upe8 symposium - excursion to karlsruhe

8/2/2019 UPE8 Symposium - Excursion to Karlsruhe

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EXCURSION TO KARLSRUHE

Karlsruhe with its 289.000 inhabitants is an important city in the

south-west of Germany. The city was the capital of the country Baden

and it nowadays belongs to the federal state of Baden-Wrttemberg.

It is situated near the french border in the immediate vincinity to the

Rhine and is framed by the cities of Mannheim in the north, Stuttgart

in the east an Strasbourg in the south-west. By establishing the

Federal Supreme Court of Justice and the Federal Constitutional

Court of Germany as well as the university the city developed during

the centuries from margrave Karl Wilhelms residential town to a

capital of law and knowledge.

History of the city

The history of Karlsruhe as a city started not until 1715 with thebuilding of the new residential palace of margrave Karl Wilhelm from

Baden-Durlach. The centre of Karlsruhe was the palace, built in the

style of Versailles, from which the streets radiated like the spokes of a

wheel. Thats why Karlsruhe even today is named as a fan-shaped-

city. This special layout mirrored the intention of the absolutly ruling

Karl Wilhelm. The palace of Karlsruhe was built by the architect

Jakob Friedrich from Batzendorf in the woodland near the former

residence in Durlach. This special place gave enough space for the

palace, the gardens and the new city. The corps-de-logis (mainbuilding) is set on the east-west axis with two south-facing wings

along the avenues. North of the corps-de-logis stood a seven-storey

tower. The working quarters were placed around the palace. Nine

southbound avenues created the municipal border. The other avenues

exploited the hunting areas and ended in nearby villages. The

different levels in high from the three-storey palace, to two-storey

buildings for aristocracy and officers, to the one-storey town house is

a prime example of absolutist city foundation. The citys founder

margrave Karl Wilhelm used the courtyard as a botanical garden.

After 1754 the central terrain of the courtyard became areas for

traffic and exhibitions and served later on as a parade ground. Under

the rule of the margrave Karl Wilhelm from Baden-Durlach the palace

garden was created in French Baroque style. 1787 the garden was

partly redesigned by garden inspector Schweickhardt on the basis of

English models. The gardens actutal shape was designed in 1967 in

order of the German horticultural show.

In 1801 Friedrich Weinbrenner changed the city considerably by his

classical planings. He created the central axis, that ran from the palace

across the Market- and Rondellplace up to the Ettlinger Tor. This axisis flanked by classical buildings like for example Evangelical Municipal

Church, the Town Hall and the Margrave-Hochberg Palace.

In 1825 the first university of Germany was founded in Karlsruhe.


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Since today Karlsruhe is an important university site.

Also in Karlsruhe in succession of the starting industrialisation the

population increased strongly. Although there were poor financial

circumstances after the first world war, bigger planning projects like

the general development plan of 1926 or the building of new housing

estates were set into action. After the second world war Karlsruhe, in

order to the local government restructuring following the foundation

of the Federal Republic of Germany, lost its function as capital of thecountry Baden. But it was given the function as capital of law by the

establishing of the Federal Supreme Court of Justice and the Federal

Constitutional Court of Germany.

Since the 70th several inner city conversions and urban renewals

were undertaken. Whole districts of the city were redeveloped,

former industrial areas were converted and new gardens were

created. To strengthen Karlsruhe even further in the contest of the

21. century the TechnologicalRegion Karlsruhe was created.

Moreover projects City 2015 Future of the inner city of Karlsruheand an inner city transportation concept was developed.

The Karlsruhe model Link between tram

and trains

In the 60th Karlsruhe deliberately decided in favour of the

maintenance and extention of trams. By links trams and trains were

connected, but passengers had to change trains. To connect the regionand the city more strongly in the early 1990 the idea of a direkt and

with no need of change connection was born. The tram and the

regional train system were melted together to form the regional-city-

tram additionally the train system was extended. This concept is

named Karlsruhe model. A technical challenge was the adjustment

to the different types of power supply with 15.000 volt alternating

current on the one hand and 750 volt direkt current on the other

hand. To solve this problem a tram with system change equipment

was developed, the Twosystem-tram. That way the surrounding

areas of settlement are direktly connected with the city centre ofKarlsruhe. The Karlsruhe model is an outstanding concept of public

transportation in Germany.

Further information:

www.karlsruhe.de

www1.karlsruhe.de/Tourismus

www1.karlsruhe.de/Tourismus/virtuellwww.kvv.de

upe8 symposium - excursion to karlsruhe

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