Karlsruhe is a young and dynamic city. Home to 310,000 residents, it has established itself in recent years as a cultural, economic and scientific metropolis in the Baden-Wurttemberg region.
When planning this fan-shaped city in 1715, the margraves of Baden placed a mighty baroque palace smack in the middle. Parks and green areas are always nearby: over 800 hectares of public parks and green spaces – such as the Palace Gardens with the Botanical Garden beside the Federal Constitutional Court – invite people to stroll and relax. More green and ample space to stretch one’s legs, like The Black Forest, Alsace and the Palatinate, can be reached in less than half an hour by car.
By the way: the car, the bicycle, the periodic table of elements, the electromagnetic wave and the mobile web browser: all of these inventions and discoveries were born in Karlsruhe. A high density of researchers and good networking with scientists make Karlsruhe one of Europe’s most innovative cities – about 8,300 people work at the renowned KIT Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, making it one of the world’s largest institutions for research and teaching. At the same time, Karlsruhe is home to many world-renowned companies.
More than 1,800 hours of sun per year and a relaxed ambience make a broad range of leisure activities possible. The lively cultural landscape in Karlsruhe features a varied cultural scene with concerts, museums, galleries and several theatres. Visitors and resident alike enjoy the numerous open-air events like DAS FEST, the Festival of European Culture, the Händel Festival and countless other festivities.
The Baden State Theatre, the University of Music Karlsruhe, the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and many other institutions offer a wide range of cultural options. Often referred to as the ‘Electronic or Digital Art Bauhaus’ and currently ranking fourth among the world’s most important art museums, the ZKM Centre for Art and Media captures the development of all media relevant to our digital age.
Known as the German City of Law and Justice and digital future community, Karlsruhe is one of five model municipalities in the ‘Future Communities – digital@bw’ program as an IT accelerator of the state of Baden-Wurttemberg and running a test field for autonomous driving.
Karlsruhe was recognised as a digital hub for applied artificial intelligence as part of the federal governmental ‘de: hub’ initiative and in 2019 designated as a UNESCO City of Media Arts for its digital innovation and media arts.
In the framework of the UNESCO City of Media Arts, Karlsruhe runs the annual Light Art Festival Schlosslichtspiele. In the summer of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Karlsruhe saw a world premiere with the first digital edition of the festival: For forty days, shows were beamed onto a virtual façade of the Karlsruhe Palace, an artistic media event that was accessed from over 120 countries by an estimated 250,000 viewers. As a special highlight, the President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen sent a video message outlining the European Green Deal, a topic that was picked up throughout the festival.
