Karlsruhe



Karlsruhe is a city on the Rhine in Baden-Württemberg in Germany. It is in the north of the Black Forest, close to the French border. Karlsruhe is famous in Germany for both hosting two federal courts and being a major hub for science and technology. With 300,000 people, Karlsruhe is the largest city within 60 km. It is not usually visited by tourists from abroad, but is a relaxed and pleasant city to work and study in.

Understand
The city was founded in 1715 by Margrave Karl Wilhelm von Baden. The city was laid out on the drawing board. It consists of a central circle, containing the castle, and streets running towards the castle as radial "spokes". This pattern is still visible today. Due to the fan-like layout, Karlsruhe is known as the "fan city" (Fächerstadt).

The Rhine valley, where Karlsruhe is located, is the warmest part of Germany because it is only about 115 m above sea level and there are mountains in the east (Black Forest) and west (Vogesen). Therefore, Karlsruhe has more sunny days than many other parts of Germany.

There isn't a lot of tourist traffic to Karlsruhe. Tourists generally tend to gravitate towards the cities of Heidelberg (50 km to the north) and Freiburg (100 km to the south), with their well-preserved old towns. It's a shame though, as Karlsruhe's radial layout is one of the best early examples of New Urbanism, and is really a joy to explore. Maybe that's a benefit to travellers who do venture there as the number of visitors is low enough to be sort of a novelty for the locals.

Karlsruhe is home to the two highest federal courts of Germany, the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) and the Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice). Because of this and other administrative facilities, Karlsruhe has a reputation as a city of civil servants.

Karlsruhe has a large and renowned technical university (KIT) as well as several other colleges. The presence of the technical university has promoted the city somewhat in the world of Free and Open Source Software: Karlsruhe was the home of LinuxTag until 2005. Karlsruhe also hosts some of the major internet companies of Germany.

Tourist information

 * Karlsruhe Tourism

By plane

 * Frankfurt airport is Germany's biggest airport and is served by all major carriers that operate in Germany. It has a direct ICE high speed train connection to Karlsruhe (1 hour).
 * Stuttgart airport is reachable by train in one and a half hours.
 * Stuttgart airport is reachable by train in one and a half hours.

By car
Karlsruhe has several exits from the A5 autobahn, approximately 130 km south of Frankfurt. The autobahn A8 joins the A5 just south of the city, connecting to Stuttgart 80 km east.

By bus


The bus station is at the south entrance of the train station. You can buy tickets for a couple of international destinations inside the train station.

By bicycle
There are long-distance cycle routes connecting Karlsruhe with the surrounding cities, such as Heidelberg and Pforzheim. It is especially convenient travelling along the Upper Rhine Plain between the cities of Mainz and Basel.

On foot
A lot to see in Karlsruhe is along Kaiserstraße. Because all the streets radiate outward, Marktplatz (market square) is a great place to start a walking tour of the city. If you go up or down Kaiserstraße, you will find a great variety of shops and restaurants on both sides of the streets. If you go towards the Palace (right in front of you if you're on Marktplatz), you can visit the city museum inside the castle, or the park right behind it, where the people of Karlsruhe congregate to picnic, play sports, and relax on nice days. Go farther and you can take a walk into "Hardtwald" forest which has a lot of trails right near the city center. Go south from Marktplatz and you will soon come upon "Ettlinger Tor" shopping mall and "Staatstheater" theatre. Exploring on foot allows you the opportunity to go down the alleys and smaller streets in Karlsruhe where you can find a wonderful variety of shops, kneipes, and restaurants.

By public transport
Karlsruhe has an excellent public transport system called Karlsruher Verkehrsverbund (KVV) (Karlsruhe Area Mass Transit Authority). It is mostly built on tram-trains (Stadtbahn). This allows trains to run on tram tracks within the city or on railway tracks to serve the surrounding region. An overview of the entire transport network can be downloaded here: KVV-Liniennetzplan Schiene

A single ticket for a trip within the city limits costs €2.50 for adults, €1.40 for kids. A day ticket (valid until 06:00 the next day) for one person costs €6.40 (Citysolo) and for up to 5 persons €10.60 (Cityplus).

Most tickets have to be stamped upon entering a tram and controllers are quite frequent. In particular, for longer distances outside of Karlsruhe buying the right ticket can be a bit challenging, but in front of the main train station as well as at Durlacher Allee 71, you will find KVV offices that will be happy to assist you. The KVV office on Marktplatz closed at the end of January 2024.

Trains operate late into the night, in particular on weekends, but almost every line stops for a few hours every night. Schedules and maps are posted on virtually every station.

By bicycle
Rental bikes are available all-year round from Nextbike. A mobile phone is used to rent a bike and it can be 'returned' (again, using the mobile phone) at any inner city corner. During the summer, spring and autumn rental bikes are available throughout the city from the service Call a bike. A mobile phone is used to rent a bike and it can be 'returned' (again, using the mobile phone) at any inner city corner. Renting a bike costs no more than €0.08/min or €9.00/day.

See
A list of museums can be found on the city homepage. The city lists Karlsruhe's cultural heritage in a database.


 * Durlach. Now a part of Karlsruhe, it is much older (first mentioned in the 12th century) than Karlsruhe itself and has a charming medieval town-center. It can be easily reached by tram 1 in a quarter of an hour. A word of advice: calling an inhabitant of Durlach a "Karlsruher" is asking for trouble. From the Turmberg (tower hill), you have a nice view over the city and the Rhine valley.
 * Kombilösung. This controversial project refers to the combination of a tram tunnel in Kaiserstraße and a road tunnel in Kriegsstraße, allegedly the solution (Lösung) for public transport capacity problems in Karlsruhe. There is an information pavillon near the Staatstheater, and in the coming years there will be lots of construction in the city. Not a sight as such, but interesting for public transport geeks.
 * Durlach. Now a part of Karlsruhe, it is much older (first mentioned in the 12th century) than Karlsruhe itself and has a charming medieval town-center. It can be easily reached by tram 1 in a quarter of an hour. A word of advice: calling an inhabitant of Durlach a "Karlsruher" is asking for trouble. From the Turmberg (tower hill), you have a nice view over the city and the Rhine valley.
 * Kombilösung. This controversial project refers to the combination of a tram tunnel in Kaiserstraße and a road tunnel in Kriegsstraße, allegedly the solution (Lösung) for public transport capacity problems in Karlsruhe. There is an information pavillon near the Staatstheater, and in the coming years there will be lots of construction in the city. Not a sight as such, but interesting for public transport geeks.
 * Durlach. Now a part of Karlsruhe, it is much older (first mentioned in the 12th century) than Karlsruhe itself and has a charming medieval town-center. It can be easily reached by tram 1 in a quarter of an hour. A word of advice: calling an inhabitant of Durlach a "Karlsruher" is asking for trouble. From the Turmberg (tower hill), you have a nice view over the city and the Rhine valley.
 * Kombilösung. This controversial project refers to the combination of a tram tunnel in Kaiserstraße and a road tunnel in Kriegsstraße, allegedly the solution (Lösung) for public transport capacity problems in Karlsruhe. There is an information pavillon near the Staatstheater, and in the coming years there will be lots of construction in the city. Not a sight as such, but interesting for public transport geeks.
 * Durlach. Now a part of Karlsruhe, it is much older (first mentioned in the 12th century) than Karlsruhe itself and has a charming medieval town-center. It can be easily reached by tram 1 in a quarter of an hour. A word of advice: calling an inhabitant of Durlach a "Karlsruher" is asking for trouble. From the Turmberg (tower hill), you have a nice view over the city and the Rhine valley.
 * Kombilösung. This controversial project refers to the combination of a tram tunnel in Kaiserstraße and a road tunnel in Kriegsstraße, allegedly the solution (Lösung) for public transport capacity problems in Karlsruhe. There is an information pavillon near the Staatstheater, and in the coming years there will be lots of construction in the city. Not a sight as such, but interesting for public transport geeks.
 * Durlach. Now a part of Karlsruhe, it is much older (first mentioned in the 12th century) than Karlsruhe itself and has a charming medieval town-center. It can be easily reached by tram 1 in a quarter of an hour. A word of advice: calling an inhabitant of Durlach a "Karlsruher" is asking for trouble. From the Turmberg (tower hill), you have a nice view over the city and the Rhine valley.
 * Kombilösung. This controversial project refers to the combination of a tram tunnel in Kaiserstraße and a road tunnel in Kriegsstraße, allegedly the solution (Lösung) for public transport capacity problems in Karlsruhe. There is an information pavillon near the Staatstheater, and in the coming years there will be lots of construction in the city. Not a sight as such, but interesting for public transport geeks.
 * Durlach. Now a part of Karlsruhe, it is much older (first mentioned in the 12th century) than Karlsruhe itself and has a charming medieval town-center. It can be easily reached by tram 1 in a quarter of an hour. A word of advice: calling an inhabitant of Durlach a "Karlsruher" is asking for trouble. From the Turmberg (tower hill), you have a nice view over the city and the Rhine valley.
 * Kombilösung. This controversial project refers to the combination of a tram tunnel in Kaiserstraße and a road tunnel in Kriegsstraße, allegedly the solution (Lösung) for public transport capacity problems in Karlsruhe. There is an information pavillon near the Staatstheater, and in the coming years there will be lots of construction in the city. Not a sight as such, but interesting for public transport geeks.

Do

 * There are various smaller theatres. A list can be found on the city homepage.
 * Football:
 * Cycling: The city has developed a 20 point plan to become the cycling city in Germany. Many bike lanes and good direction signs for cyclists are a visible mark. However, the activists of VCD and ADFC will be able to point out weaknesses and dangerous spots.
 * There are several man-made lakes in towns around (10–20 km) Karlsruhe, e.g. Epplesee in Rheinstetten (no BBQ allowed!) and in Weingarten and Untergrombach. Going by bike is a flat one-hour trip by bicycle, and swimming combined with a barbecue is a nice thing on a hot summer day.
 * There are several man-made lakes in towns around (10–20 km) Karlsruhe, e.g. Epplesee in Rheinstetten (no BBQ allowed!) and in Weingarten and Untergrombach. Going by bike is a flat one-hour trip by bicycle, and swimming combined with a barbecue is a nice thing on a hot summer day.

Cinemas
The Schauburg and the Kino im Prinz-Max-Palais are independent cinemas which occasional show movies in their original language. The other cinemas tend to stick to the usual German-dubbed fare.

Eat
What to eat (if you want to try something typical):
 * Flammkuchen: A thin pizza-like dish. The base is very thin and crispy and usually rectangular rather than circular. The traditional topping is cream cheese, onions, and bacon, but there are many variants.
 * Käsespätzle: A short German pasta in a heavy cheese sauce. Unlike in Swabia, Käsespätzle here is by default vegetarian.
 * Gebratene Maultaschen: similar to a large meat filled Ravioli.
 * Wurstsalat: A side dish of shredded sausages often made with mayonnaise and onions.
 * Hackepeter: Raw minced meat with fresh onions and bread. You don't get this very often (but for example at Vogelbräu).
 * Yufka Döner: A kind of döner but a wrap is used instead of proper bread. Sold in dozens of places it is probably the cheapest way to get a complete meal.

Budget
All these are in the city centre:



Drink
Like other cities in Germany, Karlsruhe has a few regional brands of beer, of which Hoepfner is the most famous. It is also worth exploring the microbreweries scattered around the city, such as the Vogelbräu, Wolf Brauerei and the Badische Brauhaus, all of which have seasonal specialities.



Buy
Most shops are located in the pedestrian zone in the Kaiserstraße. At Ludwigsplatz, near Kaiserstraße, there are various open-air cafes where the shopper can relax. Some of the more expensive boutiques and shoe shops are also located in this area.

In the south of the Marktplatz, at the end of the pedestrian zone, is a big shopping mall called "Ettlinger Tor". Definitely an alternative to the Kaiserstraße, especially when the weather is bad.

Stay safe
Karlsruhe is maybe one of the safest cities in Germany especially the centre of the town. There are a lot of police officers walking and driving around, mainly because of the important courts. Maybe some suburbs should be avoided at night (Oberreut, Neureut and Daxlanden (not really)), but otherwise, one will feel safe in this city.

Connect

 * Thalia - A bookstore in the main shopping street (Kaiserstraße 167) has some internet terminals in the uppermost floor
 * Gelbe Seiten  - This quite stylish bar/cafe close to Ettlinger Tor (Karl-Friedrich-Straße 22) has free WLAN, one internet computer; offers a nice selection of drinks&cocktails and some simple food.
 * Kaffee Schiller - Has free WLAN and a few computers to use. You also get good coffee, cakes and some simple (but good) food. Its close to the main shopping street and the university. (Kronenstr.30)
 * An extensive (but German) list of further locations can be found here.

Religious services

 * St. Stephan , Erbprinzenstr. 16. Sa 17:30; Su 09:00, 11:30, 19:00; M Th F 17:30, W 12:00. Confessions Sa 15:30-17:00.
 * Unsere Liebe Frau, Marienstr. 80 (from central station 800 m direction NE). Su 10:15; Tu 15:00; Th-F 18:30
 * St. Michael, Barbarossaplatz (from central station 1000 m direction west). Sa 18:00; Su 11:15, 16:00 (Croat.); Tu 08:00; W 07:45; Th 18:00
 * St. Elisabeth, Südendstraße 39 (from central station 1400 m direction NW). Su 09:45; Tu 18:00; W 07:45; Th 18:00
 * Deutschsprachiger Muslimkreis (German-speaking Muslim circle), Kaiserpassage 10 (from central station 1400 m direction center).
 * Chabad of Karlsruhe Jewish Synagogue and Center that holds services on Friday nights (varying times), Saturday mornings and on Jewish holidays 10:00.

Go next

 * Ettlingen &mdash; the neighboring town
 * Bertha Benz Memorial Route &mdash; follow the tracks of the world's first automobile journey (Mannheim - Pforzheim/Black Forest - Mannheim) back in 1888, leading right through Karlsruhe-Grötzingen
 * Baden-Baden
 * Heidelberg
 * Stuttgart
 * Freiburg
 * Paris &mdash; the French TGV high speed train gets you there in as little as 2 hours and 31 minutes