Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe is a city in the state of Baden-Württemberg in southwestern Germany, on the plain of the Upper Rhine near the French border. Its streets spread out like the ribs of a fan from the palace tower, a plan that gave it the name Fan City.

Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach founded the city in 1715 around a new palace in the forest, and the name means Charles's rest. Karlsruhe was the capital of Baden until the 20th century, and the architect Friedrich Weinbrenner gave its center many neoclassical buildings and squares in the early 19th century. Karl Drais, who built the first two-wheeled running machine, and Carl Benz, who built the first practical motorcar, were both born in the city. At the technical university, now the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Heinrich Hertz proved the existence of electromagnetic waves in the 1880s.

Karlsruhe is the home of dm-drogerie markt, the drugstore chain, which has its head office in the city. EnBW, the energy company of Baden-Württemberg, is also based in the city. Majolika, a ceramics workshop founded by the grand duke, still makes painted pottery and tiles in the palace gardens.

Karlsruhe Palace, with its tower at the center of the fan, holds the Baden State Museum of art and history. The ZKM, the Center for Art and Media, shows digital and media art in a large former factory hall. The Botanical Garden beside the palace keeps greenhouses of tropical plants. The Turmberg, a hill in the Durlach district, is reached by a funicular railway that has run since the 1880s.