the Enz Valley
Railway and the Nagold Valley Railway, the two large Black Forest
valleys that flow into Pforzheim were also connected to the railway.
This heralded the end of rafting.
In the year of the Three
Emperors, 1888, Pforzheim was the destination of the first overland
journey in an automobile, which Bertha Benz, who was born in Pforzheim,
undertook with her two sons from Mannheim without the knowledge of her
husband Carl Benz. Since 2008, the Bertha Benz Memorial Route has
commemorated this pioneering act. Ten years later, entrepreneur Bernhard
Heinrich Mayer was the first Pforzheimer to buy his own car, a Benz
"Victoria".
Jewish families have lived in the city since the 19th
century. In 1846 they laid out the Jewish cemetery, which was occupied
until 1877, after which a Jewish cemetery was set up in the new
non-denominational Pforzheim main cemetery. In 1893 the Jewish community
built a synagogue. In the 19th century, the textile, metal and jewelry
factories in Pforzheim formed the industrial center of the Grand Duchy
of Baden.
The Pforzheim master builder, Alfons Kern, founded the
city's tradition. He planned the construction of the new town hall in
1893/1895 and was instrumental in establishing a municipal antiquity and
painting collection as well as expanding and reorganizing the town
archive. In 1905 he resigned from the building authority and now only
devoted himself to expanding the collections, which moved into their own
building in the 1920s and 1930s. Kern was made an honorary citizen of
the city in 1939, and the painting collection bore his name from that
year.
Furthermore, in the course of the years 1830 to 1918, two
previously autonomous districts were incorporated; the Brötzinger
district was incorporated at the turn of the year 1904/1905, the
Dillweißensteiner at the turn of the year 1912/1913. A total of 1762
hectares were incorporated in parallel.
During the November pogroms of 1938, the Old Synagogue in Pforzheim
was desecrated and badly damaged. The Jewish community was obliged to
bear the cost of the demolition. On October 22, 1940, 186 Jews who had
remained in the city were deported in the Wagner-Bürckel action. Only a
few survivors returned.
In 1939, the district office of Pforzheim
became the administrative district of Pforzheim, and Pforzheim became
its seat. At the same time, the city became independent of a district.
In 1944, 18,622 workers worked in 101 companies, including at least
10,000 workers in the armaments industry.
The Pforzheim industry
was significantly involved in the development of technological
innovations such as the X-ray method for better target acquisition
(developed by G. Schaub Apparaturenbau-GmbH, used against Coventry,
among others). In some areas of on-board radios, up to 50% of the parts
came from Pforzheim. In order to be able to meet the increasing demand,
Pforzheim companies also resorted to forced labourers, such as forced
deported workers from the Vosges (from autumn 1944), interned Italian
prisoners of war (from 1943/44), forced laborers from the Ukraine and
Russia. The demands made by concentration camp prisoners are well known.
On the outskirts there was a factory for the production of
anti-aircraft grenades. In addition, the city played an important key
role in rail transport for military units. Should the north-south line
in the Rhine Valley fail, the town, which was on the alternative route
across the Black Forest and provided a connection to the east-west
lines, would have been an important transhipment point for supplies to
the southern eastern front and the western front. However, the British
Royal Air Force originally only listed Pforzheim as a lower-ranking
alternative target in the target hierarchy.
On February 23, 1945,
the city was almost completely destroyed in an air raid on Pforzheim by
379 British bombers within 22 minutes. At least 17,600 people died. The
bombs and firestorm that developed in the densely built-up old town
killed almost a third of the population present. Measured by the number
of casualties, it was the third heaviest attack by Allied bombers during
the Second World War after the bombing of Hamburg and Dresden. 98% of
the city center was destroyed. Pforzheim was one of the most heavily
damaged cities during the war. Overall, this attack was the most
concentrated and momentous of the Allies. As elsewhere, his aim was to
demoralize the population; perhaps the precision engineering industry,
which during the war years had largely switched to the production of
fuses, also played a role. However, since some of the businesses had
been outsourced, the attack may also have been aimed directly at the old
town, which with its half-timbered houses was chosen as a target that
would burn quickly.
In the end, Germany gradually lost the Second
World War. At the beginning of April 1945, Pforzheim was declared a
so-called permanent place, with which the city had to be relentlessly
defended. In the period from April 8th to April 18th the city was
completely occupied by French troops. Elsewhere in Germany, the war
continued until early May. It finally ended on May 8th with the
unconditional surrender of the Wehrmacht.
From 1945 to 1948 Pforzheim (after initial French occupation) was
under US military administration and was part of the new state of
Württemberg-Baden. In these and the following years, the population grew
again due to the influx of displaced persons, refugees, emigrants and
immigrants. As early as 1950, Pforzheim's industry was again recording
millions in export sales. The city was already booming, the
reconstruction plans were hardly noticed by the citizens in 1946 and
passed almost unanimously.
Today's cityscape is characterized by
the functionalist architecture of the 1950s. As in many war-torn cities,
Pforzheim in the immediate post-war period was also concerned with the
rapid reconstruction of the urban infrastructure. Representative
individual buildings in the architectural style of these years are the
main station, the district court and the Reuchlinhaus. The Evangelical
City Church, inaugurated in 1968, also follows this sober architecture.
Only in the northern and southern part of the city are there
historically older buildings. Examples of streets that show a
significant number of buildings from the pre-war period are
Zähringerallee and Nebeniusstrasse.
In 1955, the city of
Pforzheim donated the Reuchlin Prize, named after the Pforzheim humanist
Johannes Reuchlin, for outstanding German-language work in the field of
humanities.
In the 1960s, the Wilferdinger Höhe was developed and
later developed for industrial and commercial use; previously there were
meadow orchards and fields. Other commercial areas are Hohenäcker and
Brötzinger Tal.
On July 10, 1968, the city and its surroundings
were hit by an F4 tornado. Two people died, over 200 were injured, and
2,300 houses were damaged.
With the district reform on January 1,
1973, the district of Pforzheim was merged into the newly formed
Enzkreis, whose seat was the city of Pforzheim. She herself remained
independent. Pforzheim also became the seat of the Northern Black Forest
region formed in 1973. On January 1, 1975, the number of inhabitants
exceeded the limit of 100,000 due to the incorporation of Huchenfeld,
which made Pforzheim a big city. In 1983, the Baden-Württemberg Homeland
Days took place in Pforzheim. Pforzheim-Ost was redesigned for the State
Horticultural Show in 1992. At the end of the 20th century, the
manufacture of jewelery and watches in Pforzheim became less important.
In addition, the Maihälden area was developed in the 1990s and then
extensively developed.
Some parts of the city have been renovated
since 1999/2000.
In 1881 Pforzheim had 25,000 inhabitants, by 1902 this number had
doubled to 50,000. In 1905 the Brötzinger district was incorporated,
along with almost 6000 Brötzinger residents. During the Second World
War, the city lost about half of its residents. Pforzheim, which was
almost completely destroyed, already had one of the lowest unemployment
figures in Baden in 1951 and developed extensive building activity to
absorb the influx. As early as 1960, the population reached the pre-war
level of around 80,000. On January 1, 1975, the population of the city
of Pforzheim exceeded the limit of 100,000 due to the incorporation of
Huchenfeld, which made it a big city. Pforzheim is the eighth largest
city in Baden-Württemberg and the 64th largest city in Germany. In the
period from 2000 to 2010, the population grew by 2.24%, mainly due to
immigration from abroad. According to the 2011 census, the population as
of May 9, 2011 was 114,411 inhabitants and was therefore lower than
previously assumed.
Pforzheim has been heavily influenced by
immigration since the 1950s. In 2017, according to the city
administration, non-German residents accounted for 26.0 percent of the
total population (32,646 people). Most foreigners came from Turkey
(5,042), Italy (3,877), Romania (3,499) and Iraq (3,495). At the end of
2017, 67,543 residents had a migration background, which corresponds to
53.7% of the total population. Among the residents under the age of 18,
the proportion of people with a migration background was 74.1%. This
makes Pforzheim one of the major German cities with the highest
proportion of non-German residents and residents with a migration
background.
The following overview shows the population according
to the respective territorial status. Up to 1833, these are mostly
estimates, after that they are census results (¹) or official updates
from the respective statistical offices or the city administration
itself. The information relates to the local population from 1843, to
the resident population from 1925 and to the population since 1987 place
of main residence. Before 1843, the number of inhabitants was determined
using inconsistent survey methods.
According to the 2011 census, 34.1% of the residents were Protestant, 26.1% Roman Catholic and 39.9% were non-denominational, belonged to another religious community or made no statement. Of the residents (as of December 31, 2021), 24.1% were Protestant, 21.7% were Catholic and 54.2% were non-denominational or members of other religious communities and denominations. The proportions of the Protestant and Catholic Church in Pforzheim's population are still falling. The reasons for the decline in the proportions of the Protestant and Catholic Churches can be found not only in the migration movements but also in the number of people leaving the church, which affect the two religious communities the most.
After Margrave Charles II of Baden introduced the Reformation in 1556 in the Margraviate of Baden, whose residence was Pforzheim at the time, Pforzheim was a Protestant city for centuries. Since the 19th century at the latest, Catholics have been moving to Pforzheim again, they belong to the Pforzheim Deanery of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. The Protestant Christians belong to the deanery of Pforzheim-Stadt of the Evangelical Church in Baden. There are also a large number of free churches in Pforzheim, e.g. B. United Methodist Church, Baptists, Salvation Army, Seventh-day Adventists, Bible Church. The New Apostolic Church and Jehovah's Witnesses are also represented in Pforzheim.
There is an Israelite community in Pforzheim.
The Fatih Mosque, built between 1990 and 1992, is one of the first larger mosque buildings in Baden-Württemberg to be planned as a mosque and designed accordingly. The Ahmadiyya Muslim Community also built a mosque in Pforzheim. The mosque was inaugurated on December 12, 2012 by the Muslim Head of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community His Holiness Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad. At the opening of the mosque, his holiness and the mayor at the time, Gert Hager, planted a tree for peace. The Pforzheim Ahmadiyya Muslim Community currently has around 300 members.
Since 2008, a Yazidi community with around 2,500 members has settled in Pforzheim. There has also been a Hindu community with around 200 members in Turnstrasse for a number of years.
At the head of the city administration was the mayor appointed by the
city lord. Later there was a council headed by a mayor who has held the
title of Lord Mayor since 1849. The terms of office of the mayors up to
1750 are only partially known. Only the names of the mayors are
mentioned in the historical sources.
1607-1609: Peter Painter
1611–16??: Jakob Simmerer
1614-1621: Jeremiah Deschler
1622-1627:
Wolf Karle
1629–1639: Joachim Bub, Hans Felder (alternating)
1642–1665: Georg Weeber, Hans Beckh, Hans Friedrich Kern (alternately)
1750-1758: Ernst Matthäus Kummer
1758-1770: W.C. Steinhäuser
1770-1775: White
1775–1783: Kissling
1783-1795: Günzel
1795–1798: violinist
1798-1815: Jakob Friedrich Dreher
1815-1830:
Christoph Friedrich Krenkel
1830-1837: Wilhelm Lenz
1837-1848:
Rudolph Deimling
1848-1849: Christian Crecelius
1849-1862: Carl
Zerrenner
1862-1875: Kaspar Schmidt
1875-1884: Karl Gross
1885-1889: Emil Kraatz
1889-1919: Ferdinand Habermehl
1920–1933:
Erwin Gündert (DVP)
1933: Emil Goler
1933: Hans Gottlob
1933-1941: Hermann Kurz
1941-1942: Karl Mohrenstein
1942-1945:
Ludwig Seibel
1945: Albert Herman
1945: Wilhelm Becker
1945-1947: Friedrich Adolf Katz
1947-1966: Johann Peter Brandenburg
(FDP/DVP)
1966-1985: Willi Weigelt (SPD)
1985-2001: Joachim Becker
(SPD)
2001-2009: Christel Augenstein (FDP/DVP)
2009-2017: Gert
Hager (SPD)
since August 1, 2017: Peter Boch (CDU)
All municipal councils of the city are represented in the
transparency portal parliamentwatch.de. There, every citizen can ask the
elected local politicians questions in public. It is made up of 40
honorary municipal councilors and the chairman of the municipal council,
Lord Mayor Peter Boch. The members of the municipal council are directly
elected for five-year terms. The municipal council forms committees to
relieve the workload and to deal with factual issues in more depth.
Municipal council drafts, resolution documents, meeting dates and
agendas of the municipal council are published in the council
information system of the city of Pforzheim.
In addition to the
municipal council, there are also local councils for the districts of
Büchenbronn, Eutingen, Hohenwart, Huchenfeld and Würm.
In 2014, a youth council was elected for the first time. It consists of 20 young people who represent the interests and concerns of their constituents in relation to the city. The youth council is committed to ensuring that the concerns of young people are taken into account in city politics. Central topics are: More places and events for young people, sustainability, digitization and much more. Individual members offer school visits.
Coat of arms of the city of Pforzheim Blazon: “Split; a red slanting
bar in gold at the front, divided three times at the back by red,
silver, blue and gold.”
Justification for the coat of arms: The
first seal was made in 1256, which only contained the oblique bar shield
of the rulership. From the end of the 15th century it was replaced by
the almost unchanged coat of arms in seals and numerous non-Sphragistic
reproductions. The front half of the shield shows the oblique bar of
Baden, to which the red and gold colors in the back probably refer. The
meaning of silver and blue is disputed; The obvious opinion is that
these are the colors borrowed from Wittelsbach's lozenge coat of arms of
the Electoral Palatinate, since the city was under the Palatinate feudal
sovereignty from 1463 to 1750.
The slanting beam can be traced
back to the 13th century as a symbol of the town lords of Pforzheim,
which later also became the state coat of arms of Baden, but the meaning
is still unclear today. From 1489 the coat of arms is verifiable in its
entirety, the meaning of which could not be verified either. However,
today's tinting has only been in use since 1853, before that the
coloring was different.
Pforzheim is one of the regional centers in Baden-Württemberg and has
one of the highest industrial concentrations in the state. There are 593
employed people for every 1000 inhabitants. In 2016, Pforzheim, within
the city limits, had a gross domestic product (GDP) of €4,943 billion.
In the same year, GDP per capita was €40,227 (Baden-Württemberg:
€43,632, Germany €38,180) and is thus well below the regional average.
It is 64,584 per employed person. The city has four large commercial
areas: the Wilferdinger Höhe, the Brötzinger Tal, the Altgefäll and the
Hohenäcker.
The economy is only partially geared towards the
manufacture of watches and jewellery. 75 percent of German jewelery
comes from Pforzheim (e.g. Wellendorff). The Federal Association of
Jewellery, Watches, Silverware and Related Industries is based in
Pforzheim. However, many jobs are provided by the areas of metal
processing, electronics and electrical engineering. The mail order
business (Bader Versand, mail order company Klingel, Wenz) has a leading
position in Germany with sales in the millions. In Pforzheim there are
around 68,100 employees. The purchasing power per inhabitant was 19,400
euros.
In the 2016 Atlas of the Future, the independent city of
Pforzheim was ranked 87th out of 402 districts, municipal associations
and urban districts in Germany, making it one of the places with "great
prospects for the future". In the 2019 edition, he was ranked 163 out of
401.
The city of Pforzheim has been struggling with industrial structural
change since the early 1980s. The jewelery industry migrated on a large
scale. This results in high job losses. In 1990 there were still around
65,000 employees subject to social security contributions in Pforzheim,
in 2011 there were only around 50,000. This corresponds to a decrease of
about 25%.
However, the number of people in work remains constant
at around 70,000.
The unemployment rate in June 2008 was 7.0
percent. Considered by urban and rural districts, the unemployment rate
for the city of Pforzheim in November 2011 was 7.7 percent with 4539;
the highest in Baden-Württemberg. In December 2018, the unemployment
rate was 5.3%.
Aktivbank
Allgemeine Gold- und Silberscheideanstalt AG (Agosi)
Amazon.com
Aristo
Bader Versand
Doduco
Kramski Group
Laco
Uhrenmanufaktur
Heimerle + Meule
Mahle Behr
Uhren- und
Schmuckfabrik G. A. Müller
Sparkasse Pforzheim Calw
Stadtwerke
Pforzheim
Stöber Antriebstechnik
Versandhaus Klingel
Volksbank
Pforzheim
Wellendorff
Witzenmann Gruppe
Zapp AG
North of Pforzheim runs the Bundesautobahn 8 from Karlsruhe to
Stuttgart, from which the city can be reached via four exits. The fourth
exit Pforzheim Süd was completed in 2008, making it easier to reach the
southern and especially the south-eastern parts of the city. Stuttgart
International Airport, 24 km south-east, can be reached via the A 8,
Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport is 46 km south-west.
The B 10 runs
parallel to the autobahn and the B 294 in a north-south direction
through the city itself. The B 463 in the direction of Nagold also
starts here.
Pforzheim Central Station is on the Mühlacker-Karlsruhe railway line.
Furthermore, two railway lines lead into the Black Forest to Bad Wildbad
(Enztalbahn) and to Hochdorf (Nagoldtalbahn). In addition, Pforzheim is
also connected to the Karlsruhe Stadtbahn.
Between 1900 and 1968,
local transport was mainly provided by the Pforzheimer Kleinbahn to
Ittersbach (1900 to 1968), the Pforzheim municipal tram (1911 to 1964)
and the Pforzheim trolleybus (1951 to 1969).
Overview of
Pforzheim Hbf local transport:
Inter-Regio-Express line IRE 1
(Karlsruhe-Pforzheim-Mühlacker-Vaihingen/Enz-Stuttgart-Aalen (to Aalen
only every hour)) - operator: Go-Ahead Verkehrsgesellschaft Deutschland
30-30-60 minute intervals
Regional train line MEX 17a (Karlsruhe
(only every 2 hours in addition to the IC)
Pforzheim-Mühlacker-Vaihingen/Enz-Bietigheim-Bissingen-Stuttgart) -
operator: SWEG Bahn Stuttgart
60 minute cycle
Regional train
line RB 74 (Pforzheim-Horb-Tübingen (to Tübingen only single journeys))
Kulturbahn - operator: DB ZugBus Regionalverkehr Alb-Bodensee
60-minute intervals with HVZ amplifiers to Nagold
Stadtbahn line
S 5 / S 51 (S. 51 only single journeys from Pforzheim)
(Wörth–Karlsruhe–Pforzheim) – operator: Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft
Every 40-60 minutes, in the mornings and afternoons there are hourly
express trains to Karlsruhe Albtalbahnhof/Karlsruhe Hbf
Stadtbahn
line S 6 (Pforzheim-Neuenbürg-Bad Wildbad) - operator:
Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft
60-minute cycle with HVZ amplifiers
Overview of Pforzheim Hbf long-distance traffic:
Intercity trains
(Karlsruhe-Pforzheim-Stuttgart-Aalen-Nuremberg) stop here every two
hours - operator: DB Fernverkehr
Also an IC at night
(Stuttgart-Pforzheim-Karlsruhe-Frankfurt-Siegen-Dortmund) - operator: DB
Fernverkehr
The city has a bus station, ZOB (Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof). The rest
of the local public transport (ÖPNV) in the city area is served by RVS
buses (Regionalbusverkehr Südwest, DB subsidiary) and various other
transport companies. They all travel at the same price within the
Pforzheim-Enzkreis transport association.
Until mid-2014 there
were still three bus stations: ZOB Mitte, which was renovated, ZOB Süd
and ZOB Nord. There is now a green area on the site of the former ZOB
Nord.
The daily newspapers in Pforzheim are the Pforzheimer Zeitung and the
Pforzheimer Kurier, a regional edition of the Badische Latest News
(BNN), which has its main editorial office in Karlsruhe. The responsible
private area broadcaster is Antenne 1 on 107.0 MHz, which maintains a
regional studio in the city. The private local broadcaster for Pforzheim
is Die Neue Welle on 91.4 MHz.
There are three transmitter
locations in the city: the Wartberg water tower, the Dillweißenstein
transmitter (48°52'19.69 N, 8°41'02.03 E) and the Arlinger transmitter
(48°53'13.10 N, 8°38'38.80 E).
Pforzheim is the seat of the District Court of Pforzheim, which
belongs to the Regional Court and Higher Regional Court of Karlsruhe, as
well as the Labor Court of Pforzheim. The city is also home to a branch
of the Karlsruhe public prosecutor's office, which is also responsible
for the district of the Maulbronn district court.
Pforzheim is
also the seat of the Northern Black Forest regional association, the
Northern Black Forest Chamber of Industry and Commerce (IHK), whose
chamber district includes the Northern Black Forest region, an
employment agency, a tax office and a customs office.
The city is
also the seat of the church district of Pforzheim of the Evangelical
Church in Baden and of the Deanery of Pforzheim in the Archdiocese of
Freiburg.
The city of Pforzheim, as one of three sponsors (20%),
operates the local integrated control center for fire brigades, rescue
services and civil protection together with the Enzkreis (30%) and the
German Red Cross (50%). This went into service on October 15, 2015 and
replaced the previous control centers of the fire brigade, the sponsor
was the city of Pforzheim, which took care of the legal task for the
Enzkreis district while it provided financial compensation, and the
rescue service, which was sponsored by the DRK.
Pforzheim is home
to the Pforzheim detention facility awaiting deportation, which
previously housed the Pforzheim juvenile detention center as a branch of
the Heimsheim prison. The city is also the seat of the Enzkreis District
Office.
Due to its population of over 100,000 inhabitants, the
city has to maintain a professional fire brigade.
The University of Pforzheim - University of Design, Technology,
Economics and Law has around 6000 students. It was created in 1992
through the merger of the former Grand Ducal School of Applied Arts and
Technical School for the Metal Industry, founded in 1877, with the
former State College of Economics, founded in 1963. The areas of design
and technology/economy have separate locations. The university attaches
great importance to internationality, among other things it is a member
of the NIBES network and maintains regular academic exchanges with the
Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek in Croatia, for example.
There are numerous master’s courses at the Pforzheim Graduate School,
which is part of the Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences.
There is also a goldsmith school with a watchmaking school in Pforzheim.
It is the only one of its kind in Europe, which is why it is attended by
many foreign students.
Pforzheim also has a state seminar for
didactics and teacher training (primary and secondary schools).
The Pforzheim State Education Authority has been housed in
Maximilianstrasse since 2010. The authority is the lower school
supervisory authority for all elementary, secondary, practical and
secondary schools and community schools as well as for the special
education and counseling centers in the area of the city of Pforzheim,
the Enzkreis and the Calw district.
The Abitur can be obtained at
the Reuchlin-Gymnasium, the Kepler-Gymnasium, the Hebel-Gymnasium, the
Theodor-Heuss-Gymnasium, the Hilda-Gymnasium, the Schiller-Gymnasium
(private all-day grammar school), the Fritz-Erler-School (economics
grammar school) , the Heinrich-Wieland-School (technical high school),
the Johanna-Wittum-School (nutritional high school/biotechnological high
school), the Goethe School (Waldorf school) and the Ludwig-Erhard-School
in Pforzheim (business school). The advanced technical college entrance
qualification can be obtained at the state-approved private Carlo Schmid
School of the International Association.
In addition, there are
also a number of special education and counseling centers in Pforzheim:
The Pestalozzi and Bohrain Schools have a focus on learning, with the
Bohrain School being attended by pupils from the Pforzheim urban area
and the Pestalozzi School being attended by pupils from neighboring
communities in the Enzkreis district . Pupils with a mental handicap
attend the Gustav-Heinemann-School in Pforzheim or the Schule am
Winterrain in Ispringen. The Enzkreis District Office is responsible for
running these two schools and the Pestalozzi School. The local special
education and counseling center with a focus on language is the
Schlossparkschule. In addition, the Raphael School in Pforzheim-Eutingen
is a private, anthroposophy-oriented special education and counseling
center with a focus on emotional and social development and learning.
Pforzheim operates (in 2021) six family centers with a wide range of support and education. The first of these institutions was the family center Au, which was operated independently and started operations in 2002. It was followed in 2008 by the Oststadt Family Center supported by the AWO, later the Lukas Center in Pforzheim's Weststadt, supported by the Diakonie Pforzheim, the Center for Families - multi-generational house in the Bernhardushaus of Caritas Pforzheim, the North Family Center of the evangelical Pforzheim City Mission, and the independent one Buckenberg community center – Haidach and Hagenschieß.
The Pforzheim combined heat and power plant in the eastern part of Pforzheim mainly generates electricity and district heating using combined heat and power generation. It is operated by Heizkraftwerk Pforzheim GmbH. With an annual output of 270 million kilowatt hours, the power plant has the largest share of Pforzheim's power supply. Its electrical output is 102.6 MW, its thermal output is 212 MW gross. The combined heat and power plant was put into operation in 1964 and expanded to today's level in several construction stages. It was last modernized in 2004 by the Swiss Colenco Power Engineering AG.
Pforzheim is a regional handball stronghold, in the 2013/14 season
the TGS Pforzheim plays in the 3rd division, in the Baden-Württemberg
Oberliga plays the SG Pforzheim/Eutingen, Patrick Groetzki's home club;
the male A-Youth of the SG Pforzheim/Eutingen plays in the
A-Youth-Bundesliga.
Pforzheim plays an important role in dance
sport. There has been a dance sport club in the city since 1939, the
Schwarz-Weiss-Club. After many small tournaments, this club organized an
international dance tournament for the first time in 1962 under the
direction of its 1st chairman Werner Dietrich, the tournament for the
Goldstadtpokal. This tournament quickly developed into one of the
world's top tournaments. Since 1995 the city has had a state training
center for dance sport.
In the 2015/16 football season, 1. CfR
Pforzheim, which was founded in 2010, plays in the fifth-rate Oberliga
Baden-Württemberg.
Arthur Hiller was captain of 1. FC Pforzheim
in 1905, when the team reached the final of the German championship. In
1908 Hiller was captain of the German national team for the first time.
On April 3, 1910, Arthur Hiller's nephew, Marius Hiller, made his first
international appearance in a 3-2 win against Switzerland and scored a
goal. This makes him the second youngest DFB debutant at the age of 18
and the youngest DFB goalscorer.
The Sparkassen Cross Pforzheim,
held at the Lohwiesenhof in the district of Huchenfeld, is one of the
most important cross-country races in Germany.
The
Schützengesellschaft Pforzheim 1450 e. V. operates large and small
caliber disciplines, as well as compressed air and archery as amateur
and competitive sports. The Baden-Württemberg shooting sport training
center is integrated into the shooting society, and its shooting sport
training courses are well-known among sport shooters throughout the
Federal Republic. The Schützengesellschaft Pforzheim was the venue for
the World Championships in 1989 and 2012 and the European Championships
in 1999 and 2005 in muzzleloader shooting. The club is a member of the
Baden Sports Shooting Association, the German Shooting Federation and
the International Shooting Sport Federation. The association actively
runs youth work; Among other things, he offers regular training for
young shooters.
After the city of Pforzheim applied to host a
four-day program for an international delegation of the Special Olympics
World Summer Games 2023 in 2021, the city was selected to host Special
Olympics Vietnam in 2022. The program for the delegation will take place
before the World Games and makes Pforzheim part of the largest municipal
inclusion project in the history of the Federal Republic with more than
200 host towns.
An overview of the honorary citizens of the city of Pforzheim and of
other people who were born in Pforzheim or who have a connection with
the city can be found in the list of personalities in the city of
Pforzheim.
The personalities who were born in Pforzheim and have
become particularly well known include the philosopher and humanist
Johannes Reuchlin, the chemist Heinrich Otto Wieland (Nobel Prize 1927),
the boxer René Weller, the digital art pioneer Manfred Mohr and the
former Prime Minister of Baden-Württemberg Stefan Mappus. Christopher
Bechtler from Pforzheim, who produced the first standardized gold
dollar, became known in the USA. Pforzheim was the destination of the
first long-distance car journey in history by Bertha Benz, who was born
in Pforzheim. Without her husband's knowledge, she and her sons used his
vehicle to visit their parents.