Federal Constitutional Court

The Baumgarten-Bau (lit. 'Baumgarten Building') in Karlsruhe serves as the official seat of the Federal Constitutional Court. Built from 1965 to 1969 in the Botanical Garden of Schlossgarten, this building complex was originally composed of five pavilion-like structures with flat roofs, arranged around a long connecting corridor. Architect Paul Baumgarten created the original plans. The total floor area of the Baumgarten-Bau is approximately 16,000 square meters. The individual components of the building differ in height and have only a few stories. The glass and steel facade of the building gives it a plain and sober aesthetic and is attributed to the Modernist style. The Baumgarten-Bau became the official residence of the court in May 1969, replacing the Prinz-Max-Palais, which served as the official residence between 1951 and 1969 until it became inadequate for the growing need for space. The ensemble of buildings is designated as a cultural monument of special significance. From 2005 to 2007, an extension was added to the complex in the southwest, expanding it from five to six buildings. During extensive renovation work from 2011 to 2014, the Federal Constitutional Court temporarily relocated its official seat to the Oststadt district of Karlsruhe. In 2021, around 260 people were working in this building.

The Botanischer Garten Karlsruhe is a municipal botanical garden located in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. This garden should not be confused with the nearby Botanischer Garten der Universität Karlsruhe operated by the University of Karlsruhe. The garden was established by Charles III William, Margrave of Baden-Durlach and designed by Karl Christian Gmelin. Between 1853 and 1857, three plant houses were created by architect Heinrich Hübsch. The buildings were severely damaged or destroyed in World War II, but reconstructed as follows: camellia and flower house, rebuilt 1952 for cactus and succulent exhibition; palm house, rebuilt 1955 to 1956; tropical house, restored in the 1950s. The plant houses are open daily except Monday; an admission fee is charged. The grounds contain several rare trees from the 19th century amid newer plantings.

The Staatliche Kunsthalle (State Art Gallery) is an art museum in Karlsruhe, Germany. The museum, created by architect Heinrich Hübsch, opened in 1846 after nine years of work in a neoclassical building next to the Karlsruhe Castle and the Karlsruhe Botanical Garden. This historical building with its subsequent extensions now houses the part of the collection covering the 14th to the 19th century while the 20th century is displayed in the nearby building of the Botanical Gardens's former orangery. The museum notably displays paintings by the Master of the Karlsruhe Passion, Matthias Grünewald (most notably the Tauberbischofsheim Altarpiece), Albrecht Dürer, Hans Baldung, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Burgkmair, Rembrandt, Pieter de Hooch, Peter Paul Rubens, David Teniers the Younger, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Claude Lorrain, Nicolas Poussin, Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin, Eugène Delacroix, Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Caspar David Friedrich, Hans Thoma, Lovis Corinth, August Macke, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel, Franz Marc, Jean-Marc Nattier, Max Pechstein, Max Ernst, Kurt Schwitters, Juan Gris, Yves Tanguy, Robert Delaunay, Otto Dix and Fritz von Uhde.

Karlsruhe Palace (German: Karlsruher Schloss) was built in 1715 for Margrave Charles III William of Baden-Durlach after a dispute with the citizens of his previous capital, Durlach. The city of Karlsruhe has since grown around it. The building is now home to the main museum of the Badisches Landesmuseum.

The Baden State Museum (German: Badisches Landesmuseum) in Karlsruhe is the large cultural, art and regional history museum of the Baden region of Baden-Württemberg . With its globally significant collections, representing more than 50,000 years of international cultural history, it conveys history and historical living environments. Its collections range from prehistory and early history to the Middle Ages and the 21st century. The museum was founded in 1919 and opened in 1921 in the rooms of Karlsruhe Palace.

The Karlsruhe Schlossgarten (engl. palace garden), also called Schlosspark (engl. palace park), is a landscape park situated north of the Karlsruhe Palace in the center of Karlsruhe. It represents an extension of the palace grounds to the north, serves the people as a local holiday spot and is regularly used for events.

The Karlsruhe tramway network (German: Straßenbahnnetz Karlsruhe) is a network of tramways forming part of the public transport system in Karlsruhe, a city in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Opened in 1877, the network has been operated since 1997 by Verkehrsbetriebe Karlsruhe GmbH (VBK), a company owned by the city of Karlsruhe. The city itself was the tram network's operator between 1903 and 1997.

Karlsruhe ( KARLZ-roo-ə, US also KARLSS-, German: [ˈkaʁlsˌʁuːə] (listen); South Franconian: Kallsruh) is the third-largest city of the German state (Land) of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart, and Mannheim, and the 21st-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. It is also a former capital of Baden, a historic region named after Hohenbaden Castle in the city of Baden-Baden. Located on the right bank of the Rhine near the French border, between the Mannheim/Ludwigshafen conurbation to the north and Strasbourg/Kehl to the south, Karlsruhe is Germany's legal center, being home to the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) and the Public Prosecutor General of the Federal Court of Justice (Generalbundesanwalt beim Bundesgerichtshof). Karlsruhe was the capital of the Margraviate of Baden-Durlach (Durlach: 1565–1718; Karlsruhe: 1718–1771), the Margraviate of Baden (1771–1803), the Electorate of Baden (1803–1806), the Grand Duchy of Baden (1806–1918), and the Republic of Baden (1918–1945). Its most remarkable building is Karlsruhe Palace, which was built in 1715. There are nine institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie). Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden Airport (Flughafen Karlsruhe/Baden-Baden) is the second-busiest airport of Baden-Württemberg after Stuttgart Airport, and the 17th-busiest airport of Germany.

The Karlsruhe Pyramid is a pyramid made of red sandstone, located in the centre of the market square of Karlsruhe, Germany. It was erected in the years 1823–1825 over the vault of the city's founder, Margrave Charles III William (1679–1738). The pyramid is regarded as Karlsruhe's second emblem, the city's absolutist layout in the shape of a folding fan being the first. The pyramid's central location was originally occupied by the Lutheran Concord Church, a Baroque timber-framed building. When Karlsruhe grew at the beginning of the 19th century, the church became too small and obstructed the southward expansion of the city and its market square. It was demolished in 1807, and initially a wooden pyramid was erected over the city founder's vault as a temporary measure before moving it into the new main church. Due to lack of resources this plan could not be realised, and 16 years later architect Friedrich Weinbrenner designed the neoclassical stone monument as a permanent replacement for the old church. It has a square footprint and an exterior height of 6.5 metres (21 ft). The interior can be entered through a small square opening, but is only accessible with consent of its former owners (until 1940), the House of Baden. It consists of a vertical sequence of three chambers, the lowest of which is the original burial vault. The city's foundation stone is also located inside the pyramid. The monument is an example of Egyptian Revival architecture, inspired by the burial function of Egyptian pyramids and by similar buildings of the Napoleonic era. The pyramid was not affected by the extensive bombings in the Second World War.

The Grand Duchy of Baden (German: Großherzogtum Baden) was a state in the southwest German Empire on the east bank of the Rhine. It existed between 1806 and 1918.It came into existence in the 12th century as the Margraviate of Baden and subsequently split into the states of Baden-Durlach and Baden-Baden, which were reunified in 1771. It then became the much-enlarged Grand Duchy of Baden after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire from 1803 to 1806 and was a sovereign country until it joined the German Empire in 1871. In 1918, it became part of the Weimar Republic as the Republic of Baden. Baden was bordered to the north by the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Grand Duchy of Hessen-Darmstadt; to the west, along most of its length, by the river Rhine, which separated Baden from the Bavarian Rhenish Palatinate and Alsace in modern France; to the south by Switzerland; and to the east by the Kingdom of Württemberg, the Principality of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen and Bavaria. After World War II, the French military government in 1945 created the state of Baden (originally known as "South Baden") out of the southern half of the former Baden, with Freiburg as its capital. This portion of the former Baden was declared in its 1947 constitution to be the true successor of the old Baden. The northern half of the old Baden was combined with northern Württemberg, becoming part of the American military zone, and formed the state of Württemberg-Baden. Both Baden and Württemberg-Baden became states of West Germany upon its formation in 1949. In 1952 Baden merged with Württemberg-Baden and Württemberg-Hohenzollern (southern Württemberg and the former Prussian exclave of Hohenzollern) to form Baden-Württemberg. This is the only merger of states that has taken place in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. The unofficial anthem of Baden is called "Badnerlied" (Song of the People of Baden) and consists of four or five traditional verses. However, over the years, many more verses have been added – there are collections with up to 591 verses of the anthem.

The Baden State Library (German: Badische Landesbibliothek, BLB) is a large universal library in Karlsruhe. Together with the Württembergische Landesbibliothek, the BLB is the legal deposit and regional library for Baden-Württemberg.

The State Museum of Natural History Karlsruhe (German: Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Karlsruhe), abbreviated SMNK, is one of the two state of Baden-Württemberg's natural history museums. Together with the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart) it is one of the most important repositories for state-owned natural history collections. It is well known for its exhibitions on all aspects of natural history in the city of Karlsruhe and beyond. Every year, the SMNK is visited by about 150,000 people. Research at the museum mainly deals with various fields of natural history i.e. geology, paleontology, taxonomy, biogeography, and ecology. The SMNK is part of the national networks German Natural History Research Collections (DNFS), the Humboldt-Ring (Association of Research Museums) and of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). The SMNK looks back at a long history as it emerged from the cabinet of natural history of Landgravine Caroline Louise of Hesse-Darmstadt during the mid 18th century.