With 308,988 inhabitants (July 31, 2020), Karlsruhe is the third
largest city in the state of Baden-Württemberg after the state
capital Stuttgart and Mannheim. It is the administrative seat of the
administrative district of Karlsruhe and the district of Karlsruhe
and itself forms an urban district (independent city). The city is
the regional center for the Middle Upper Rhine region and
transnational for parts of the southern Palatinate.
Karlsruhe, founded in 1715 from today's district of Durlach as a
planned Baroque town, was the capital and residence of the former
state of Baden. Characteristic of the original city map are the 32
streets all around from the castle to the park and the Hardtwald of
the Upper Rhine Plain. Only the southern quarter was built close to
the center; Karlsruhe owes the nickname "fan-shaped city" to its
fan-shaped floor plan. Friedrich Weinbrenner's classicist buildings
shape the image of the city expansion from the early 19th century.
Karlsruhe has been the seat of the Federal Court of Justice and
the Federal Prosecutor General at the Federal Court of Justice since
1950 and of the Federal Constitutional Court since 1951, which is
why the city is also known as the “Residence of Law”. Numerous
authorities and research institutions of supraregional importance
are located in Karlsruhe. Of the city's nine universities, the
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is the oldest and largest,
and since 2019 it has once again been a University of Excellence.
Large infrastructure facilities such as the two Rhine ports and the
second largest refinery in Germany contrasts with an otherwise
predominantly medium-sized economy. Karlsruhe is one of the most
important European locations for information and communication
technology. The Center for Art and Media (ZKM), one of the most
important cultural institutions in the city, ties in with this.
Others, such as the Badisches Landesmuseum or the Staatliche
Kunsthalle, belong to the legacy of the residence period. In 2019,
UNESCO accepted Karlsruhe as a “City of Media Art” in its network of
Creative Cities.
1 St Stephen . (Catholic): The neoclassical rotunda built by
Friedrich Weinbrenner is based on the Pantheon in Rome and is the
largest Catholic church in the city. After being destroyed in the war,
it was rebuilt in the 1950s with a simplified spire and a redesigned
interior. It is the center of the "Karlsruhe" deanery.
2 City Church
. (ev.): The evangelical town church on the market square was built from
1807 to 1816 according to the plans of Friedrich Weinbrenner in the
style of classicism. After severe destruction in World War II, the
church was rebuilt in the 1950s with a newly designed interior.
3
Small Church . (possibly). Built from 1719 to 1721 in Louis XVI style,
it blocks the course of Kreuzstrasse. After being destroyed in the war,
it would be rebuilt largely true to the original in 1946-49.
4
Lutheran Church . (ev.): Art Nouveau church with subordinate
neo-Romanesque elements on Gottesauer Platz.
5 St. Bernard .
(Catholic): Neo-Gothic church at Durlacher Tor.
6 Christ Church .
(ev.): Neo-Gothic church at Mühlburger Tor.
Karlsruhe Palace,
palace district 10, 76131 Karlsruhe. Forms the center of the city. The
streets of the city center fan out from the tower of the baroque
building, which was built in 1715. The castle houses the Baden State
Museum with a collection from the Stone Age to the 19th century. Worth
mentioning is the so-called "Turkish loot" of Margrave Ludwig. The
castle tower is accessible and offers a beautiful view over the city.
Gottesaue Castle. A Renaissance castle that has been destroyed and
rebuilt several times in the eastern part of Karlsruhe, which stands on
the site of a former Benedictine abbey. Today it is the seat of the
Karlsruhe University of Music.
The Karlsburg is located on the
Schlossplatz in Durlach.
Karlsruhe City Hall, Karl-Friedrich-Str. 10, 76124 Karlsruhe (on the
market square) . It was built from 1821 to 1825 by Friedrich Weinbrenner
in a classical style. The town hall tower was stripped of plaster in the
second half of the 19th century and bears a figure of the god "Mercury".
The building, which was destroyed in 1944, was rebuilt from 1948 to
1954.
Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. The building complex in
"beton brut" was built in 1975. The theater is also known for the Handel
Festival.
Concert hall, fairground . Built between 1913 and 1915 by
the architects Robert Curjel and Karl Moser.
Black Forest Hall,
fairground. Built in 1953 in just eight months. Remarkable is the
cantilever concrete roof of the hall, which was built for the first time
in such a size.
Prince Max Palace. A Wilhelminian-style building in
Karlsruhe. It is named after Prince Max von Baden, the last Chancellor
of the German Empire. The building was constructed between 1881 and 1884
according to plans by the architect Josef Durm. The banker August
Schmieder, who made his fortune in Breslau, had the villa built as a
retirement home. In 1894 it was acquired by Prince Max von Baden. The
building was severely damaged in the air raids of World War II. After
its reconstruction, it housed the Federal Constitutional Court and the
University of Education for some time. Since 1981, the City Cultural
Center with the Museum of Literature on the Upper Rhine, the City
History Museum, and the youth library have been housed in the
Prinz-Max-Palais.
Hereditary Grand Ducal Palace. The neo-baroque
style building on Kriegstraße with an imperial dome has been the seat of
the Federal Court of Justice since 1950 and was built by Josef Durm
between 1891 and 1897.
The Margravial Palace. on Rondellplatz was
built by Friedrich Weinbrenner in the style of classicism between 1803
and 1814. After the war was destroyed, the central part with the
columned portico was rebuilt, but the side wings were not reconstructed.
The Supreme Court . has its seat in Karlsruhe and, as a constitutional
body, is surrounded by a pacified district. It is protected by the
federal police. The well-known main building in the rationalist style
was designed by the architect Paul Baumgarten.
The State Mint. in the
Stephanienstraße was built by Friedrich Weinbrenner and is today one of
five German mints, in which between 210 and 250 million coins are minted
annually.
The Sweden Palace. is a representative residential building
in Karlsruhe, which was built between 1768 and 1770 in the Louis Seize
style.
The State Art Gallery, Hans-Thoma-Strasse 2, 76133 Karlsruhe.
Phone: +49 (0)721 926 33 59 . ith the adjoining Orangery, Heinrich
Hübsch built it as the Grand Ducal Picture Gallery between 1836 and 1846
and is one of the oldest museum buildings in Germany.
The former
department store Karstadt (Kaufhaus Karstadt). in Kaiserstrasse (today
Karstadt) is one of the few surviving examples of department store
architecture from the early 20th century.
The central station.
Karlsruhe was built from 1910 to 1913 according to plans by August
Stürzenacker. The building has both classical and Art Nouveau features.
The station and forecourt form a typical ensemble of urban architecture
from the years before the First World War.
The pyramid on the market square is the symbol of the city.
Below her are the vaults of a former church in which the
town's founder is buried, Margrave Karl Wilhelm von
Baden-Durlach.
The constitutional column
(Großherzog-Karl-Denkmal) on Rondellplatz is an obelisk
flanked by two griffins and commemorates the entry into
force of the Baden constitution of 1818.
The Kaiser
Wilhelm Monument on Kaiserplatz is an equestrian statue
commemorating the first German Emperor.
At the corner of
Moltkestraße/Willi-Brandt-Allee there is a 17 memorial stone
for Siegfried Buback and his companions (murdered here by
the RAF in 1977).
Every year, always on the first Saturday in August, the Long
Night of the Museums, KAMUNA for short, takes place.
Baden State Museum (in the Karlsruhe Palace) . Collection of
art and everyday objects from the Stone Age to the 19th
century. Open: Tue-Thu 10am-5pm, Fri-Sun 10am-6pm.
Natural History Museum, Erbprinzenstraße 13 at
Friedrichsplatz. Phone: +49 (0)721 175 2111 . Admission is
free with the Upper Rhine Museum Pass. Departments: Geology,
Minerals, Prehistoric Life and Fossils, Habitats of the
Earth. Vivarium: live animals in terrariums or aquariums,
changing special exhibitions, etc. Open: Tue–Fri 9:30
a.m.–5:00 p.m., Sat–Sun, public holidays 10:00 a.m.–6:00
p.m. Price: €2.50, school classes €0.50 per student.
ZKM
Center for Art and Media Technology. in the Lorenzstraße
next to the server centers of web.de and 1&1.
Karlsruhe
State Art Gallery, Hans-Thoma-Strasse 2, 76133 Karlsruhe.
Phone: +49 (0)721 926 33 59 . Closed for refurbishment "for
the coming years". There is an interim exhibition at the
ZKM. Open: Tue-Fri 10am-5pm, Sat-Sun, public holidays
10am-6pm. Price: Main building: €10, reduced: €8, students:
€2, families: €20, free entry with the Upper Rhine Museum
Pass.
Transport Museum, Werderstrasse 63, 76137
Karlsruhe. Tel.: +49 (0)721 37 44 35, e-mail:
Verkehrsmuseum-Karlsruhe@t-online.de,
Verkehrsmuseum@Verkehrswacht-Karlsruhe.de . The
volunteer-run museum shows a collection of historic motor
vehicles, motorcycles and bicycles. The exhibition is
supplemented by a large model railway layout. Open: Sun
10:00 - 13:00. Price: €4.00, €2.00 (students, pupils), free
(up to 5 years).
The market square forms the center of the city centre. Here
you will find, among other things, the town hall, the grave
of the city founder and some other buildings and monuments
worth seeing. There are also many shops and cafes here.
Ludwigsplatz is one of the most popular squares in the
western part of the city centre. Numerous restaurants, bars
and cafés invite you to linger and have a cocktail after
work. The motto here: "See and be seen". During the summer
months, after-work parties are regularly held on
Ludwigsplatz. It is connected to Stephanplatz via
Erbprinzenstraße.
The Werderplatz is a lively square and
the cultural center of the south of Karlsruhe. Multicultural
and alternative shops and bars dominate here. In addition to
shopping, you will also find the KOHI cultural center and
the "Indian Fountain" - the landmark of the southern part of
the city. For many Karlsruhers, there is no duplicate of the
Werderplatz lifestyle in Karlsruhe.
Gutenbergplatz is a
popular square in the western part of Karlsruhe with
numerous shops, restaurants and cafés. Karlsruhe's oldest
and loveliest weekly market takes place here every Tuesday,
Thursday and Saturday from 7:30 a.m. The Krautkopf and
Pelikan fountains are eye-catchers on Gutenbergplatz.
The "Platz der Grundrechte" laid out in 2005 is located
between the Zirkel and the Schlossplatz in the pedestrian
zone between the Marktplatz and the castle. Here you will
find 24 double-sided street signs dealing with the issues of
right and wrong - with testimonies from judges, lawyers and
citizens who have gotten into trouble with the law. The
Square of Fundamental Rights is a gift from the city of
Karlsruhe to the Federal Constitutional Court located here.
The castle park is very large and offers a nice atmosphere
for young and old to go for walks, play Frisbee, football
etc. or just let the sun shine on your head. In summer, the
Schlossgartenbahn also runs, sometimes with a diesel or
steam locomotive. This small train, built in 1967 on the
occasion of the Bundesgartenbau, runs on a 2.5 km long
circuit through the park.
Botanical Garden . The
botanical garden is located on the edge of the palace
garden, near the orangery and is considered the green oasis
in the heart of the residential city of Karlsruhe. It houses
over 20 special tree species from different continents,
cacti display houses and numerous greenhouses with tropical
plants. There is also a greenhouse that can be visited and a
restaurant with an outdoor area. Open: Tue-Fri 10:00-16:45,
Sat-Sun, Holiday 10:00-17:45. Price: adults €2.
The
Günther-Klotz-Anlage is a green and leisure facility on the
Alb.
Turmbergbahn
The Turmbergbahn to the Turmberg in the
district of Durlach is the oldest funicular in Germany
(built in 1888). In good weather you have a view of the
whole city and as far as the Palatinate and Alsace. There
are several hiking trails there. Travel times from April to
November 1 daily 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., in the other
months, on weekends and public holidays 10:00 a.m. to 6:00
p.m., every 15 minutes or as required. The railway is still
manned by a conductor who operates the railway and sells
tickets. The Turmbergbahn is not integrated into the
Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund, so separate tickets are
required. On New Year's Eve, the cable car is also in
operation until midnight. Fares for ascent or descent:
Adults €2.00; Children (2-15 years) €1.20, ascent and
descent: adults €3.00; Children (2-15 years) €1.90; Family
ticket €5.50 (as of 2021).
Contact: Tel. +49
0721/6107-5885; Page of the KVV to the Turmbergbahn. not
barrier-free The Turmbergbahn is not suitable for
transporting wheelchairs (access via steps and very narrow
doors)
Historical tram
On selected days, a club
offers rides on the historic tram.
African Summer Festival. Annual African cultural festival
held in July. A high cultural level is always guaranteed
through the participation of representative music and dance
groups from various African countries. These bring the
visitors closer to their respective way of life. The African
ambience is determined by music from Friday to Sunday. The
program is rounded off by culinary specialties, drumming
workshops, dance workshops, children's entertainment, a
bazaar, an African market, a fashion show and exhibitions
and readings by well-known African artists.
The party.
Annual open-air festival over three days. Location: Günther
Klotz facility (park southwest of downtown).
Durlach Old
Town Festival. The city's biggest festival is celebrated
every year on the first weekend in July. There is live music
from mostly regional bands on countless stages. The local
clubs offer cultural and culinary delights. The festival
usually attracts around 200,000 visitors over the two days.
city birthday The city's birthday is celebrated every year
in mid-June.
In mid-October there is a city festival in
the city centre. with live music, lots of activities for
young and old and a shopping Sunday.
The harbor culture
festival. takes place annually at the end of June at the
Rhine port. In addition to music and regional cuisine, there
are boat tours, steam trains and helicopter tours.
Karlsruher SkateNite Every year in the summer months you
have the opportunity to inline skate on streets specially
cordoned off through the center of Karlsruhe. The event
takes place every two weeks and is free of charge.
Karlsruher SC is currently playing in the second division.
Tickets for games in the Wildpark Stadium are available from
€9, concessions from €5.
From Durlach there is a nice
bike path along the Pfinz to Pforzheim.
Bowling Center
LAGO, Gablonzer Straße 13, 76185 Karlsruhe. Tel.: +49 (0)721
570 42 30. Bowling lanes, billiard and table football
tables, beer garden and screens for live football
broadcasts.
The Rock, Ziegelstraße 1 (near Westbahnhof).
Tel: (0)721 5695482.
The whole of Karlsruhe is a creative city!
At
Gottesauer Castle there is an open-air cinema for several
weeks every summer.
At the beginning of September, more
than 300 types of beer from all over the world are offered
at the Karlsruhe Beer Exchange.
RetroGames e.V. is a
museum for video game machines from 1976 to today. You can
play at over 40 machines. For non-members Saturday from 9
p.m. or by appointment.
The Tempel cultural center on the
site of the former Seldeneck brewery is a unique, listed
building. It has also been an independent, socio-cultural
center since 1984, supported by the Kulturverein Tempel e.
V. as initiator and landlord. What is unique for Karlsruhe
is that the temple is not just a stage for events, but above
all a "breeding ground" for art, culture and social affairs.
Here they work and rehearse in studios and on stages. Here
are the spaces that are so rare for artists and cultural
workers before their big public appearance. And for youth,
district and cultural associations the space to develop
their commitment.
Indoor pools
The Europabad. is a water park with a wild
water slide, among other things.
The Vierordtbad. is a
wellness pool with a sauna landscape, including a steam
bath, hot-air room and adventure showers. Brunch is served
there several times a week. Textile-free bathing partially
possible.
Outdoor pools
The Rüppurr outdoor pool.
offers a 50m swimming pool, a non-swimmer pool, a paddling
pool and a slide.
The Rheinstrandbad Rappenwörth. is an
outdoor pool with several slides and wave pools.
The
sunbath. is an outdoor pool that is open from March until
the end of November.
Bathing lakes
The bathing
lake Buchtzig offers peace and relaxation for young and old
with its beautiful sand and meadow beach
The Weingarten
quarry lake is located in the Breitheide leisure area, where
you can also find barbecue facilities in the summer at
specially built barbecue areas. The distance from
Karlsruhe/city center is about 18 km.
The Fuchs & Gros
quarry lake in Eggenstein is a very large lake that is
interesting for many groups such as bathers, surfers or
divers. The bathing zone (complete southern half) around the
lake always offers sunbathing lawns and beach sections of
different sizes.
More bathing lakes in and around
Karlsruhe can be found
here!
By plane
The nearest airport is about 30km south near
Baden-Baden. To reach Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport (IATA:
FKB) by public transport, first take the S-Bahn to Rastatt
or Baden-Baden, from where there are direct bus connections
to the terminal. Depending on the time of day, the journey
from the main train station takes between 40 and 70 minutes.
There is also a bus connection with line 140, which runs
from the train station in Heidelberg via Karlsruhe Hbf to
Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport.
The nearest major
airports are Frankfurt Airport (IATA: FRA), Stuttgart
Airport (IATA: STR) and Strasbourg Airport (IATA: SXB) . The
former can be reached with the ICE from Karlsruhe every hour
with a journey time of a good hour.
By train
Karlsruhe Central Station is served by several ICE, IC and
TGV routes, e.g.:
ICE ... - Basel - Frankfurt - Kassel -
Hamburg or - Berlin
ICE ... - Basel - Frankfurt - Cologne
- Dusseldorf
IC Karlsruhe - Frankfurt - Kassel - Hamburg
IC ... - Basel - Cologne - Dortmund ( - Hamburg )
IC
Karlsruhe - Stuttgart - Munich or - Nuremberg
TGV Paris -
Strasbourg - Stuttgart - Munich
TGV Frankfurt-Marseille
Regional Express lines run to Stuttgart, Constance,
Mainz and Neustadt an der Weinstrasse. Other routes are
connected with regional trains, the RheinNeckar S-Bahn or a
dense light rail network. With these trains, tourist
destinations in the Black Forest (Albtal, Murgtal, Enztal,
Schwarzwaldbahn) and in the Kraichgau can be reached without
changing trains, some with network tariffs, as well as
cities such as Heidelberg. Destinations in the Palatinate
Forest or in Alsace near the border (Lauterbourg,
Wissembourg) can be reached with one change and the regional
tariff, at weekends also directly (Dahner Felsenland). In
summer there is a cycle train to the Murg Valley on Sundays.
There are other stops in the city area for regional
traffic: Hagsfeld on the route to Graben-Neudorf, West,
Mühlburg, Knielingen on the route to Wörth am Rhein, Durlach
on the routes to Heidelberg and Stuttgart.
The KONUS
guest card for the Black Forest holiday region is valid
until Karlsruhe.
By bus
Some long-distance bus
lines stop on the south side of the main station near its
rear entrance.
In the street
In Karlsruhe,
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.
Entry ban for vehicles of pollutant groups 1+2+3 (Info
Federal Environment Agency)
The federal motorways A5
(Basel-Frankfurt) and the A8 (Karlsruhe-Munich) meet in
Karlsruhe. You can drive to the city center via one of the
exits Karlsruhe-Mitte, -Süd or -Durlach. The A65 from the
direction of Rhineland-Palatinate turns into an expressway
(Südtangente) shortly before Karlsruhe am Rhein, which leads
to the A5.
By boat
Karlsruhe has its own port on
the Rhine, which is mainly used for freight traffic. The
excursion boats that anchor here have more entertainment
than commercial value.
Mooring with pleasure boats is
possible.
By bicycle
Among other things, Karlsruhe
is located on the Rhine Cycle Path and the Heidelberg-Black
Forest-Bodensee-Weg.
The public transport system in Karlsruhe is very well
developed. Karlsruhe is particularly well-known for the
Karlsruhe model, in which Stadtbahn lines are operated as
trams in the city center and tracks of the “normal” railway
are also used outside. This means that there are connections
from the surrounding area directly to the city center
without having to change trains.
Trams have the right of
way at most crossings. All public transport is part of the
Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) and can (with the exception
of the Turmbergbahn and Schlossgartenbahn) be used with a
single ticket.
Proof of the success of the Karlsruhe
model is the drastically increasing number of users, most
recently 167 million passengers per year (2019). For this
reason, too, the so-called combined solution has been in
operation since December 2021, with which, among other
things, a light rail tunnel — comparable to subways in other
cities — was built under Kaiserstrasse, Karlsruhe’s main
shopping street and pedestrian zone, and the construction of
a second railway line in the war road envisages.
Most
tram lines run every 10 minutes during the day, and every 20
minutes after 8:00 p.m. and on Sundays until around 1:00
a.m. There is a night line network on Friday, Saturday and
public holidays, which can be used to reach most
destinations at least every hour throughout the night.
limited barrier-free The barrier-free development of the
stops and the use of suitable trains varies greatly. Newer
branches of the route and the first converted stops in the
city center currently only form a rather rudimentary network
suitable for wheelchairs. There are also different vehicle
heights: low-floor trains, i.e. trains with a particularly
low boarding height suitable for 34 cm high platforms,
medium-floor trains suitable for 55 cm high platforms and
the S-Bahn RheinNeckar suitable for 76 cm high platforms.
There are currently some transfer options between these at
Durlach train station, at Gottesauer Platz stop and at
Mühlburger Tor. Basically, the low-floor trams are the most
barrier-free. However, it should be noted that step-free
boarding is not possible on every platform; whether one is
possible can be found on the network map or the passenger
information displays.
All platforms at Karlsruhe Central
Station can be reached by elevator. However, the tram stop
on the station forecourt is not wheelchair accessible, but
low-floor trams can be reached at the nearby Poststrasse
stop. For more information, see the Stadtwiki Karlsruhe on
the subject of barrier-free local transport and the KVV line
network.
A distinction is made in Karlsruhe:
purely inner-city lines whose numbers do NOT begin with an S
(currently 1-6 and 8) and which are operated with low-floor
trams
Stadtbahn lines to the surrounding area, the number
of which begins with an S
Lines without two-system
technology that run entirely with low-floor light rail
vehicles (S1/S11 and S2).
Lines with two-system
technology, which often run with medium-floor trams,
sometimes also with high-floor trams (S31/S32, S4/S41/S42,
S5/S51/S52, S6, S7/S71, S8/S81). Barrier-free entry to
medium-floor trams is possible at the Tullastraße and
Mühlburger Tor stops, as well as at all stops in the tunnel
and some DB stops.
Furthermore, the barrier-free line S3
of the S-Bahn RheinNeckar also reaches Karlsruhe Central
Station
So there are lines with different
destinations that differ only by the S in the number, which
can be confusing for non-residents.
A single trip for the Karlsruhe city area costs €2.80 (as of
2021).[2] The day pass is recommended. They are available in
the City/3 honeycomb versions (e.g. the city of Karlsruhe
plus a neighboring honeycomb) for single travelers or for a
maximum of five people, as well as Regio (KVV area) and
RegioX (KVV plus some other routes). They are also available
from the bus drivers of the city buses, from the ticket
machines at the bus stops and from the ticket machines in
the trains. Tickets are no longer available from the drivers
of the city trams and trams.
Bahncard holders can
purchase a BahnCard ticket for single journeys. This costs
about 25% less than the normal price. These tickets are
available from machines, but not from the driver.
Attention: At normal KVV machines you can get non-validated
tickets that have to be validated on the train or on DB
trains on the platform, while at DB machines and KVV
machines on DB premises you can get tickets that have
already been validated. If you want to buy tickets in
advance, you should pay attention to the information on
validation at the machine.
In the 2018 cycle climate test by the ADFC, Karlsruhe was
awarded an overall score of 3.15 as the most cycle-friendly
city in Germany.
In Karlsruhe, Deutsche Bahn operates
its “Call a Bike” station-based bicycle rental system at
both of its stations. In addition, since 2014 there has been
the KVV.nextbike rental system (formerly fan bike) from
Nextbike. This is a free-floating system, which means that
bicycles can be parked freely within a larger zone. Pedelecs
(“e-bikes”) and cargo bikes (“cargo bikes”) are also offered
under more restrictive conditions.
The motto also applies to the whole of Karlsruhe: Miles,
Malls and More. One strolls along the shopping streets in
the Kaiserstrasse, Karlstrasse and Waldstrasse. Most
department stores and retail stores are located on
Kaiserstrasse. A somewhat upscale selection of shopping
facilities can be found in the Postgalerie and in Waldstraße
behind it. The Post Gallery in the former main post office
in Karlsruhe is one of the most beautiful shopping galleries
in Germany. Flooded with light, spacious, modern and
well-kept, the Post Gallery has been presenting itself as a
nationally known, unique shopping mall with a total of over
50 different specialty shops, shops and restaurants since
2001. In November 2012, the Irish textile retailer PRIMARK
opened its first branch in Baden-Württemberg in the Post
Galerie. Ettlinger Tor, a few meters south of the market
square, is a large shopping mall with many shops. The
Ettlinger Tor Karlsruhe has three levels, the galleries have
a sales area totaling approx. 33,000 square meters with 130
specialist shops and an overwhelming variety of fashion,
trends and accessories, cosmetics, beauty and wellness. With
literature and consumer electronics, with brands and labels,
surrounded by restaurants, cafés and bars. Ettlinger Tor is
open until 10 p.m. on Thursdays.
Bookstores
Reisebuchladen-Karlsruhe.de (Volker Hager & Michael
Oberdorfer GbR), Herrenstraße 33. Tel.: +49 721 47008896,
fax: +49 721 47008895, e-mail:
Info@Reisebuchladen-Karlsruhe.de.
It is said that the region around Karlsruhe has one of the
best kitchens in Germany. Influenced by the surrounding
regions, particularly Alsace and Switzerland, there are a
variety of interesting dishes. In most regional restaurants
and beer gardens you can get typical dishes such as meatloaf
in different variations, Maultaschen and tarte flambée.
Typical side dishes are potato salad, spaetzle, sauerkraut
and pretzels.
In addition, as everywhere in Germany,
a large selection of international cuisine has settled.
Italian, Turkish and Spanish restaurants are particularly
common.
The region is also a well-known wine region.
Cheap
Most restaurants offer a lunch menu for 5-10
euros.
The student pub Die Kippe. on Gottesauer
Strasse. From the university you go only 5 minutes. In the
Kippe there are 5 different student meals for everyone every
day. The dishes cost less than €3 and are very popular with
the students, so it's correspondingly lively.
The 1 Cafe
Enamel. is like the Café Bleu an offshoot of the Kippe.
Accordingly, both the menu and the look are in the typical
style with "Studi" (or "Hammer") food and "Hammer breakfast"
for 3.90 euros as well as enamel signs on the walls.
However, the Café Emaille is a bit more elegant and less
rustic than the Kippe, thanks to the large panoramic
windows, plenty of space and a small adjoining room with
sofas.
The cafete of the university is also inexpensive.
Danger! You can only pay with cash in the cafete, for the
canteen you have to buy a credit card!
The 2 Ballermann.
next to the main building of the university there are
burgers, currywurst, gyros and co. Bundesliga games are also
broadcast on a screen.
3 Mömax Restaurant, Am
Storrenacker 2, 76139 Karlsruhe (industrial area). Phone:
+49-721-6659252-11, email: karlsruhe@moemax.de. Very cheap,
especially the offers from the advertising booklet.
Middle
Littfass: Student bar with cheap dishes
Weinstube/Restaurant "Seilerei" at Kaiserstraße 47 with an
extensive menu, cozy atmosphere and the best service.
http://www.seilerei-ka.de/
The El Taquito on
Herrenstrasse offers extensive Mexican cuisine and good
cocktails.
The Toro Tapasbar is a cozy little restaurant
that serves a variety of Spanish tapas and Basque dishes.
With a bit of luck, you can meet real celebrities here.
Wonderful holiday mood.
In the La Dolce Vita at the
Saumarkt in Durlach there is fine Italian cuisine at
reasonable prices.
The Spanish restaurant Besitos on the
market square has good tapas and cocktails.
The Viva is a
vegetarian restaurant on Lammstrasse.
Upscale
artist bar. Old-rustic and partly listed inn in
Karlsruhe-Daxlanden.
Oberland wine bar. Very good
restaurant in the Akademiestr. 7, nice little courtyard.
Rauerei Moninger, Zeppelinstraße 17 (bus stop Sinner). Tel.:
+49 721 5307689. The restaurant serves inexpensive regional
cuisine and 6 home-brewed draft beers. Open: Mon–Sun 11:00
a.m.–12:00 a.m.; Kitchen: 11:30 - 22:00.
Wolfsbräu,
Werderstrasse 51, 76137 Karlsruhe. Tel.: +49 721 3545770.
Delicious salads and pizzas, along with home-brewed beer.
Open: weekdays and public holidays 4:30 p.m.–12:00 a.m., in
winter from 5:00 p.m., weekends 11:45 a.m.–1:00 a.m. Price:
Pizza from €7.
Vogel Hausbräu Durlach, Amalienbadstrasse
16, 76227 Karlsruhe. Tel.: +49 721 819680. Small brewery
with a few smaller dishes, nice beer garden in summer.
Price: main courses from €7.
Hoepfner Burghof,
Haid-und-Neu-Strasse 18, 76131 Karlsruhe. Tel.: +49 721
622644. The brick brewery building looks like a castle with
battlements. Hotel, restaurant with Baden cuisine and a
large beer garden next door. Open: Kitchen hours: Mon–Sat
11:30 a.m.–2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m., 2:00
p.m.–5:00 p.m. small menu, Sunday and public holidays 11:30
a.m.–9:00 p.m. Price: Main courses 10€ - 22€.
The Pinte, Leopoldstr. 15. Tel: +49 721 28649. The door is
normally locked, you have to ring the bell to be let in.
Open: Tue-Fri from 7 p.m., Sat from 8 p.m.
Kippe, the 7
Das Stovchen and the Cafe Emaille are typical student bars
with cheap drinks and simple dishes.
Beer Academy,
Douglasstr. 10, D-76133 Karlsruhe. Tel: +49 (0) 721 27302.
Smoking area. Large selection of beers. Open: Fri & Sat
until 3:00.
Cafe Zero (near Marktplatz). There's beer and
cocktails in an interesting, ornate setting.
Titanic,
Kronenstr. 3, 76133 Karlsruhe. KSC fans meet at the Titanic
after games.
Bray Head, Chapel Street. There are locally
brewed Irish beers, as well as Irish whiskeys and food.
Milano Bar, Marienstrasse (corner of Schützenstrasse). Mixed
music, there is a foosball table and several televisions on
which football, among other things, is broadcast. It is
smoked. Open: All day, Sun-Thu until 2am, Fri until 4am
(with DJ), Sat until 3am.
Kranz, Pfinztalstr. 39, 76227
Karlsruhe-Durlach. Tel.: +49 (0)721 405485. In the Kranz in
Durlach there is beer, schnapps and Kurdish cuisine. Also
well attended during the week. Open: 17:00-1:00.
Scruffy's. Rustic Irish pub, where you quickly get the
feeling of really being in Ireland. The staff mainly speaks
English.
Elios Bar, Ettlinger Strasse. Most famous cocktail bar in
Karlsruhe.
Cafe Vienna. Pub that turns into a dance floor
in the evening, student pub in the Oststadt.
King Carl.
Unique penthouse bar specializing in premium cocktails. It
is in the middle of the Europlatz in the heart of Karlsruhe.
Oval Lounge. There is always something to hear, see and
enjoy here: The Oval Lounge regularly invites interesting
artists from music, art and culture and offers a wide range
of interesting events and parties.
Deelight Lounge,
Hirschstrasse 11 a. Tel.: +49 (0) 721 20 400 585. The small
cocktail bar "Deelight Lounge" is located in the middle of
Karlsruhe's party mile. It is characterized by what is
perhaps the "best cocktails in town" and its intimate, very
hospitable atmosphere.
Gothec Club. National and international techno acts
(Liebing, Beyer, Motte and many more) at their finest.
Krokokeller, Bürgerstraße 14. The charming vaulted cellar in
the middle of Karlsruhe city center, near Ludwigsplatz, has
been the place to go for a relaxed audience of all ages for
over 15 years.
The city center, Baumeisterstraße 3. Tel.:
+49 (0)721 3546381, e-mail: info@die-stadtmitte.de. A very
nice beer garden, which also invites you to sit outside in
winter. Casual clothing style is welcome. Theatrical
performances and concerts are also held regularly.
Cheap
Karlsruhe Youth Hostel, Moltkestrasse 24, 76133
Karlsruhe. Tel.: +49 (0)721 28248. Price: BB €22.70
including bed linen.
Hotels & Hostels
Hotel Garni
Betzler, Amalienstrasse 3, 76133 Karlsruhe. The house is
conveniently located yet quiet, in the middle of Karlsruhe.
You can easily reach the most important places in the city
on foot. Feature: Garni.
Camping
Camping Durlach,
Tiengener Str. 40, 76227 Karlsruhe. Phone: +49 (0)721
94303430.
Other accommodation
Karlsruhe has a very
active couchsurfing community.
Middle
Hotel ALFA
Karlsruhe-City, Blumenstrasse 17, 76133 Karlsruhe. Tel.: +49
721 299 26. In a good location on Ludwigsplatz, the center
of Karlsruhe's pedestrian zone.
Art Hotel Royal,
Kriegsstrasse 94, 76133 Karlsruhe. Phone: +49 (0) 721 - 93
38 05-0. The Hotel Royal is located in a listed building,
which has been extensively renovated and has its own art
collection with contemporary art. A bar is attached to the
spacious lounge.
Upscale
Schlosshotel Karlsruhe,
Bahnhofplatz 2, 76137 Karlsruhe. For guests who appreciate
tradition and the most modern amenities, the castle hotel,
built in 1914 as a grand hotel in the heart of the
fan-shaped city of Karlsruhe, is still the first address for
overnight stays, meetings and celebrations.
Novotel
Karlsruhe City, Festplatz 2, 76137 Karlsruhe. The modern
Novotel Karlsruhe City is in a perfect downtown location
with a direct connection to the congress center. The fully
air-conditioned 4-star superior hotel has 246 elegant rooms.
Hotel Erbprinz, Rheinstrasse 1, 76275 Ettlingen. The
Erbprinz is distinguished by the fact that it is a luxury
hotel in Ettlingen with a 5-star superior rating. On the
other hand, its location is extremely attractive: close to
the Black Forest and Alsace, to Karlsruhe, Baden-Baden and
Stuttgart, it attracts both private guests and corporate
customers.
Karlsruhe has a total of eight universities. The most famous
of them:
KIT (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology),
Kaiserstrasse 12, 76131 Karlsruhe. Phone: +49 721 608-0. The
KIT was created in 2009 through the merger of the former
Technical University (formerly Fridericiana) and the
Research Center (formerly Nuclear Research Center)
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, Moltkestrasse 30.
Tel.: +49(0)721 925-0.
University of Education,
Bismarckstrasse 10, 76133 Karlsruhe.
University of Music,
in Gottesaue Castle. edit info
University of Design,
Lorenzstr. 15. In the neighborhood is the ZKM (Center for
Art and Media Technology)
In addition, Karlsruhe has
more than a dozen grammar schools, a number of secondary
schools, and commercial and industrial vocational schools.
Also worth mentioning:
The Center Culturel
Franco-Allemand offers French courses for all levels.
The
European School in the Waldstadt
The community college.
Karlsruhe is considered the "Internet capital" of Germany. Presumably influenced by the university, which played an important role in the development of the Internet in Germany, there are over 2,500 large and small IT companies here. Some nationally known are United Internet (1&1, GMX, web.de), ptv and billiger.de. 40% of all German websites are managed by Karlsruhe companies and Europe's largest data center is located in the city.
No problem in Karlsruhe - due to various security for the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of Justice, there is a constant presence of the police and federal border guards. In the ranking of the safest cities in Germany, Karlsruhe is in 16th place out of 37. There are 10,718 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants per year.
Karlsruhe has a high density of hospitals. Here, the large complex of the Municipal Clinic stands out. But the smaller hospitals, such as the (new and old) Vincentius Hospital, the Deaconess Hospital and the Marien Clinic should not go unmentioned.
The Karlsruhe Municipal Clinic, founded in 1907 in the
north-west of the city, is the largest hospital in the
Middle Upper Rhine region with around 1,400 beds and more
than 4,000 employees. Since 1995, a private cardiac surgery
clinic with 89 beds, which belongs to the Helios Clinic
Group, has been adjacent to it. The St. Vincentius clinics
have around 800 beds and the Karlsruhe-Rüppurr deaconess
hospital around 500 beds.
The Paracelsus Clinic in
Durlach had 157 beds and was closed at the end of February
2018.
The rescue helicopter Christoph 43 of the DRF
Luftrettung is stationed at the St. Vincentius-Kliniken. The
Karlsruhe Air Rescue Center has existed since 1975.
Tourist information at the main train station, Bahnhofplatz
6, 76137 Karlsruhe. Phone: +49 721 3720-5383, +49 721
3720-5384, Fax: +49 721 3720-5385. Open: Mon-Fri
8:30am-6:00pm, Sat 9:00am-1:00pm.
The Karlsruher
Stadtwiki is an extensive, non-commercial encyclopedia about
Karlsruhe with almost 20,000 articles about the city and the
region.
Several villages and the cities of
Durlach and Mühlburg were located in the vicinity of the planned
city of Karlsruhe, which was only founded in the Hardtwald in 1715.
These places, which are now incorporated into Karlsruhe as
districts, have a much longer history than today's core city.
In Knielingen, Rüppurr and Durlach there is evidence of hatchets
and bronze ingots from the Bronze Age. In 1911 a cemetery was found
with ten burials from the younger Iron Age. On the edge of a Roman
settlement in the Grünwinkel district, three brick kilns and a
pottery kiln were uncovered in 1922–1927, which were believed to
have operated from the end of the 1st century AD to the end of the
2nd century. A grave field with 44 burials and many other traces
such as individual graves, brick kilns or coins indicate a Roman
settlement.
In 786 the oldest district Knielingen was first
mentioned in a document. The Counts of Hohenberg built the castle
complex on the Turmberg near Durlach in the 11th century. In 1094
they donated the Benedictine monastery Gottesaue, on whose grounds
Gottesaue Castle has stood since the late 16th century. The
monastery favored the growth of nearby settlements such as Mühlburg,
Knielingen or Neureut. In the year 1196 Durlach was first mentioned
as a town.
In 1525 Mühlburg, Durlach and Neureut joined the
peasant revolt. Baden-Durlach became Protestant in 1556 and as a
result the Neureuters bought themselves free from serfdom in 1563.
When Margrave Karl II moved his residence from Pforzheim to Durlach
in 1565, the city experienced an economic and cultural boom.
Rintheim, Durlach, Hagsfeld and Mühlburg were destroyed in the
Thirty Years War. During the Palatinate War of Succession, French
troops destroyed the royal seat of Durlach, Gottesaue Castle,
Rintheim, Mühlburg, Knielingen and Daxlanden in 1689, but Rüppurr
was not destroyed.
In 1699 Huguenots who had fled settled in
Neureut. A new district developed, which was called Welschneureut.
In contrast, the old district was called Teutschneureut.
Karlsruhe is one of the last major European city
foundations on the drawing board. Karl Wilhelm, Margrave of
Baden-Durlach, swapped the mediaeval narrowness of his former
residence in Durlach for a new city that was open in structure and
spirit.
According to legend, Karl Wilhelm fell asleep while
riding a hunt in the Hardtwald. He dreamed of a splendid castle that
lay like the sun in the center of his new residence, the streets of
the city were like the rays of the sun. Karl Wilhelm had his dream
city designed (see also: planned city) and founded the residence
named after him ("Carols Ruhe") on June 17, 1715 with the laying of
the foundation stone for the Karlsruhe castle tower.
The
actual motives for the foundation have not been passed down. The
radial structure, which is also seen as the urban embodiment of
absolutism, corresponds to the typology of a hunting star and
opened up the Hardtwald as a hunting area. The tower initially
served as a hunting and pleasure palace. Karlsruhe only became the
residence of the margraviate of Baden-Durlach in 1718.
The
city complex has been preserved to this day: the castle is located
in the center of a circle from which roads radiate into the city to
the south and avenues through the Hardtwald to the north. From the
castle tower in the center you can see all the rays. There are a
total of 32 streets and avenues. This number corresponds exactly to
the division of the compass rose. The southern quarter of the full
circle formed the built-up urban area and extended to the Durlach –
Mühlburg road, today's Kaiserstrasse. The floor plan is reminiscent
of a fan, which is why Karlsruhe is known as the “fan city”. The
streets were named after the members of the House Order of Loyalty,
which was founded on the occasion of the laying of the foundation
stone. The planning, which was entirely geared towards the prince,
initially provided neither a town hall nor a market square.
With the letter of privilege dated September 24, 1715, which
summarized his idea of a model city and already bore many signs of an
ultra-modern image of the state and people, Karl Wilhelm created
incentives to colonize Karlsruhe. Much appears in the “privileges” that
the European peoples fought for in the revolutions of the following
years, up to the 20th century, as a good right for every person:
personal freedom, economic freedoms, equality before the law, political
participation. People from France, Poland, Italy,
Switzerland and many German countries took part in the construction
of Karlsruhe. The city's first mayor, Johannes Sembach, was from
Strasbourg.
After the reunification of Baden-Durlach with the
Margraviate of Baden-Baden in 1771, Karlsruhe was the residence of
the entire Margraviate of Baden.
From 1806 the city was the residence of the Grand Dukes of Baden.
In 1818 Grand Duke Carl in Karlsruhe enacted the Baden constitution,
which was very liberal for the time. In 1822, the first specially
built parliament building on German soil was built in Karlsruhe
(Ständehaus Memorial). Friedrich Hecker, one of the leaders of the
Baden Revolution of 1848/49, was one of the members of the Baden
Estates Assembly.
In 1825, Grand Duke Ludwig I founded the
Polytechnic as the nucleus of the University of Karlsruhe, and since
2009 the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. In 1846, one of the
first volunteer fire brigades was established in Durlach alongside
the Heidelberger.
In the course of the Baden Revolution,
Grand Duke Leopold fled to Koblenz in May 1849. Until the
suppression of the insurgents in Rastatt by Prussian troops in July,
Baden was de facto a republic. With the first German administrative
court and with it the first possibility in Germany to enforce civil
rights against legal violations of the state, Karlsruhe 1863/64
marked a milestone on the way to turn subjects into citizens.
From September 3rd to 5th, 1860, the Karlsruhe Congress took
place in Karlsruhe, the first international specialist congress of a
natural science discipline. In 1862 - earlier than anywhere else -
the proverbial Baden liberality found its expression in the civil
equality of the Jews.
On November 4, 1876, the first symphony
in C minor, Opus 68 by Johannes Brahms was premiered by the Grand
Ducal Badische Hofkapelle in Karlsruhe. On January 21, 1877, the
first horse-drawn tram in Karlsruhe ran. On September 16, 1893, the
first German girls' grammar school was opened in Karlsruhe, today's
Lessing grammar school.
In 1901, the
population exceeded 100,000, making Karlsruhe a major city. In the
course of time, numerous neighboring communities were incorporated
or incorporated, including Durlach, from where the city of Karlsruhe
was founded.
During the First World War, the city with its
arms factories (including German arms and ammunition factories) and
its train station was the target of 14 air raids with a total of 168
dead and 344 injured. In the heaviest attack on June 22, 1916,
around 40 bombs hit the area at Ettlinger Tor, where a performance
by the Hagenbeck circus was taking place. 120 people, including 71
children, were killed.
After the November Revolution of 1918,
Karlsruhe lost its function as a residence and became the capital of
the Free State of Baden. Karlsruhe was also, as in the times of the
monarchy, the seat of the regional commissioner district of
Karlsruhe.
The 21st German Fire Brigade Day took place in
Karlsruhe from August 3 to 8, 1932. It was the last one before Nazi
rule and World War II.
During the Second World War, Karlsruhe
lost its political importance when Alsace, unofficially annexed to
the Greater German Reich, was combined with Baden to form the Gau
Baden-Alsace, the planned Reichsgau Upper Rhine, and its political
center was moved to Strasbourg. In the Wagner-Bürckel action, the
Jews still living in the area of this Reichsgau were deported to
the Camp de Gurs camp. Likewise, the families of the Sinti and Roma,
who mainly lived in the “Dörfle”, were deported to Auschwitz in May
1940 from the police headquarters on the market square over the
Hohenasperg.
Between 1940 and 1945, 135 air and artillery
attacks by the Allies on Karlsruhe are documented, including 13
major attacks with more than 100 bombers. At least 12,000 tons of
high explosive and incendiary bombs were dropped over the city.
1,754 people died and 3,508 were injured. Karlsruhe was, depending
on the calculation basis, 24 to 38% destroyed. On April 4, 1945, the
French 1st Army occupied the city after little resistance.
After the war, Karlsruhe was added to the American occupation zone
and the state of Württemberg-Baden, and since the creation of the
state of Baden-Württemberg in 1952, Karlsruhe has belonged to it.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, Karlsruhe became the
"residence of law": in 1950 the Federal Court of Justice began its
work there. The Federal Constitutional Court followed on September
28, 1951. The first president was the FDP politician Hermann
Höpker-Aschoff. From 1952 to 1972, Karlsruhe was the seat of the
administrative district of North Baden, and since January 1, 1973 it
has been the seat of the administrative district of Karlsruhe.
The 1967 Federal Horticultural Show took place in Karlsruhe. On
this occasion, the city garden, zoo and palace park were, in some
cases, significantly redesigned and adapted to the leisure needs of
the citizens.
In 1969, the city of Karlsruhe was awarded the
Europe Prize for its outstanding efforts to promote European
integration.
In 1972 the city began to set up pedestrian
zones on Kaiserstraße. The current state of a continuous pedestrian
zone from Kronen- to Europaplatz was achieved in 1984.
On January 1, 1972 Hohenwettersbach and Stupferich were
incorporated. Wolfartsweier joined on January 1, 1973. Grötzingen
and Wettersbach followed on January 1, 1975. The municipality of
Neureut was the last to be incorporated on February 14, 1975,
despite strong resistance from the residents there, following a
decision by the State Court. Colloquially, people still speak of
“compulsory” incorporation or “compulsory incorporation”.
On
April 7, 1977, Federal Prosecutor General Siegfried Buback was
murdered on the way to work together with his driver and a judicial
officer by terrorists from the Red Army Faction.
On January
12 and 13, 1980, the federal party Die Grünen was founded in the
congress center.
Germany's first real e-mails were received
and sent on August 2, 1984 in the computing center of Karlsruhe
University: The Karlsruhe internet pioneer Werner Zorn answered the
official welcome message from the US American CSNET, a
manufacturer-independent platform for electronic communication by
scientists.
From July 20 to 30, 1989, the third alternative
World Games took place in Karlsruhe, an international competition
for athletes whose sports are not represented in the Olympic
program. 1965 athletes took part in 19 disciplines.
Baden-Airport GmbH was founded on June 13, 1995. In
Rheinmünster-Söllingen, 30 km to the south-west, the company
expanded a former Canadian military airfield to the Karlsruhe /
Baden-Baden airport and thus connected Karlsruhe to the
international air traffic network.
In 2003,
in the neighboring Rheinstetten district of Forchheim, the Karlsruhe
Exhibition Center was opened to host national and international
trade and public fairs.
On September 7, 2005, the ECE
Ettlinger Tor shopping center, the largest inner-city shopping
center in southwest Germany, opened its doors after a construction
period of around two years. About four years earlier, the first
inner-city shopping center in Karlsruhe was opened on September 27,
2001 in the former main post office on Europaplatz with the
Postgalerie.
On May 25, 2009, the city received the title
“Place of Diversity” awarded by the federal government. On January
21, 2010, Prime Minister Günther Oettinger, State Secretary Rainer
Bomba and the Lord Mayor of Karlsruhe Heinz Fenrich broke ground for
the construction of the tram tunnel on Europaplatz as part of the
combined solution, which is supposed to relieve the main shopping
street from rail traffic.
In the second quarter of 2014, the
population of Karlsruhe exceeded 300,000 for the first time.
In 2015, the city held a summer festival called KA300 to celebrate
the city's 300th birthday. The Schlosslichtspiele Karlsruhe, which
took place for the first time on the city's birthday, has meanwhile
established itself as an annual event.
The Karlsruhe urban area lies entirely on the right bank of the
Rhine and predominantly in the Upper Rhine Plain. In the east it
includes the Turmberg and the adjacent heights but also the edge of
the hill country at the transition from the southern Kraichgau to
the northern Black Forest. The districts of Durlach, Wolfartsweier,
Hohenwettersbach, Grünwettersbach, Palmbach and Stupferich have been
part of the Black Forest Middle / North Nature Park since January
2021.
The Rhine, one of the world's most important waterways,
forms the western city limits, to which the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate connects. The city center is 7.5 km from the
river, measured from the market square. The small tributaries of the
Rhine, Alb and Pfinz, flow through the plain in the urban area from
the Black Forest and Kraichgau to the northwest. The city of
Karlsruhe was founded away from the flood zones of the rivers on the
lower terrace of the Upper Rhine (Hochgestade), which overlooks the
lowlands of the Rhine floodplains in the west and the
Kinzig-Murg-Rinne off the hills in the southeast and east by several
meters. In the Rhine floodplains there are several old Rhine waters
and the Knielinger See quarry, the largest lake in Karlsruhe with an
area of 80.5 hectares.
The lowest point of the urban area
is at the oil port on the Rhine at 100 m above sea level. , the
highest in the animal enclosure at Grünwettersbach at 323.2 m above
sea level. and the market square in the city center at 114.9 m above
sea level.
The total area of the city is 173.46 square
kilometers. In terms of area, it ranks 30th among the major German
cities (see: List of major cities in Germany). The largest extension
in north-south direction is 16.8 km, in east-west direction 19.3 km.
The 49th parallel runs through Karlsruhe. The city is thus on
the same geographical latitude as a large part of the state border
between the USA and Canada and (approximately; viewed in west-east
direction) the cities of Vancouver (Canada), Paris (France),
Regensburg, Prešov (Slovakia) and Hulun Buir (China).
The
city is part of the agglomeration of Karlsruhe / Pforzheim, which
also includes some municipalities in the Karlsruhe district
(especially the large district towns of Bruchsal, Ettlingen,
Stutensee and Rheinstetten), the city of Pforzheim, the
north-western part of the Enzkreis and the city of Mühlacker and the
municipality of Niefern -Öschelbronn in the northeastern Enzkreis.
Within the Middle Upper Rhine region, Karlsruhe is one of the 14
regional centers in Baden-Württemberg, which are designated
according to the 2002 regional development plan. Cross-border
Karlsruhe is part of the trinational metropolitan region of the
Upper Rhine. In addition, in the Pamina Eurodistrict (Palatinat,
Middle Upper Rhine and North Alsace) there are links with
communities in the southern Palatinate and Lower Alsace.
The following cities and municipalities
border the city of Karlsruhe. Going clockwise, starting in the
north, they are called:
Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Stutensee,
Weingarten (Baden), Pfinztal, Karlsbad, Waldbronn, Ettlingen and
Rheinstetten (all districts of Karlsruhe) and on the opposite side
of the Rhine, Hagenbach and Wörth am Rhein (both districts of
Germersheim in Rhineland-Palatinate)
With an annual mean temperature of 11.0 ° C, Karlsruhe is one of
the warmest cities in Germany and with an average annual sunshine
duration of 1805 hours it is also one of the sunniest. With 21.4 hot
days and 68.0 summer days per year (averages for the reference
period 1981–2010), Karlsruhe has the highest values of all German
weather stations in both categories. The mean annual total
precipitation of 783 mm (reference period 1981–2010), however, is
close to the German average of 789 mm.
The protected location
in the Upper Rhine Graben means that Karlsruhe is often oppressive
in summer. The winters, on the other hand, are mostly mild and often
characterized by the high fog typical of the Rhine Valley. On a
long-term average, Karlsruhe has 60.7 frost days and 11.1 ice days
per year.
On August 9 and 13, 2003, the then official German
heat record, which had existed since 1983, was set in Karlsruhe with
an absolute maximum temperature of 40.2 ° C, although it only lasted
until summer 2015. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Karlsruhe
was −25.4 ° C and was measured on January 18, 1940.
The urban area of Karlsruhe is divided into 27 districts, which are further subdivided into city quarters, formerly also known as city districts. The eight inner districts are marked in red on the following map, the 19 outer districts in green and yellow. Apart from Oberreut, the Waldstadt and Weiherfeld-Dammerstock, three new housing estates of the 20th century, the outer districts go back to formerly independent towns and villages that are significantly older than Karlsruhe itself.
There are eight nature reserves in the city of Karlsruhe. This means
that 728.74 hectares of the city area are under nature protection, which
is 4.2 percent.
Old Karlsruhe Airport: 69.1 hectares
Altrhein
Kleiner Bodensee: 216.8 hectares (of which 87.8 hectares are in the city
of Karlsruhe)
Altrhein Maxau: 34.6 hectares
Burgau: 291.1 hectares
Erlachsee: 16.4 hectares
Fritschlach: 86.8 hectares
Kälberklamm
and Hasenklamm: 21.1 hectares (of which 0.1 hectares in the city of
Karlsruhe)
Weingartener Moor-Bruchwald Grötzingen: 255.6 hectares (of
which 142.8 hectares are in the city of Karlsruhe)
The 17
landscape protection areas in Karlsruhe cover around 5760 hectares and
thus a third of the city area. They extend over all natural areas of
Karlsruhe. Directly adjacent to the castle in the city center are the
parks of the castle gardens and the northern Hardtwald forest, a 15 km
long forest area that extends into the neighboring district of Karlsruhe
and is designated as a landscape conservation area. South-east of the
main station is the Oberwald, a 583-hectare conservation area close to
the densely populated Südstadt.
In 1556 the Lutheran Reformation was introduced in the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach. Founded by the Margraves of Baden-Durlach, Karlsruhe was Protestant. In order to settle the area around his new castle Carols Ruhe, the founder of the city, Karl Wilhelm, created a number of incentives for new residents in his letter of privileges dated September 24, 1715. First and foremost was freedom of religion. The first Catholics and Jews soon moved in. In 1771 Karl Friedrich von Baden-Durlach inherited the possessions of the extinct line of Baden-Baden, which had remained Catholic, and like Karl Wilhelm promoted religious tolerance. The Garden of Religions was created in this tradition in 2015. In 2022, the 11th WCC assembly will take place in Karlsruhe from August 31 to September 8, for which around 4,000 Christians from all over the world have registered.
Until 1987 there were more Protestants than Catholics in Karlsruhe.
According to the results of the census on May 9, 2011, 92,054
inhabitants of Karlsruhe belonged to the Catholic Church, 86,753
inhabitants were Protestant, 110,365 inhabitants were assigned to the
categories "other", "not belonging to any public religious community" or
"no information". According to a calculation from the census figures for
people with a migration background, the proportion of Muslims in
Karlsruhe in 2011 was 5.6% (around 16,300 people).
At the end of
2017, the proportion of Catholics was 28.6% and that of Protestants
26.0%. 45.4% of residents were non-denominational or belonged to a third
denomination or religion. From 1970 to 2017, this proportion has
increased by more than 37 percentage points and by more than 15
percentage points since 2000. In 2022, the proportion of Catholics was
24.8%, the proportion of Protestants was 22.9% and 52.3% of the
residents were non-denominational or belonged to another denomination or
faith community.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Roman Catholic Christians in the city received their own church, the Church of St. Stephen, consecrated in 1814. The Roman Catholic parishioners belong to the City Deanery of Karlsruhe within the Middle Upper Rhine-Pforzheim region of the Archdiocese of Freiburg. Karlsruhe is the seat of the regional office, which includes the deaneries of Baden-Baden, Bruchsal, Karlsruhe, Pforzheim and Rastatt. In 1992 the 91st German Catholic Day took place in Karlsruhe under the motto "A new city is rising". Services according to traditional and Taizé liturgy are celebrated.
Karlsruhe is the seat of the Evangelical Church in Baden. The
regional bishop also resides here. Unless they are members of a free
church, the Protestant parishioners belong to the church district of
“Karlsruhe and Durlach” within the church district of North Baden. The
dean's office for the church district is also in Karlsruhe, but the
dean's office for the church district of Karlsruhe-Land, which also
includes the district of Neureut, is in Bruchsal. The semi-independent
Evangelical Community Association AB was founded in Durlach and had its
headquarters in Karlsruhe until the 21st century.
Association of
Evangelical Free Churches
The following churches represented in
Karlsruhe are full or guest members of the Association of Evangelical
Free Churches: an Adventist congregation, an apostolic community, an
evangelical free church congregation (Baptists), a free evangelical
congregation, six congregations of the United Methodist Church, an
evangelical Anabaptist congregation in Durlach and one Mennonite and a
Salvation Army church. The Federation of Free Church Pentecostal
Churches is represented by seven churches (Agape Church including
Ethiopian daughter church, Alive Church, Christian Church Jesus for All
Nations, Free Christian Church, Gospel House Karlsruhe, International
Christian Church Karlsruhe and Meeting Point Life).
There are other free church congregations in Karlsruhe, including two
Brethren congregations, the old Catholic congregation "Christ's
Resurrection", the Christian Association of Young People, a congregation
of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Baden and congregations of the New
Apostolic Church. Of the numerous charismatic and Pentecostal churches
in the network Forum Leben are: Christliches Zentrum Karlsruhe, Mosaik
church Karlsruhe and Fabrik88. Furthermore, there is the free
Pentecostal Missionswerk Karlsruhe, the city church, icf karlsruhe and a
church of God. In addition, there are a wide variety of foreign-language
groups, such as a Latin American evangelical group, an Anglican and
three orthodox communities: a Greek-Orthodox, a Romanian-Orthodox and a
Serbian-Orthodox.
Other Christian-related groups include the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) with a church in
Southwest City, Christian Science, the Christian Community, Jehovah's
Witnesses and an "Early Christian Church" (Universal Life).
Karlsruhe is the seat of the Jewish religious community in Baden, a
synagogue, a Chabad rabbi and several Jewish cemeteries.
Before
the Shoah there was a large Jewish community. Personalities such as the
Talmud scholar Nathanael Weil, the politician Moritz Ellstätter and the
doctor Rahel Straus came from Karlsruhe. The Karlsruhe synagogues were
built by leading Karlsruhe architects, in 1806 by Friedrich Weinbrenner
and the successor building in 1871 by Josef Durm. There was also an
orthodox synagogue by Gustav Ziegler and a community center by Curjel &
Moser. According to the census of June 16, 1933, 3,358 citizens of the
Jewish faith lived in Karlsruhe and today's districts.
The
synagogues were destroyed in the November pogroms of 1938, and during
the Wagner-Bürckel action in the summer of 1940, 893 Jews were deported
from the city to Camp de Gurs in southern France. In 1988, the city
archive created a commemorative list for the more than 1000 murdered.
With the help of voluntary sponsors, biographies are added to the
memorial book for the Jews of Karlsruhe.
In 1971 a new synagogue
was inaugurated on Knielinger Allee, and in 2006 the Jewish community
had 830 members again.
There are ten prayer rooms and a German-speaking Muslim group in the city for Muslims living in Karlsruhe.
There is also a Bahai community, centers for Kadampa, Diamond Way, Vipassana and Zen Buddhism, a group of cities from Eckankarn and a Sathya Sai center.
After the castle was founded in 1715, a settlement was built nearby, in which a mayor was appointed from 1718. From 1812 the mayors received the title of Lord Mayor. Frank Mentrup (SPD) has been the acting mayor since March 1, 2013. On December 2, 2012, he was elected in the first ballot with 55.26 percent to succeed Heinz Fenrich (CDU), who has been in office since 1998. For the first time in 42 years, the mayor of Karlsruhe is no longer from the CDU. On December 6, 2020, Mentrup was re-elected mayor in the first ballot with 52.6 percent of the votes. The term of office of the Lord Mayor is eight years.
In 2009, the income (receipts) of the city of Karlsruhe amounted to
893.86 million euros. The expenses (expenses) of the same years amounted
to 902.75 million euros. One of the city's most important sources of
income is the trade tax. In 2009 they took in 228.9 million euros. At
the end of 2008, the city of Karlsruhe had a debt of EUR 159,884,000, of
which EUR 22,264,000 had been repaid. No new debt was taken on.
The 2022/2023 budget of the city of Karlsruhe provides for ordinary
income (income) of 1,485,604,697 euros for 2022.[69] For 2022, the
budget provides for ordinary expenses (expenses) of 1,545,211,556 euros.
The budget balance for 2022 is therefore negative and amounts to
59,606,859 euros. Ordinary income of EUR 1,538,860,207 and ordinary
expenses of EUR 1,588,426,635 are planned for 2023 (balance: EUR
−49,566,428).
For the years 2022 and 2023, the assessment rate
for property tax A and B is 490 percent each. The assessment rate for
trade tax is 450 percent for the years 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, a dog
tax of 120 euros per dog and year, a kennel tax of 240 euros and an
amusement tax, which depends on the type of equipment (with or without
the opportunity to win), are levied.
The city of Karlsruhe is included in the Bundestag constituency of
Karlsruhe-Stadt. The directly elected member of the Bundestag is Zoe
Mayer (Greens).
At the state political level, Karlsruhe is
divided into the Karlsruhe I and II constituencies. In the former, Ute
Leidig (Greens) is the owner of this direct mandate. On February 1,
2019, she took over this position from Bettina Lisbach, who became Mayor
for the Environment and Climate Protection of the City of Karlsruhe. In
the Karlsruhe II constituency, Alexander Salomon (Greens) won the direct
mandate in 2016.
In 2016, Karlsruhe had a gross domestic product (GDP) of 19.505
billion euros. The city thus took 19th place in the ranking of German
cities by economic output. The share in the economic output of
Baden-Württemberg was 4.1 percent. In the same year, per capita GDP was
EUR 63,147 (Baden-Württemberg: EUR 43,632, Germany EUR 38,180) and was
thus well above the regional and national average. In 2016, the city's
economic output recorded nominal growth of 3.3 percent. There were
around 235,500 employed people in the city in 2016. The unemployment
rate was 4.5 percent in September 2020, slightly below the
Baden-Württemberg average of 4.6 percent and well below the nationwide
unemployment rate, which was 6.2 percent. In 2020, the inhabitants of
the urban district of Karlsruhe had the third-highest average income of
all urban and rural districts in Baden-Württemberg at 43,514 euros (only
the urban district of Stuttgart with 49,375 euros and the district of
Böblingen with 50,244 euros each had a higher average income).
Karlsruhe is a member of the regional action group Technologieregion
Karlsruhe. In 2009, Karlsruhe took sixth place in the rankings of the
New Social Market Economy Initiative (INSM) with regard to the “most
successful” cities in Germany. In an evaluation of the interregional
cooperation network of the fifth research framework program of the
European Union, Karlsruhe was the only region represented in the top
group of the most active industrial research regions in 2009 without any
significant participation of large companies.
In the so-called
Future Atlas 2016, the independent city of Karlsruhe ranked 46th out of
402 rural districts and independent cities in Germany and is therefore
one of the places with "high future prospects". In the 2019 edition, it
was ranked 23rd out of 401.
Karlsruhe can be reached via three autobahns and several federal
highways. The European routes E 35 (Amsterdam-Rome) and E 52
(Strasbourg-Salzburg) run over the motorway network here.
The A 5
(Frankfurt am Main–Basel) runs through the eastern part of the city as
the European north-south axis. In Karlsruhe, it has five connection
points: Karlsruhe-North, Karlsruhe-Durlach, Karlsruhe-Mitte, Ettlingen
and Karlsruhe-South. At the Karlsruhe interchange, the A 8 branches off
eastwards in the direction of Stuttgart; its Karlsbad junction is in the
Karlsruhe districts of Palmbach and Stupferich. On the
Rhineland-Palatinate side of the Rhine, the A 65 curves north via Landau
in der Pfalz and Neustadt an der Weinstraße to Ludwigshafen am Rhein.
After the state border at Lauterbourg in northern Alsace, the French A
35 (Autoroute des Cigognes) begins in a southwesterly direction to
Strasbourg with a branch to Paris and Mulhouse.
Bundesautobahn 5:
Frankfurt am Main - Darmstadt - Heidelberg - Karlsruhe - Freiburg im
Breisgau - Basel
Bundesautobahn 8: Karlsruhe - Pforzheim - Stuttgart
- Ulm - Augsburg - Munich - Salzburg
Three main roads cross
Karlsruhe. The B 3 runs in a north-south direction on the eastern edge
of the Rhine plain from Heidelberg via Freiburg im Breisgau to the
German-Swiss border to Weil am Rhein and along the towns near the Rhine
the B 36 from Mannheim to Rastatt. The B 10 from Stuttgart to Eppelborn
crosses the city area in an east-west direction before it merges with
the A 65 on the other side of the Rhine near Wörth. To the west and via
further sections of the B 10 and the A 8 there is a connection to the
Saarland. In the neighboring town of Pfinztal, the B 293 branches off
from the B 10 to Bretten and Heilbronn as a diagonal in the autobahn
rectangle A 5 / A 8 / A 81 / A 6.
Federal highway 3: Hamburg -
Hanover - Kassel - Frankfurt am Main - Darmstadt - Heidelberg -
Karlsruhe - Freiburg im Breisgau - Weil am Rhein
Federal highway 10:
Eppelborn - Pirmasens - Karlsruhe - Pforzheim - Stuttgart - Ulm -
Nersingen
Federal highway 36: Mannheim - Karlsruhe - Rastatt
The Südtangente has an important function as a feeder road. In addition,
it provides the east-west connection from the A 5 / A 8 to the A 65. It
begins in the eastern Karlsruhe district of Wolfartsweier, initially as
the B 3, and as a result runs westward as a district road that is
similar to a motorway, has a connection to the A 5 at the
Karlsruhe-Mitte junction and continues as the B 10 from the “Kuhler
Krug” junction to the Rhine. There the Südtangente or B 10 with the
Rheinbrücke Maxau is the only road connection in Karlsruhe across the
Rhine. Plans for the north tangent as a further east-west connection and
a second Rhine bridge for road traffic are under discussion.
There has been an environmental zone in Karlsruhe since January 1, 2009.
It includes the districts of downtown east and west, south town, south
west town as well as parts of Mühlburg and the east town. Since 2012,
only motor vehicles with a yellow or green sticker are allowed to enter
the area; since January 1, 2013, a green sticker is required.
According to an investigation by the Bundesverband CarSharing e. V.,
with 2.71 shared cars per 1,000 residents, Karlsruhe had by far the best
developed range of shared cars of any German city with more than 50,000
residents in 2017.
Since the construction of the Baden Main Railway from Mannheim in the
1840s and the Rhine Valley Railway to Basel, Karlsruhe has developed
into an important railway junction. Karlsruhe Central Station is a stop
in the European high-speed network and is one of the 21 stations in the
highest price class 1 of DB Station&Service. There are direct
connections with the German ICE and some French TGV train pairs to
Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Munich, Amsterdam, Marseille, Paris, Zurich
and Milan as well as to Frankfurt Airport. There are direct Nightjet
connections to Berlin and Hamburg.
The Rheintalbahn
Mannheim–Basel and the Baden Rheinbahn from Mannheim to Rastatt
(formerly to Haguenau) are two of the busiest railway lines in Germany.
The Rhine Valley route to Basel will be expanded to four tracks as the
northern main access road to the Gotthard Base Tunnel. In east-west
long-distance traffic, the main line for Europe (TEN 17) via Karlsruhe
will be expanded from Paris to Bratislava to become a high-speed line.
The Karlsruhe–Mühlacker railway in the direction of Stuttgart and the
Winden–Karlsruhe railway also run in an east-west direction. The private
Alb Valley Railway as well as many regional railway and overland tram
services are served by Stadtbahn trains, see the section on local public
transport.
The long-distance trains stop at the main station,
some also at the Karlsruhe-Durlach station. Both stations were relocated
in 1913 and 1911 respectively. In particular, the location of the first
Karlsruhe train station, built in 1843, on the ground floor on the
outskirts of the city center hindered both the railway operations and
the development of the city. It was therefore rebuilt in an elevated
position south of the Stadtgarten, 1.7 kilometers from the market
square. The old station hall was initially used as a market hall, and
since 1975 the Badisches Staatstheater has stood there. In 2008,
Karlsruhe Central Station received the Station of the Year award. On the
southern side of the main station, opposite the station forecourt, is
the arrival and departure point for national and international
long-distance buses.
Karlsruhe is the location of one of seven
Deutsche Bahn operations centers and a traction power converter plant.
The Karlsruhe repair shop was in operation until 1997. The goods yard
near the city center was shut down by 1996. Some functions, such as a
container terminal, are now located on the site of the otherwise largely
shut down marshalling yard. Further tracks for freight traffic can be
found in Karlsruhe-West. Most of the numerous sidings were also closed.
There is still freight traffic within Karlsruhe only to the Rhine port,
the refinery and the paper factory.
Public transport from Karlsruhe is one of the best in Germany.
Therefore, almost all destinations in the city and the region are easily
accessible.
In local public transport, the city center can be
reached from most parts of the city with one of the seven tram lines or
one of the light rail lines without changing; in the outskirts, the
offer is rounded off with buses. In addition to three single-system
light rail lines, there are also eight other two-system light rail lines
in the surrounding area. At system changeover points, the two-system
light rail vehicles switch between the 750 volt direct current of the
tram network and the 15 kV alternating current of the Deutsche Bahn AG
(DB) rail network. Since 1992, the number of passengers in local rail
transport in the Karlsruhe region has increased significantly thanks to
these “tram trains” invented here, which on the one hand aroused the
interest of other transport companies in the “Karlsruher model”. For
example, the number of passengers on the Karlsruhe–Bretten route rose by
560 percent after the Stadtbahn went into service. On the other hand,
however, capacity bottlenecks in the city center are noticeable due to
the bundling of the lines.
Six tram and light rail lines ran
through the Kaiserstraße pedestrian zone on just one track in each
direction. The situation in the city center was to be eased within a
decade by means of an extensive urban development project, the
combination solution: In the first part of the project, rails under the
Stadtbahn tunnel were laid under the Kaiserstraße from the Durlacher Tor
in the east to the Mühlburger Tor in the west, as well as a southern
branch with a level triangle from the Marktplatz to the congress center
under Karl-Friedrich- or Ettlinger Straße. In addition, in the
Kriegsstraße project section, the main artery for road traffic, some of
which has already been lowered, will be converted into a car tunnel to
the east of Mendelssohnplatz. A new railway line will then be laid on
the Kriegsstrasse tunnel up to the Karlstor. As the last part of the
project, the pedestrian zone between Kronenplatz and Europaplatz as well
as southwards from Marktplatz is to be free of trams. The light rail
tunnel with seven underground stations was opened on December 11, 2021.
The combined solution is controversial. In 2002, the city was able
to get the majority of the population behind it with 56 percent (voter
turnout: 74 percent) after the previous project was rejected in a
referendum in 1996 with 67 percent and a turnout of 45 percent. The
project continued to be discussed in the city. Although a new citizens'
initiative reached the required number of signatures (quorum) at the end
of 2009, it failed in legal proceedings. The construction of the light
rail tunnel therefore began in spring 2010. The initial cost estimate of
500 million euros was forecast in 2013 to be just under 870 million
euros. In contrast to the initial estimate, this does not relate to the
pure construction costs, but to the extrapolated (also indicated for the
first time) production costs, which e.g. include financing costs. In
this respect, the numbers are not comparable.
The inner-city tram
and bus lines as well as the S 2 light rail line are operated by
Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe (VBK). Most of the light rail lines in the
surrounding area run for the Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft (AVG).
Furthermore, Karlsruhe is the terminus of lines S 3 and S 9 of the
S-Bahn Rhein-Neckar from Germersheim via Heidelberg, Mannheim and
Bruchsal or from Groß-Rohrheim via Mannheim and Graben-Neudorf, which
are operated by DB Regio. Diesel vehicles drive to the Palatinate in the
direction of Landau and Neustadt. Regional Express trains run to
Stuttgart and Aalen as well as via Offenburg and the Black Forest
Railway to Konstanz or to Basel via Freiburg.
All public
transport can be used at the same fares as the Karlsruher
Verkehrsverbund (KVV).
Also worth mentioning from a tourist point
of view are the Schlossgartenbahn Karlsruhe, which runs a circuit in the
castle park on Sundays and public holidays during the summer months, and
the Turmbergbahn on the Durlacher Turmberg, a vantage point.
With its location in the flat Rhine plain, Karlsruhe offers good
conditions for cycling. Karl Drais from Karlsruhe invented the
forerunner of today's bicycle, the running machine. Karlsruhe is a
founding member of the Working Group of Bicycle-Friendly Municipalities
in Baden-Württemberg (AGFK-BW) and was one of the first three cities in
Baden-Württemberg to receive the state award for “bicycle-friendly
municipalities” in 2011 due to its success in promoting bicycles.
In 2002, bicycle traffic in the city of Karlsruhe accounted for 16
percent of total traffic and 18 percent of domestic traffic. In October
2005, the municipal council passed a 20-point program to promote cycling
in order to make Karlsruhe more bike-friendly. The aim was to increase
the share of cycling in the choice of transport to 21 percent by 2012
and to 23 percent by 2015. According to the latest mobility study, the
share of bicycles was 25 percent in 2012 and 27 percent in domestic
traffic. Accordingly, in 2013 the target was updated to 30 percent in
2020. The objectives for road safety and bicycle parking have also been
adjusted compared to the 20-point program by a unanimous decision of the
planning committee.
City routes North and South were set up to
bypass the Kaiserstraße pedestrian zone, which is closed to cyclists
during shop opening hours. In numerous road redesigns, previously
four-lane roads have been improved with cycle lanes or protective lanes
and separate turning lanes for cyclists. In many places, the conflict
with right-turners has been defused by cycle lanes to the left of the
right-turn lane. The cycle route network is mostly provided with cycle
signposts. So far, only 33 percent of the one-way streets have been
opened to cycle traffic in the opposite direction. In addition to
numerous bicycle parking spaces in the city center, in densely populated
residential areas and at schools, two bicycle parking garages were built
at the main station.
In Karlsruhe, in the extended inner city
area, DB Rent offered the Call a Bike flex bicycle rental system until
2013, which was financially supported by the city. In 2014, this system
was replaced by the fan wheel, which was operated in cooperation with
nextbike. In 2019, this became KVV.nextbike with the Karlsruher
Verkehrsverbund as the client and distribution reaching into the
surrounding area.
Karlsruhe was named "Germany's most
bicycle-friendly city" in 2018 and 2020 by the Allgemeine Deutscher
Fahrrad-Club (ADFC) in the category of cities between 200,000 and
500,000 inhabitants.
With the Rhine ports of Karlsruhe, the city has the second most
important inland port in Baden-Württemberg after Mannheim. In 2017, the
port ranked sixth among German inland ports with goods handling of 7.27
million tons (according to figures from the Baden-Württemberg State
Statistical Office). On the German side, it is the southernmost
lock-free access to the North Sea via the Rhine.
The six basins
of the Rhine port, also known as the city harbour, extend finger-like up
to more than three kilometers from the river towards the city centre. A
gate in the access basin has been protecting the port area, where
numerous companies are based, from flooding since 1987. The oil port,
where the Karlsruhe refinery ships its finished and semi-finished
products, is located almost eight kilometers down the Rhine from the
city port. The oil port has the larger share of goods handling at the
Karlsruhe Rhine ports.
The excursion ship MS Karlsruhe departs
from the Rhine port for tours to Strasbourg, Speyer and other round
trips.
Engineers from Karlsruhe, especially Johann Gottfried
Tulla, planned to straighten the Upper Rhine in the 19th century. Plans
made in the early 19th century to build a ship canal from the Rhine to
the city several kilometers away were not realised. Leopoldshafen, ten
kilometers to the north, received this name (after Grand Duke Leopold)
in 1833 after the port there had started regular shipping traffic for
Karlsruhe as well. When the Maxau Railway from Karlsruhe to the
Palatinate opened in 1862, the city built the port of Maxau on the Rhine
bridge. It only inadequately met the requirements of the transport
system and today serves as a marina. In 1901, today's Rhine port,
planned by Max Honsell, went into operation, which was later expanded
several times. In 1909 the Rhine was expanded to such an extent that
reliable shipping was possible. The oil port opened in 1963.
Because the hydraulic engineering laboratory of the then Technical
University was available in Karlsruhe, today's Federal Institute for
Hydraulic Engineering (BAW) was located in the city after the Second
World War and continues to have its headquarters here.
Large parts of the upper airspace in Germany are monitored by the
Karlsruhe control center of the German air traffic control (DFS). It has
the radio call sign Rhein Radar and is one of four DFS control centers
in Germany. More than 450 air traffic controllers are employed in
Karlsruhe. The rotary radio beacon with the name Karlsruhe DVOR/DME and
the identifier KRH, which is located east of the city limits near
Wöschbach, is used for radio navigation in air traffic.
The city
of Karlsruhe has a stake in Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport, which is the
second largest commercial airport in Baden-Württemberg with around one
million passengers a year. It is located in Rheinmünster-Söllingen,
about 40 kilometers by road from Karlsruhe, and serves as a base for the
low-cost airline Ryanair, among others. Larger international airports in
the area are Frankfurt Main Airport, around 130 kilometers away, and
Stuttgart Airport (around 80 kilometers). The distance to Strasbourg
Airport is about 100 kilometers.
Even before the First World War,
the parade ground in the north-west of the city served as Karlsruhe's
first airfield and anchorage for airships. From 1924 it was expanded to
an airfield for scheduled services. After the Second World War, the
American armed forces confiscated the area near the city and used it as
a military airfield until 1993. Today it is a nature reserve. In 1957,
Karlsruher Flughafen GmbH started operating the Karlsruhe-Forchheim
airfield in the neighboring Forchheim district of Rheinstetten, about 8
kilometers south of Karlsruhe. It was given up in 2000 as part of the
rededication of the Canadian military airfield in Söllingen as a
regional airport. The Karlsruhe Trade Fair Center was built on the
Forchheim site by 2003. Business and tourist air traffic was relocated
to Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport. The Rheinstetten glider airfield,
which opened in 2004, remained in Forchheim near the former airfield
site.
The Karlsruhe public utility company is responsible for obtaining,
treating and distributing the drinking water. The drinking water for
Karlsruhe is obtained exclusively from groundwater. Underneath the city
there are four aquiferous layers of gravel and sand, one below the
other, which reach down to a depth of over a hundred meters. Currently
only the upper two layers are used for drinking water production. In
this way, sufficient water reserves will also be available for future
generations.
Four waterworks treat 25 million cubic meters of raw
water annually (Durlacher Wald Welt-Icon, Hardtwald Welt-Icon, Mörscher
Wald Welt-Icon and Rheinwald Welt-Icon). The Mörscher Wald waterworks is
currently (2021) being completely rebuilt. Only iron and manganese
removal is carried out to treat the raw water. There are 64 wells in
total, and the five water protection areas cover a total area of 183
square kilometers. In addition to the urban area of Karlsruhe, some
surrounding communities and the "Zweckverband Wasserversorgung Albgau"
are also supplied. The high-altitude districts of Hohenwettersbach,
Grünwettersbach, Palmbach and Stupferich receive their drinking water
from the "association for the water supply of the hills between Alb and
Pfinz".
After treatment, the drinking water enters the
913-kilometer-long pipeline network. With a total hardness of 3.25
millimoles per liter (18.2 degrees German hardness), the water falls
into the “hard” hardness range.
The gross consumption price is
2.51 euros per cubic meter.
The discharge and cleaning of the waste water is the responsibility
of the city of Karlsruhe. The 1,100-kilometer-long sewage system
transports the waste water to the central Welt-Icon sewage treatment
plant. 57 percent are built as a mixed sewer system, the rest as a
separate system. The maximum flow distance is eleven kilometers, the
longest flow time is eleven hours. 52 pumping stations pump sewage from
lower-lying drainage areas where the natural gradient to bodies of water
or collecting sewers is not available or too low.
The plant was
put into operation in 1913. Up until after the Second World War,
wastewater treatment here was only carried out mechanically using rakes.
Sand traps, settling tanks and drying beds were added at the beginning
of the 1950s, and the activated sludge process has been used since 1977.
Today, 64,000 cubic meters of wastewater are cleaned every day (up
to 340,000 cubic meters when it rains) and discharged into the Rhine.
The sewage treatment plant has a size of 875,000 population equivalents.
The resulting sewage sludge is dried and then burned together with the
fat trap and screenings in our own incinerator with a fluidized bed
furnace. Unlike in many other plants of this size, there is no previous
digestion of the sewage sludge with the generation of sewage gas. The
waste heat from the kiln is used to generate electricity and to dry the
sludge. The resulting ash (10 cubic meters per day) is used as an
aggregate for backfilling in mines.
With the dm drugstore chain, the largest drugstore group in Germany
has its headquarters in Karlsruhe. EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg, an
international energy group, has its headquarters in Karlsruhe and
operates the Rheinhafen steam power plant here. The MiRO mineral oil
refinery in Knielingen is the second largest oil refinery in Germany. It
is the destination of two crude oil pipelines, the Southern European
Pipeline (SEPL) from Fos-sur-Mer (France) and the Transalpine Oil
Pipeline from Trieste (Italy). Cronimet, a trader in steel scrap and
alloying elements, has its headquarters in Karlsruhe's Rheinhafen port.
Siemens has one of its largest and oldest locations in Germany in
Karlsruhe and, with 4,500 employees, is the largest private employer in
the city.
United Internet AG, known under the brands 1&1, Web.de
and GMX, operates Europe's largest data center in Karlsruhe. About 40
percent of all German websites are managed in Karlsruhe. The Frankfurt
IT service provider Atruvia (formerly Fiducia & GAD IT AG) has a
location in Karlsruhe and is one of the largest private employers in the
region. Around 2,500 Internet and telecommunications companies have
sprung up around the university.
Other important employers come
from the banking and insurance sectors. Karlsruhe is one of the
headquarters of the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg and the seat of the
L-Bank (Landeskreditbank Baden-Württemberg – Förderbank), the national
cooperative bank BBBank, the Deutsche Bausparkasse Badenia and the BGV /
Badische Versicherungen. Regional banks are Sparkasse Karlsruhe,
Volksbank pur and PSD Bank Karlsruhe-Neustadt.
The State Mint of
Karlsruhe is one of the five state mints where the German euro coins are
minted. Coins from Karlsruhe bear the origin letter "G". The Karlsruhe
Mint was founded in 1827 and has operated together with the Stuttgart
Mint since 1998 under the name State Coins of Baden-Württemberg.
The French tire manufacturer Michelin has its German headquarters and a
tire factory in Karlsruhe and publishes the German edition of the
Michelin hotel and restaurant guide here. Rosenbauer Karlsruhe
manufactures turntable ladders and hydraulic platforms for fire
brigades. Stadtwerke Karlsruhe is a major supplier of local electricity,
water and district heating and operates the West thermal power station
in Mühlburg. Stora Enso produces magazine paper at the Maxau mill on the
Rhine. In Durlach, the manufacturer of medicinal products made from
plant-based raw materials, Dr. Willmar Schwabe his headquarters.
Cosmetics manufacturer L'Oréal operates its only German plant in
Karlsruhe, which is the company's largest production site outside of
France. Physics instruments and the logistics service provider Simon
Hegele also have their headquarters in Karlsruhe. In 1948, one of the
leading German manufacturers of professional microphones, Schalltechnik
Dr.-Ing. Schoeps GmbH was founded and has its headquarters and
production facility there to this day. The sanitary wholesaler Pfeiffer
& May was founded in Karlsruhe in 1906 and, with a turnover of over 680
million euros in the 2017 financial year, is one of the most important
wholesale companies in the economic sector.
At the beginning of
the 20th century, Karlsruhe was the third largest brewery location in
Germany after Munich and Dortmund. Today's industrial breweries are the
Hoepfner private brewery and the Hatz-Moninger brewery. Founded in 1985,
Vogelbräu is a pioneer among home breweries in southern Germany.
The Siemens industrial park in Karlsruhe was founded in 1997 as a result of the location of Siemens AG. The available space is aimed in particular at companies in the high-tech and service industries. In Oststadt there is the technology factory start-up center in a former sewing machine factory and the newly built technology park. Numerous start-ups (often offshoots of the university) are offered a first home here.
In November 2003, Karlsruher Messe- und Kongress-GmbH opened its new
exhibition center, Messe Karlsruhe, south of Karlsruhe, in Rheinstetten,
directly on the B 36. Exhibitions, trade fairs and other events can be
held in the four halls, each measuring 12,500 square meters. Events with
up to 14,000 visitors take place in the dm-arena. The gross exhibition
area is about 52,000 square meters. The trade fair replaced the
inner-city Karlsruhe Congress Center as the largest trade fair and event
center in the Karlsruhe region, which has over 20,000 square meters of
exhibition space in four halls and a 10,000 square meter festival area.
The congress center includes the town hall with event rooms for 4000
people, the Black Forest Hall, the concert hall and the garden hall.
The Europahalle, opened in 1983, is a large sports hall that was
also used for concerts and events with up to 9,000 visitors. Since the
summer of 2014, it has been closed to major events for fire safety
reasons. As a replacement, the dm Arena received additional grandstands
and sports facilities. A smaller multi-purpose hall with 1,200 seats is
the Badnerlandhalle Neureut, built in 1977.
The large annual
spring fair and autumn fair as well as large flea markets and circus
performances take place on the fairground on Durlacher Allee.
The Karlsruhe studio of Südwestrundfunk (SWR) is located on Kriegsstraße. The Badenradio regional program is broadcast from here by SWR4 Baden-Württemberg. The Karlsruhe studio of the radio station Radio RPR (Rheinland-Palatinate Broadcasting) is also located at Kriegsstraße 130, which is responsible for the North Baden and South Palatinate region. As a private local provider, Die Neue Welle broadcasts (until December 31, 2006 Hit1 - the reporter radio), which had received the license from the Baden-Württemberg State Office for Communication as Hitradio RTL. However, RTL withdrew in mid-2003. Originally, the broadcaster Welle Fidelitas was the licensee. Apart from the commercial and public stations, there is also a free radio, Querfunk, which broadcasts its programs in the afternoons, evenings and at weekends. In the mornings and in the early evening hours, the LernRadio of the Karlsruhe University of Music and the campus radio of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alternate on the FM frequency 104.8 MHz, as well as Radio Fri and Querfunk on Mondays. In addition, the private broadcaster Radio Regenbogen runs a studio in Karlsruhe.
The Karlsruhe studio of the SWR in the Kriegsstraße is the seat of
two television editorial offices. The ARD television editorial office
for law and justice produces the ARD guide on law here for Das Erste and
reports ARD-wide on legal issues such as the decisions of the local
supreme courts. The SWR Mittelbaden television editorial office in
Karlsruhe produces reports from the region for SWR Fernsehen and ARD. As
the closest major city to the film production location of Baden-Baden,
Karlsruhe is regularly the scene of SWR shootings, including the Tatort
episodes set in Ludwigshafen and Stuttgart, the former Tatorts set in
Karlsruhe with Chief Inspector Eugen Lutz, Chief Inspector Hanne Wiegand
and Tatort in Constance Chief Inspector Klara Blum and Chief Inspector
Kai Perlmann.
Regional private television stations in Karlsruhe
are BW Family.tv (since February 2006) and Baden TV (since May 2011).
R.TV (2003 to 2011) and B.TV Baden (1995 to 2004) are no longer on the
air.
Cinema films were and are regularly produced in Karlsruhe. Oscar winner Volker Schlöndorff shot The Moral of Ruth Halbfass here in 1972, Maren Ade her debut film The Forest for the Louder Trees and Ilker Çatak the literary adaptation Räuberhande. Gregor Jordan filmed the military satire Army Go Home! here in 2000. with Joaquin Phoenix. Especially in the last two decades, the production volume has increased significantly, which can be explained by the increased settlement of film production companies such as kurhaus production or Baden-Badener Ziegler Film and the establishment of the film house on the Alter Schlachthof creative park. The filmmaker network Filmboard Karlsruhe is also located there, which oversees film productions in cooperation with the Filmcommission Baden-Baden/Karlsruhe.
The Badische Latest News (BNN) is the only daily newspaper that is
published in Karlsruhe as a print medium. It has a sold circulation of
97,664 copies and appears with nine local editions in the districts of
Karlsruhe, Rastatt, Ortenau and Enzkreis as well as in the urban
districts of Baden-Baden and Pforzheim.
There are also some free
weekly newspapers: The BNN publishing house also publishes the Sunday
newspaper Der Sonntag and is involved in the Karlsruher Kurier, which
includes the Karlsruhe city newspaper, the official gazette of the city
of Karlsruhe, which can also be accessed online via the city’s homepage.
The weekly paper is distributed in the city and region on Wednesdays.
Inka, Klappe auf and RaumK are free news magazines with a focus on
cultural events.
Karlsruhe plays an important role in the development of the Internet
in Germany. Germany's first e-mails were received at the University of
Karlsruhe in 1984 and all German domains were managed from 1994 to 1998.
The first Internet connection to the People's Republic of China was also
established from Karlsruhe. As a result of a study on active users,
websites and the internet climate, Karlsruhe was named “Germany's
internet capital” in 2003. On May 6, 2014, a public, freely accessible
WLAN was put into operation in Karlsruhe. This enables citizens and
tourists to use the Internet wirelessly with a WLAN-enabled device free
of charge and for an unlimited period of time after registering.
Since the BNN had no online service for a long time, the regional news
portal ka-news.de was able to establish itself independently. This has
been published since the year 2000 and is thus one of the first regional
online daily newspapers in Germany. The Stadtwiki Karlsruhe, founded in
2004, was named the largest city wiki in the world in a list that lasted
until 2009.
The online magazine meinKA, a city portal for
Karlsruhe and the region, has also been available since 2019.
In addition to the newspapers, there are various free city magazines such as Klappe auf, INKA Stadtmagazin or FRIZZ Das Magazin. These can be found monthly in many display locations in the city of Karlsruhe and contain event information as well as local topics of all kinds.
Karlsruhe is one of the two locations of the Baden-Württemberg State
Media Center, which is subordinate to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for
Culture, Youth and Sport. The other location is Stuttgart.
The
non-profit organization Stadtjugendausschuss e. V. operated Internet
café for children and young people Info-Line at Kronenplatz 1 serves
children and young people as a research and communication space with the
help of an educational staff. Other media facilities of the City Youth
Committee e. V. are located in the Jubez media workshop and in many of
the association's children's and youth centers.
With the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Court of
Justice, Karlsruhe is the seat of a constitutional body and the supreme
court of ordinary jurisdiction. The concentration of the judiciary is
taken up in advertising slogans such as "Residence of the Law" or
"Capital of Culture 2010 - rightly so". In common phrases such as "go to
Karlsruhe" or "Karlsruhe has conceded the law", the name of the city has
become synonymous with the highest courts.
The Federal
Constitutional Court had its first official seat from 1951 in the
Prinz-Max-Palais. In 1969 it moved into the modern pavilion built by
architect Paul Baumgarten on the site of the theater on Schlossplatz
that burned out during World War II. The headquarters of the Federal
Court of Justice has been the Hereditary Grand Ducal Palace on the
southern edge of the western inner city since 1950, on the site of which
several new buildings for the court were built.
Furthermore,
there is a higher regional court (with general public prosecutor's
office) as well as a regional and two district courts (Karlsruhe and
Karlsruhe-Durlach) in the ordinary jurisdiction. There is also an
administrative court, a labor court and a social court in Karlsruhe.
Until September 1, 2012, the Bundeswehr maintained two chambers of the
Southern Military Service Court in Karlsruhe, which has its headquarters
in Munich.
Karlsruhe is the seat of various federal, state and local
authorities. Some have their origins in Karlsruhe's time as the capital
of Baden, and numerous others were settled here to compensate for the
loss of the capital's function after the Second World War.
The
Attorney General at the Federal Court of Justice has had its own
building on Brauerstrasse since 1999. It was previously based on the
grounds of the Federal Court of Justice.
The Baden-Württemberg
Court of Auditors, based in the western part of Karlsruhe, is the
highest state authority and has the same status as the ministries. The
Oberfinanzdirektion Karlsruhe was founded in 1826 as the tax authority
of the Grand Duchy of Baden and has been the only central tax authority
in Baden-Württemberg since 2005. The Landesoberkasse Baden-Württemberg,
which is also located here, is subordinate to it, the central state and
court cash register with an average monetary turnover of around 1.2
billion euros per booking day. The two tax offices in Karlsruhe-Stadt
and Karlsruhe-Durlach share responsibility for the city of Karlsruhe in
tax matters. The Karlsruhe-Durlach tax office also looks after parts of
the district of Karlsruhe.
The Municipal Audit Institute of
Baden-Württemberg, the Municipal Supply Association of Baden-Württemberg
and the State Institute for the Environment of Baden-Württemberg are
institutions or corporations under public law based in Karlsruhe that
are subject to ministerial supervision. There is also an employment
agency, a forestry department and a main customs office. The Karlsruhe
correctional facility in Weststadt serves as a pre-trial detention
center for male prisoners. The police headquarters in Karlsruhe is
responsible for the city and district of Karlsruhe. The Federal Police
Inspectorate in Karlsruhe guarantees the protection of the Federal
Constitutional Court and acts as a railway police officer. The district
military replacement office in Karlsruhe was closed at the end of
November 2012 as part of the Bundeswehr reform.
The regional
council of Karlsruhe is responsible as a medium authority for the
administrative district of Karlsruhe, in some areas also for the entire
federal state. It operates the state reception facility for refugees,
which is also located in Karlsruhe. Until 2014 it was the only initial
reception facility in Baden-Württemberg for asylum seekers and other
refugees with a capacity of around 1,000 people. As the seat of the
Middle Upper Rhine region and the district of Karlsruhe, to which the
city itself does not belong, Karlsruhe is also home to their
administrations.
Since 1952, Karlsruhe has been the seat of the
federal and state welfare institution. The German pension insurance
Baden-Württemberg also has its headquarters in the city, as well as a
location for the social insurance for agriculture, forestry and
horticulture (SVLFG), as well as district administrations of the
professional association for the construction industry and the
professional association for health services and welfare care. The
municipal association for youth and social affairs in Baden-Württemberg
with a branch in Karlsruhe replaced the state welfare association in
Baden in 2005.
In the Suedendstraße are the headquarters of the
Southern Office of the Federal Railway Fund, the Karlsruhe location of
the Karlsruhe/Stuttgart branch of the Federal Railway Authority and the
local branch of the Deutsche Bundesbank.
The seven public and two private universities in Karlsruhe had a total of around 41,800 students in the 2013/2014 winter semester. The main areas of study are in the scientific, technical and artistic subjects. With numerous research institutions located here, Karlsruhe has a high concentration of researchers. With the topic "The Challenge of Democracy", Karlsruhe was one of the ten German cities that bore the title Meeting Place for Science in the Science Year 2009. In 2012, Karlsruhe bore the title City of Young Researchers, jointly awarded by the Körber Foundation, the Robert Bosch Foundation and the Deutsche Telekom Foundation, and was one of ten cities to win the title City of Science in 2013. Karlsruhe is still a “Corporative Supporting Member” of the Max -Planck Society.
The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology is a university in the state of Baden-Württemberg and a national research center in the Helmholtz Association. It has approximately 25,000 students and 9,400 employees. The KIT is the largest research center in Germany and the largest employer in Karlsruhe. It was formed on October 1, 2009 as a merger of the University of Karlsruhe and the Research Center Karlsruhe. The former cooperation between the two institutions has thus become a single entity, a single legal entity. The KIT enjoys a high reputation in subjects such as chemistry, physics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, industrial engineering, computer science and information management. The physicist Heinrich Hertz discovered the existence of electromagnetic waves during his professorship in Karlsruhe. Ferdinand Braun, inventor of the cathode ray tube and Nobel Prize winner for physics, held a professorship in Karlsruhe from 1883 to 1887. The chemist and Nobel Prize winner Fritz Haber developed the synthesis of ammonia when he was a professor at the Technical University, while Ferdinand Redtenbacher laid the scientific foundations of mechanical engineering here. Karlsruhe University had Germany's first computer science faculty and was one of the first three universities nationwide to be awarded the title of elite university in 2006 as part of the excellence initiative, which it held until 2012.
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (HKA), founded in 1878 as
the Grand Duchy of Baden Building Trades School, later State Technical
College, from 1971 University of Applied Sciences and since 2005
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences (until 2021 with the addition
"Technology and Economics"). With around 8,200 students (as of
2013/2014), it is the second largest university in the city.
University of Education Karlsruhe, founded in 1958 from the former
teacher training institute (1942-1952) or university for teacher
training (1936-1942), which goes back to the school seminar founded in
Karlsruhe in 1768. University statute since 1965 and scientific
university since 1971. About 3,900 students (as of 2013/2014).
The
Karlsruhe Regional Center of the Fernuniversität in Hagen, which has
been in the city center since 2013, offers part-time distance learning
courses. It is a member of the Baden-Württemberg Advanced Training
Network. Around 4,500 students in the region are assigned to it.
The
Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Karlsruhe was founded
in 1979 as a vocational academy. The approximately 3,000 students
(status: 2013/2014) from the fields of business and technology are
trained by the DHBW together with numerous partner companies in the
region.
State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe, founded in 1854 as a
painting academy by the Prince Regent, later Grand Duke Friedrich I, and
expanded in 1869 to include an arts and crafts school. The two schools
merged in 1926 under the name Badische Landeskunstschule. Well-known
professors included Hans Thoma, Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz.
Karlsruhe University of Art and Design (HfG), founded in 1992 in
connection with the Center for Art and Media (ZKM). The focus is on
media art, design, scenography, art history and media philosophy.
The
Karlsruhe University of Music goes back to the singing institute founded
in 1812. In 1837 a music education institute was founded, which was
combined with the municipal conservatory in 1910. This resulted in the
Badische Hochschule für Musik in 1920, which was taken over by the state
of Baden-Württemberg in 1971 and has been run as a Hochschule für Musik
ever since. It has had its headquarters in Gottesaue Castle since 1989.
The professors working there include the composer Wolfgang Rihm.
Karlshochschule International University, state-approved private
business school with an intercultural profile and over 500 students.
EC Europa Campus, private university with around 250 students (as of
2013/2014) in the study center in Karlsruhe.
In Karlsruhe there are 20 elementary schools, 12 special education
and counseling centers and 12 junior high schools as well as 11 general
secondary schools, 4 vocational secondary schools and 5 independent
secondary schools.
Today's Lessing Gymnasium was founded in 1893
as the first girls' Gymnasium in what is now Germany. The European
School in Karlsruhe, which opened in 1962, is one of 14 European Schools
that provide instruction in their mother tongue to the children of
parents who work in EU institutions. The Goethe-Gymnasium, which opened
in 1908, is the only school in Karlsruhe that offers a bilingual English
course. The Carlo Schmid School Karlsruhe is a state-approved vocational
school that is independently sponsored by the International Association.
The adult education center in Karlsruhe, founded in 1947, is one of
the largest adult education centers in Baden with 3,700 events per year
(as of 2006) and over 36,000 customers. The VHS Karlsruhe is also
responsible for the evening schools in Karlsruhe to catch up on school
qualifications and the youth art school in Karlsruhe.
The
leadership academy of Baden-Württemberg, headquartered in the
Schwedenpalais in Karlsruhe, offers a training program for managers from
the public sector. It was founded in 1986 as the management academy of
the state of Baden-Württemberg and became independent in 2001 as an
institution under public law.
Karlsruhe is home to three state
seminars for didactics and teacher training at vocational schools,
grammar schools and secondary schools, as well as a pedagogical
specialist seminar with departments for musical and technical teachers
and special education.
One of the ten Bundeswehr technical
schools in Germany is located in the south of the Karlsruhe forest city.
In 2011, when conscription was suspended, the former civil service
school near the main train station became the Karlsruhe Education
Center, the largest of 17 such facilities in Germany that prepare for
federal voluntary service.
High-ranking institutions are associated with the name Karlsruhe,
which are located in the former (nuclear) research center Karlsruhe and
today's North Campus of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in
Hardtwald near Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen. The Institute for Transuranium
Elements (JRC-ITU), founded in 1957, is a research institute of the
European Commission specializing in the fields of nuclear safety and
security. The Karlsruhe reprocessing plant was in operation from 1971 to
1990 and is being dismantled, as are several research reactors on the
site.
With the Fraunhofer Institute for Optronics, Systems
Engineering and Image Exploitation (IOSB) and the Fraunhofer Institute
for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), two institutions of the
Fraunhofer Society and the ANKA Synchrotron Radiation Research
Laboratory, a member of the Helmholtz Association, have their
headquarters in Karlsruhe. In addition, the Max Rubner Institute, a
federal agency of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, resides
in the city. IT research and industry plays an important role in the
technology region of Karlsruhe. Part of this is also the FZI Research
Center for Information Technology, which was founded out of the
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Other research institutions located
in the fan-shaped city are:
the Agricultural Technology Center
Augustenberg
the Max Reger Institute/Elsa Reger Foundation (MRI),
since 1996 in Karlsruhe
the Chemical and Veterinary Investigation
Office in Karlsruhe (CVUA), which carries out investigations as part of
official food monitoring and animal disease diagnostics in
Baden-Württemberg.
The General Landesarchiv Karlsruhe was founded in 1803 as the main
archive of the state of Baden. Today, in Baden-Württemberg, it has the
task of securing the official archives of bygone eras for the
administrative district of Karlsruhe. These are court files, records of
the state authorities, documents, archives of monasteries and knightly
orders, church files and the like. In addition, many aristocratic and
private archives are kept.
The Southwest German Archive for
Architecture and Civil Engineering (saai) preserves and researches
architectural documents from south-west Germany. Founded in 1989 by the
state of Baden-Württemberg at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, it
is based on the KIT site in the east of the city centre.
The
Karlsruhe City Archive has been archiving important documents relating
to the history of the city since 1885. It researches the history of
Karlsruhe and publishes media about the city and its history. Other
public archives are the district archive of the district of Karlsruhe,
which has existed since 1992, and the regional church archive of the
Protestant regional church in Baden.
There are over six million books and other media in Karlsruhe's
academic and public libraries.
The Baden State Library is a
scientific universal library with a stock of over 2.8 million media. As
a regional library, it is responsible for the administrative districts
of Freiburg and Karlsruhe and exercises the legal deposit right. It has
its origins in the Markgräfisch-Badische Hofbibliothek, founded around
1500 as the Pforzheim Castle Library. Since 1987 it has been housed in a
new building on Erbprinzenstrasse designed by Oswald Mathias Ungers. The
collections include numerous historical manuscripts from the holdings of
the nobility and monasteries in the state, including the Donaueschingen
Nibelungen manuscript C and the Donaueschingen Wigalois manuscript (Cod.
Don. 71) since 2001.
The KIT library (library of the Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology) is the largest of the Karlsruhe university
libraries. It emerged at the end of 2009 from the Karlsruhe University
Library, which was founded in 1840 as the library of what was then the
Polytechnic, and the library of the Karlsruhe Research Center. The
library has a total inventory of over two million books and 28,000
journals, as well as multimedia documents and microforms. The focus is
on the areas of natural sciences, technology and economics. Registered
users can use the KIT Library South around the clock and borrow and
return books via a self-checkout system. The KIT Library operates the
Karlsruhe Virtual Catalog, a meta search engine for German and
international online library catalogues.
Since 2009, the KIT
library has also supplied the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences –
Technology and Economics with the Karlsruhe University of Applied
Sciences (FBH) specialist library on Moltkestrasse. The Karlsruhe
University Library, which was previously used jointly by the PH and
Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences, has since been geared to the
needs of the Karlsruhe University of Education. The shared library of
the ZKM and the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung has around 50,000
books with a focus on 20th-century art. The libraries of the State
Academy of Fine Arts, the University of Music and the Cooperative State
University are primarily available to students.
The Karlsruhe
City Library is the public library of the city of Karlsruhe with a stock
of over 300,000 media. It was founded in 1921 and has been housed in the
reconstructed new Estates House since 1993. The city library includes
district libraries in Durlach, Grötzingen, Mühlburg, Neureut and
Waldstadt. One of its branches is the American Library, which was
created in 1996 as a gift from the withdrawn US garrison and has around
35,000 English-language books. The city library also operates a
children's and young people's library in the Prinz-Max-Palais and a
media bus that runs on the outskirts of the city.
With over
150,000 volumes, the art library of the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
is one of the largest publicly accessible museum libraries in Germany.
The library of the Federal Constitutional Court with around 400,000
volumes is a court-internal scientific library that is not generally
accessible. The library of the Federal Court of Justice is also
accessible to a limited extent to external users.
A number of important cultural prizes are awarded in Karlsruhe or, in
some cases, are deeply rooted in the city. For example, the Bambi, which
is the oldest German media prize, was created in 1948 by the Karlsruhe
publisher Karl Fritz and was awarded in Karlsruhe in the years 1948-1964
and 1998. Other important awards given include:
The Hermann Hesse
Prize, a literary prize first established in Karlsruhe in 1956.
The
Scheffel Prize, which is awarded to high school graduates by the
Literary Society of Karlsruhe for outstanding academic performance.
The Erich Schelling Architecture Prize, which has been awarded every two
years since 1992 for forward-looking architectural designs and
contributions to the theory and history of architecture. It is named
after Erich Schelling, the builder of the Black Forest Hall.
The Giga
Hertz Prize for Electronic Music, awarded by the Center for Art and
Media since 2007.
During the ARD Radio Play Days, which have been
held annually at the Center for Art and Media since 2006, the ARD German
Radio Play Prize, the ARD Online Award, the Premiere in the Net Young
Talent Prize, the German Children's Radio Play Prize and the Children's
Radio Play Prize of the City of Karlsruhe are presented.
The Karlsruhe dialect is a mixture of the dialects of the surrounding
regions that has emerged over the past three centuries. South Franconian
influences can be felt from the north and east, Palatinate from the
north-west, Swabian from the south-east and Lower Alemannic from the
south. However, the latter have left the smallest traces in the
"Karlsruhe".
Linguistically, the dialect of Karlsruhe is one of
the southern Franconian dialects, colloquially the dialect is referred
to as Baden or "Brigande German".
A linguistic peculiarity is the
"Karlsruher accusative", which is characterized by the fact that the
people of Karlsruhe do not use it: "It doesn't make a good impression."
As a multi-genre theatre, the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe
includes opera, ballet and drama as well as the Junges Staatstheater,
which was founded in 2011. It is sponsored by the state of
Baden-Württemberg, the city of Karlsruhe bears half of the subsidy
requirement. Since 1975 it has been housed in a new building at
Ettlinger Tor with a large building (1,000 seats), a small building (350
seats) and a studio (150 seats, since 2011). The State Theater emerged
from the Grand Ducal Court Theater, whose building on Schlossplatz was
destroyed in an air raid in 1944. The theater Die Insel on Karlstraße
has been the venue of the Staatstheater since 1997; before that it was
an independent private theatre. The Karlsruhe Handel Festival and every
two years events of the Karlsruhe European Culture Days take place at
the Staatstheater.
The Karlsruhe Theater Night takes place every
year on the last Saturday in the summer holidays.
There are also
several private, free and amateur theaters in Karlsruhe:
Sandkorn-Theater, founded in 1956, in the Theaterhaus Karlsruhe
Jakobus-Theater, founded in 1972, in the Theaterhaus Karlsruhe
Puppet
theater "marotte", founded in 1987, in the Theaterhaus Karlsruhe
Chamber theater founded in 1956
Theater "Die Käuze", basement theater
founded in 1967
Theater in the Organ Factory e. V., founded in 1987
Theater "The Spur", founded in 1961
Bluemix Children and Youth
Theater e. V., founded in 1994, closed in 2004 after reallocating the
municipal subsidy
"Badisch Bühn", dialect theater with restaurant,
founded in 1982
UniTheater Karlsruhe e. V., founded in 1990
Social
theater workshop: Karlsruhe e. V., founded in 2006
Figure theater
"One World Theater" at the old slaughterhouse
The Physics Theater at
KIT, founded in 2002
The theater die insel was run privately from
1950 to 1999.
The largest cinema in Karlsruhe is the Filmpalast at the ZKM. It has ten cinema halls with a total of almost 3000 seats. Karlsruhe's oldest cinema, the Filmtheater Schauburg, shows not only current blockbusters but also alternative films and original versions and organizes open-air cinema screenings at Gottesaue Castle in summer. Both houses offer a weekly preview, as does the Universum-City cinema on Europaplatz. The cinema Die Hebe, which closed in 2010 after more than 50 years, reopened in the same year as a cinema cooperative, but had to close permanently in August 2018. Connected to this was the municipal cinema Kinemathek Karlsruhe in Studio 3, which now exists independently and continues to show films. There are also regular performances organized by the student culture group AFK at the University of Karlsruhe.
The youth and meeting center (Jubez) on Kronenplatz is run by the
Stadtjugendausschuss operated. It offers concerts and other stage events
as well as a wide range of courses and courses. The Tollhaus cultural
center offers a cultural program that changes almost every day in the
fields of music, dance, cabaret, circus, comedy and puppet theatre.
Other cultural centers are the Tempel cultural center in Mühlburg, the
Gotec cultural center, the Substage music club, the KOHI-Kulturraum e.
V. and the Durlach organ factory.
The working group culture and
communication (AKK) with venue in the old stadium of the university and
the student organized culture and communication center Z10 are involved
in student cultural life.
In addition to a variety of cabaret events, e.g. B. in the Tollhaus cultural center or in the Sandkorn Theater, Karlsruhe has an active cabaret scene. Well-known artists from this scene include the chanteuse Annette Postel, the comedian Boris Meinzer, the singer and comedian Gunzi Heil, the comedy cabaret rastetter & wacker, the clown Schorsch, the cabaret group Die Spiegelfechter, the magician and pantomime Peter Herrmann, the humorist Pierre M Krause and the dialect poet Harald Hurst. Members of the pyramidal KleinKunst-Verein PKV have been organizing annual acrobatics meetings and juggling conventions since the 1990s, including the European Juggling Convention EJC 2000 and 2008, the world's largest juggling meeting.
The Bachchor Karlsruhe is the oldest and largest oratorio choir in
the city of Karlsruhe. Specialized almost exclusively in oratorio works
until 1996, the choir is now also at home in modern choral literature.
It belongs with the CoroPiccolo to the evangelical city church. The
SchrillMEN - gay choir Karlsruhe is a German male choir of homosexuals.
It was founded in 1988 with the goal of gay emancipation. Fetz Domino is
a gospel choir with a band from Karlsruhe. His style is a mixture of
gospel, soul, pop and worship. The Karlsruhe Oratorio Choir at the
Christ Church is one of the most traditional choirs in Karlsruhe. He
devotes himself to the whole range of classical and modern choral music.
In addition to the oratorio, the choir rehearses demanding a cappella
works and participates in the design of festive cantatas at the Christ
Church.
Other choirs are:
Cantos Solis
Cantus Juvenum
Karlsruhe
the choir of the Evangelical student community
the choir
of the Catholic university community
the choir of St. Stephen
the
Durlach choir
the chamber choir Studio Vocale
the choir at the
Luther Church (Oststadt)
the Karlsruhe Chamber Choir of the Helmholtz
High School, 1985 first prize winner of the German Choir Competition
the Unibigband Karlsruhe, the (Bigband of the University of Karlsruhe)
the university choir and chamber choir of the university
vocal
resources – Choir of the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences
the
vocal ensemble milagro and
the workshop choir
The Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe is the concert and opera
orchestra of the Badisches Staatstheater. Its origins go back to a court
chapel of the Margraves of Baden-Durlach, mentioned in 1662. The chamber
orchestra Ensemble 13, which was founded by Manfred Reichert in 1973,
has taken part in world premieres of works by Wolfgang Rihm, Luigi Nono
and Iannis Xenakis. The Karlsruhe Police Music Corps, founded in 1981,
is the largest police orchestra in Germany with over 70 musicians (as of
2012).
Other orchestras in Karlsruhe are:
the Academic Chamber
Orchestra Karlsruhe
the BA Orchestra, Orchestra of the University of
Cooperative Education Karlsruhe.
the Bartholdy Orchestra
the
Collegium Bismarckianum (orchestra of former members of the Chamber
Orchestra of the Bismarck Gymnasium)
the Collegium Musicum
(university orchestra)
the University and Chamber Orchestra of the
University of Music
the youth orchestra of the city of Karlsruhe e. V
the Air Force Music Corps 2
the Weiherfeld Chamber Orchestra
the
Karlsruhe Chamber Philharmonic
the senior orchestra Karlsruhe e. V
the symphony and chamber orchestra at the university and
the
Waldstadt Chamber Orchestra
the early music ensemble Les Escapades
Karlsruhe has a lively live club scene with numerous opportunities to
perform. In 2002, an overarching initiative to promote pop music in
Karlsruhe and the region was launched. The city and the initiative are
partners in the Regionet project of the Baden-Württemberg Pop Academy in
Mannheim. The young band competition new.bands.festival has been held
under different names for more than 25 years in cooperation with the
organizers of Das Fest.
With the Substage music club, the old
Hackerei, the NCO Club and Stadtmitte, there are also stages where
artists and groups from the metal and hardcore scene regularly play.
There is also the annual Knockdown Festival, a one-day indoor metal
festival in the Black Forest Hall. From 2006 to 2018, the New Noise
Festival was also a, most recently decentralized, outdoor and indoor
hardcore festival.
The Center for Art and Media (ZKM for short) was opened in Karlsruhe
in 1997 and is considered the largest institution for media art in the
world. It sees itself as a platform for encounters between art, science,
politics and business. In addition to research facilities, it includes
the Media Museum and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MNK for short). The
Municipal Gallery is also housed in the hall of the ZKM, a former
ammunition factory. The ZKM was visited by 233,264 people in 2010.
The Baden State Museum in Karlsruhe Palace is the largest cultural,
art and state history museum in the Baden region of Baden-Württemberg.
In 1921 it was opened for the first time. After being destroyed in World
War II, it was rebuilt in 1953 and was accessible again 3 years later.
It is often the scene of special exhibitions, including regular large
state exhibitions. A heart of the collection, which includes
cultural-historical exhibits from over 5000 years, is the "Turkish loot"
of Margrave Ludwig Wilhelm von Baden-Baden. The State Museum had over
180,000 visitors in 2010.
The State Museum of Natural History in
Karlsruhe (SMNK for short) is a scientific research museum. Its origins
lie in the mid-18th century margravial Baden collections of curiosities
and natural objects. In addition to fossils, minerals, specimens of
domestic and exotic animals, the permanent exhibitions also show living
animals in the vivarium. It was visited by 162,545 people in 2010.
The Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe is a museum of fine arts and
houses paintings by mainly German, French and Dutch masters from a total
of eight centuries. The core of the collection consists of 205 mostly
French and Dutch paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries, which
Margravine Karoline Luise acquired between 1759 and 1776. In 2010 the
Staatliche Kunsthalle had 96,216 visitors.
The Staatliche
Majolika Manufaktur Karlsruhe is the only ceramics manufactory in
Germany and was founded in 1901. The museum in the majolica manufactory
offers an overview of the production of the grand ducal, later state
manufactory.
In the Ständehaus, a "Ständehaus memorial"
commemorates its former use as a parliament building.
The Baden
School Museum in Karlsruhe in the Waldensian School in Palmbach shows
the school history of the last two hundred years.
Many events take place annually. In particular, "The Festival" gained
nationwide fame because it is one of the largest open-air events. Other
notable festivals and performances are listed below.
End of
January: AStA Uni Winter Festival
February/March: International
Handel Festival, since 1985
Carnival Sunday: Carnival parade in
Durlach
Shrove Tuesday: Shrovetide parade in Karlsruhe
April:
Shrill in April. lesbian-gay cultural festival (1990/1991 to 2013)
May: Independent Days Filmfest, independent low and no-budget film
festival
May/June: The Gulaschprogrammiernacht, an annual gathering
of hackers organized by the Karlsruhe CCC-Erfa Entropia. Hot goulash is
served here.
May/June: Spring Fair. Annual market at the Messplatz
May/June (at Pentecost): Hoepfner Castle Festival
May/June:
Christopher Street Day
June: Tribute to Carl Benz. Vintage car show
on Schlossplatz with a parade of automobiles through the city center
(cycle: every two years)
End of June: AStA university summer party,
large open-air event
End of June: Science Festival Effects, since
2013 (biennially)
Last weekend of June: Car Park Festival, festival
organized by student residences
Last full weekend of June: Port
Festival
June/July: Linden Blossom Festival on Gutenbergplatz
First weekend in July: Durlach Old Town Festival
Mid/late July: Das
Fest, one of Germany's major open-air music festivals
Late June–early
August: Tentival at the Tollhaus cultural center
July/August:
Open-air cinema at Gottesaue Castle
July: African Summer Festival
First Saturday in August: KAMUNA (Karlsruher Museumsnacht), since 1999
August/September: Festival of Lights in the Stadtgarten (every two years
in August, odd years)
Beginning of August to mid-September: Castle
Light Show
Beginning of September: Beer exchange on the Schlossplatz,
since 2002
Last Saturday in the summer holidays: theater night
September/October: culture market on Kronenplatz
October/November:
Pride Pictures at the Kinemathek
October: Autumn Mass. Annual market
at the Messplatz
November/December: Christmas market on the market
square
December: Knock Out Festival. Heavy metal festival in the
Europahalle or Schwarzwaldhalle
Honorary citizen
The city of Karlsruhe has granted honorary
citizenship to 48 people since 1821, but six people have been revoked.
Among the honorary citizens of the city of Karlsruhe are Chancellor Otto
von Bismarck and Federal President Heinrich Lübke.
Sons and
daughters of the town
Important personalities who were born in
Karlsruhe are the inventors and pioneers of transport Karl Drais
(1785-1851) and Carl Benz (* 1844 in Mühlburg). Among other things,
Drais created the first typewriter and the draisine, a prototype of
today's bicycle. Benz developed the first automobile with a combustion
engine. The important architect of classicism Friedrich Weinbrenner was
born in Karlsruhe, as was the writer Joseph Victor von Scheffel, author
of the epic poem Der Trompeter von Säckingen, and the painter Karl
Hubbuch. Wolfgang Rihm, one of the most important contemporary
composers, was born in Karlsruhe in 1952 and still lives there. The
philosopher Peter Sloterdijk holds the chair for philosophy and
aesthetics at the State University of Design in Karlsruhe, of which he
was also rector. He comes from Karlsruhe, as do the choreographer Sasha
Waltz, the director Maren Ade and the contemporary architect Ole
Scheeren. Well-known athletes born here are the national football
players Oliver Bierhoff, Oliver Kahn, Renate Lingor and Mehmet Scholl,
the boxer Regina Halmich and the table tennis player Steffen Fetzner.
Personalities who worked in Karlsruhe
The people working in
Karlsruhe include scientists and university teachers such as the
physicist Heinrich Hertz, the Nobel Prize winners Ferdinand Braun and
Fritz Haber or the architect Egon Eiermann, artists who worked at the
Baden court or the art academy such as Horst Antes, Georg Baselitz and
Markus Lüpertz, the poet Johann Peter Hebe, Baden politicians like the
father of the Baden constitution Karl Friedrich Nebenius or federal and
constitutional judges like the later Federal President Roman Herzog.
Even before joining the Confederation of the Rhine in 1806, the first
barracks were set up in Karlsruhe and billeting was lifted for
peacetime. In 1803 the dragoon barracks were built on the eastern
Kaiserstraße, in 1804 the infantry barracks were built east of the
Mühlburger Tor (today's Europaplatz), which were completed in 1827 and
demolished in 1899. From 1818 Gottesau Castle became an artillery
barracks. A military hospital was established in 1845. With the
completion of the front building on Kaiserallee in 1843, the new
grenadier barracks began and was completed in 1898. In 1892, the Royal
Prussian Academy for Cadets in Karlsruhe was built on the extended
Moltkestrasse. The infantry barracks were built west of the cadet
establishment in 1895. The telegraph barracks were built on Hertzstrasse
in 1906–1907, which became the seat of the Technical University after
1945 until the old buildings on Kaiserstrasse were rebuilt. Karlsruhe
was part of the demilitarized zone until 1936, after which it
immediately became a garrison town again. As early as 1937, the Rhein
barracks and the Mackensen barracks were rebuilt.
From the end of
the Second World War until 1995, Karlsruhe was a military base for the
American armed forces. The deployment took place as part of the
occupation and later the NATO mission of the United States Army. The
barracks buildings are now used exclusively for civilian purposes. The
blocks of flats in Nordstadt were renovated, expanded by one floor and
converted into rental or owner-occupied apartments. The 516th Sig Gp,
the 29th Sig Bn, the 17th Sig Bn, and the 532nd FA Obsr Bn were
stationed in it. The Neureuter barracks were the only barracks in
Karlsruhe built by the Americans after the end of World War II. From the
end of the Second World War until 1991, the 135eme Régiment du Train was
stationed in Karlsruhe and was housed, among other things, in the
infantry barracks, which the French army renamed General Pagezy barracks
at this time. A second location was the grenadier barracks on
Kaiserallee.
After the founding of the Bundeswehr, the first
units moved into the Karlsruhe Dragoon barracks on February 27, 1957.
Within the framework of NATO, units of the Bundeswehr took over the
tasks of the other NATO armed forces. On April 1, 1958, Unit K of the US
Navy Rhine River Patrol was officially replaced by the Bundeswehr's
River Engineer Company 791 in the Rhine port. This was the first
transferred task from the United States armed forces to the German armed
forces since the occupation. More barracks were built by the Bundeswehr.
So in the Rintheimer Querallee and in the Kirchfeldsiedlung. The villa
at Kantstraße 1a, which was also used by the two previously existing
chambers of the Southern Military Service Court, was handed over to the
Federal Agency for Real Estate Tasks in 2012.
The most important sports facilities in the city are the
Wildparkstadion football stadium and the Europahalle large sports hall,
which has only been able to be used to a limited extent since 2014 for
fire safety reasons. Before its completion in 1983, the Black Forest
Hall was the scene of major sporting events, such as the Wrestling World
Championships in 1955. Since 2003, the DM Arena at the Karlsruhe Trade
Fair Center has been another venue.
In 1989 the World Games, the
world games for non-Olympic sports, took place in Karlsruhe with 1965
participants in 19 sports. In 2008, Karlsruhe was the venue for the
Special Olympics, Germany's largest sporting event for people with
intellectual disabilities. In 2021, the city applied to host a four-day
program for an international delegation to the Special Olympics World
Summer Games 2023 in Berlin. In 2022 she was selected to host Special
Olympics Switzerland. This made it part of the largest municipal
inclusion project in the history of the Federal Republic with more than
200 host towns.
One of the largest sports clubs in Karlsruhe is the Karlsruhe section of the German Alpine Club, with the DAV Karlsruhe climbing center (Art of Climbing) and several alpine huts. It was founded in 1870.
The most successful basketball team in the city at the moment is the
PS Karlsruhe Lions, who, after several promotions in a row, have been
playing in the ProA league since 2017, where they made the playoffs in
2018. They play their home games in the Lina Radke Hall.
The
basketball club BG Karlsruhe played from 2003 to 2007 in the first
basketball league and then for several years in the ProA league.
Karlsruhe was one of the organizers of the 1985 European Basketball
Championship.
The most successful football club in the city is Karlsruher SC, which
played in the Bundesliga as early as 1963. He has been playing in the
2nd Bundesliga since the 2019/20 season. Greatest successes were the
German championship title of the predecessor club Phönix Karlsruhe in
1909, two DFB Cup victories in the years 1955 and 1956 and three times
participation in the UEFA Cup under coach Winfried Schäfer with reaching
the semi-finals in 1993/94. National players such as Oliver Kahn, Mehmet
Scholl and Jens Nowotny began their professional careers at KSC. The
club plays its home games in the Wildpark Stadium.
With the
Karlsruher FV, German champions 1910, there was a second, similarly
important club in the early days of football, which, however, gradually
disappeared into insignificance after the Second World War. The women's
soccer team of ASV Karlsruhe-Hagsfeld played in the 2nd Bundesliga from
the 2007/08 season to the 2009/10 season.
The city of Karlsruhe celebrated its cycling tradition (see section on cycling) repeatedly by hosting major cycling events. In 1987 Karlsruhe was the starting point and in 2005 the destination of a Tour de France stage. In 2004 the city was the starting point and in 2006 the destination of the most important German stage road race, the Deutschland Tour. From 1996 to 2003, a pair time trial with world-class cycling professionals took place here every year. For cyclists, the area around Karlsruhe offers both flat training routes and mountain routes in the nearby northern Black Forest.
Two important annual track and field events take place in Karlsruhe: The International Indoor Track and Field Meeting, which was last known as the Indoor Meeting and took place in the Europa Hall from 1985 to 2014. Since 2015, the international athletics meeting has been held in the Karlsruhe Exhibition Center (Hall 2). The Baden Marathon, which has been held annually in September since 1983, is a big city marathon.
Regina Halmich, who was boxing world champion from 1995 to 2007, comes from Karlsruhe. The former world boxing champions and Olympic participants Markus Bott and Sven Ottke started for Karlsruher SC. Other successful boxers from the club were Horst Rascher and Alexander Künzler.
In the district of Grünwettersbach, ASV Grünwettersbach has been
playing in the table tennis Bundesliga since the 2015/16 season. The
club also has a team in the 3rd Bundesliga South.
The tennis club TC
Rüppurr in the south of the city had a long tradition of being part of
the men's tennis national league, until the women's team was promoted to
the national league in 2005 and it was promoted. In the following years
2006 and 2007 the women were able to win the German championship title
and in the years 2008, 2015, 2016 and 2018 they came second in the
table.
The volleyball players of the SSC Karlsruhe have been playing
in the second volleyball federal league south since 2017.
The
Karlsruhe rock 'n' roll club RRC Golden-Fifties Karlsruhe e. V. is one
of the largest German rock 'n' roll clubs. The club's flagships are the
boogie formation "Boogie@Motion" (world champion 2007, vice world
champion 2005, German vice champion 2005 and 2006) and the rock 'n' roll
formation "Gofi-Team" (German vice champion 2004 and vice world champion
2003 and 2004). 2004). In the past, the club, in cooperation with the
KMK, has repeatedly organized important international tournaments in the
Europahalle.
The canoe racers of the Rheinbrüder Karlsruhe club have
won numerous German championship titles and several medals at world
championships.
TSV Grünwinkel 1862 e. V. is particularly successful
in the Indiaca area and can record a number of championship titles as
well as the organization of the Beach Indiaca tournament, which takes
place once a year and is one of the largest in Germany.
The 1st AFC
Badener Greifs were founded in 1982 in Eggenstein. From 1986 to 1993 the
team played for American Football in the 1st Bundesliga. In 1987 the
German vice championship was won.
With the Karlsruher SV, Karlsruhe
has a club that plays in the 3rd Bundesliga.
Karlsruhe is the seat of
the Neindorff Riding Institute, founded by Egon von Neindorff, one of
the most important places for the preservation and training of classical
horsemanship.
The SC 147 Karlsruhe was founded in 2004 and has been
playing in the second snooker Bundesliga since the 2006/07 season.
The PBC Karlsruhe was 1989, 1991 and 1993 German pool billiard team
champion.
The TanzSportClub TSC Astoria Karlsruhe e. V. has a
wheelchair dance group that is coached by Andrea Naumann, the German
Vice Champion in wheelchair dance standard and Latin.
There is a
large sport climbing scene in Karlsruhe. This is mainly due to the
nearby sport climbing areas such as Battert, Murgtal, Südpfalz or
Schriesheim. Two climbing halls also allow training in winter. In
addition to The Rock, a privately operated hall at Westbahnhof, the DAV
section Karlsruhe has its climbing and section center in the
Traugott-Bender-Sportpark in Waldstadt.
Karlsruhe is the birthplace
of the modern variant of the Slavic game Gorodki with lightweight
throwing sticks made of sturdy plastic. There are two of the most modern
playgrounds in the world here. In 2006 the Gorodki World Championships
took place in Karlsruhe. Participating countries were Belarus, Germany,
Finland, Russia, Sweden and Ukraine.
The RocKArollers are the roller
derby team of the SSC Karlsruhe. It was founded in 2010, has been a full
member of the WFTDA since 2015 and has also been playing in the 3rd
Bundesliga South since 2015.
The TackleTigers are the Karlsruhe
Jugger Team. They were founded in 2013 and have since taken part in
numerous tournaments and championships in Germany and Europe. Since 2015
there has been a second team - Die KuschelKätzchen - to give less
experienced players the opportunity to gain gaming experience.
The
KIT SC Engineers (until August 2013 Karlsruhe Engineers) are an American
football team.