Karlsruhe

Sister cities

• Vinnytsia

History

According to legend, the name Karlsruhe, which translates as "Charles' repose" or "Charles' peace", was given to the new city after a hunting trip when Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach woke from a dream in which he dreamt of founding his new city. A variation of this story claims that he built the new palace to find peace from his wife. Charles William founded the city on 17 June 1715 after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, Durlach. The founding of the city is closely linked to the construction of the palace. Karlsruhe became the capital of Baden-Durlach, and, in 1771, of the united Baden until 1945. Built in 1822, the Ständehaus was the first parliament building in a German state. In the aftermath of the democratic revolution of 1848, a republican government was elected there. Karlsruhe was visited by Thomas Jefferson during his time as the American envoy to France; when Pierre Charles L'Enfant was planning the layout of Washington, D.C., Jefferson passed to him maps of 12 European towns to consult, one of which was a sketch he had made of Karlsruhe during his visit. In 1860, the first-ever international professional convention of chemists, the Karlsruhe Congress, was held in the city. In 1907 the town was site of the Hau Riot where large crowds caused disturbance during the trial of murderer Carl Hau. On Kristallnacht in 1938, the Adass Jeshurun synagogue was burned to the ground, and the city's Jews were later sent to the Dachau concentration camp, Gurs concentration camp, Theresienstadt, and Auschwitz during the Holocaust, with 1,421 of Karlsruhe's Jews being killed. During World War II, it was the location of a forced labour camp for men, and a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp, whose prisoners were mainly Poles and…

Geography

Karlsruhe lies completely to the east of the Rhine, and almost completely on the Upper Rhine Plain. It contains the Turmberg in the east, and also lies on the borders of the Kraichgau leading to the Northern Black Forest. The Rhine river, one of the world's most important shipping routes, forms the western limits of the city, beyond which lie the towns of Maximiliansau and Wörth am Rhein in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate. The city centre is about from the river, as measured from the Marktplatz (Market Square). Two tributaries of the Rhine, the Alb and the Pfinz, flow through the city from the Kraichgau to eventually join the Rhine. The city lies at an altitude of between , the higher figure being near the communications tower in the suburb of Grünwettersbach. Its geographical coordinates are ; the 49th parallel runs through the city centre, which puts it at the same latitude as much of the Canada–United States border and the cities of Vancouver (Canada), Paris (France), Regensburg (Germany), and Hulunbuir (China). Its course is marked by a stone and painted line in the Stadtgarten (municipal park). The total area of the city is , hence it is the 30th largest city in Germany measured by land area. The longest north–south distance is and in the east–west direction. Karlsruhe is part of the urban area of Karlsruhe/Pforzheim, to which certain other towns in the district of Karlsruhe, such as Bruchsal, Ettlingen, Stutensee, and Rheinstetten, as well as the city of Pforzheim, belong. The city was planned with the palace tower (Schloss) at the center and 32 streets radiating out from it like the spokes of a wheel, or the ribs of a folding fan, so that one nickname for Karlsruhe in German is the "fan city" (Fächerstadt). Almost all of these streets…

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,632
• Zoropsid spider

  Zoropsis spinimana (Dufour, 1820) · Arachnida
  4,294
• Carrion Crow

  Corvus corone Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,153
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  4,006
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  3,963
• House Sparrow

  Passer domesticus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,205
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,111
• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,937

Most recent

• M 3.4 — 2022-10-16
  Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany
• M 4 — 2022-07-09
  2 km NNE of Grosselfingen, Germany
• M 4.1 — 2021-06-26
  2 km SE of Hœrdt, France
• M 3.6 — 2014-05-17
  2 km ESE of Pfungstadt, Germany
• M 2.5 — 2008-12-12
  2 km ESE of Nehren, Germany
• M 2.8 — 2008-11-25
  1 km S of Steinmauern, Germany