KARLSRUHE
History
History I
Sightseeing I
Practical I Hotels in Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe is a quite young city, it was
founded in 1715 by the ruler (Margrave Karl-Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach) of the German
country Baden as the new capital of Baden. The name of the city means :"
the resting place of Karl". The margrave ordered a lodge to be
built in the middle of his favourite hunting grounds. He liked the area
and the lodge so much that he decided to move his residence here and
live in peace for the rest of his life.
The new capital as built in a wide area of
woods with a system of new roads forming the beams of a star putting his
new castle in the center. On the south side of this castle the new town
Karlsruhe was founded, forming a fan in front of the castle. The city’s
plan resembles Paris, with streets laid out in rays, like a fan, from
the central point of the count’s palace. The renowned 18th century city
planner L’Enfant liked Karlsruhe’s design so much, he incorporated its
elements into his plan for Washington, D.C.
New development began in 1975, with the building of an extension of the
urban tramway to the new housing area of Nordweststadt. This was the
first phase of what has become the trams' northern network, or
Hardtbahn, which runs into the city from the north-west at Hochstetten,
and serves Bruchsal, Bretten and Golshausen in the east. The opening of
a northwards extension to Leopoldshafen coincided with a major
reorganisation of public transport in the area. Karlsruhe owns the
oldest technical University of Germany and one of the first of Europe.
Famous scientists like Heinrich Hertz (electromagnetic waves) or Karl
Ferdinand Braun (cathode ray tubes) have been working at the University
of Karlsruhe.
The city's Ständehaus, established in 1822, was the first Parliament
building constructed on German soil. .
