Karlsruhe as Digital Pioneer

Thriving Digital Industry

While many cities have only discovered digitalization in recent years, Karlsruhe was an early pioneer in this area: the term „informatics“ was coined here as early as 1957; and in 1972 the University of Karlsruhe (TH) founded the country’s first Faculty of Computer Science, where Germany’s first email was received twelve years later.

From that point on, digitalization took on a central role within the Karlsruhe region, which is now one of the world’s leading centres of innovation. With over 4,800 companies and more than 30,000 employees, the digital industry is one of the strongest economic factors in the region – and generates over 45 percent of the city of Karlsruhe’s business tax revenue. Regardless of whether you are a mobility start-up, a medium-sized cyber security provider or a listed communications group – Karlsruhe offers ideal conditions for companies of all sizes. In recent years, the region has in particular made a name for itself internationally, in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) – as one of the few places where not only basic research and development takes place, but where new technologies are also used in everyday life.

Karlsruhe is a place of opportunities. The networking of business, science, culture and public administration, which has grown over the years – and is unique in Germany – has made a decisive contribution to this. This model of the initiative karlsruhe.digital, known as the “Karlsruhe principle of short distances”, guarantees a regular exchange between all those who are jointly pursuing the same goal: to further develop Karlsruhe as the driving force of digitalization.

For many years, Karlsruhe has been bringing together stakeholders, institutions and facilities that are active across industries in the areas of start-up advice and support. The renowned universities and non-university research institutions that are based in the region give rise to young talents who either found start-ups or bring their know-how to local companies. Strong regional networks connect trainees and students with experienced managers.

Against this background, a number of leading European providers of software solutions, data centers and IT services have emerged in Karlsruhe over the past few decades. Many of the start-ups founded in the local IT ecosystem are now among the big players in their respective industries.

Smart City

Regardless of whether it is in the field of mobility, public administration, infrastructure or energy – as a digital, networked city, Karlsruhe is always at the forefront. In 2020, Karlsruhe took first place in Germany in the “Digital Administration” category of the Bitkom Smart City Index and proved itself to be the city with Europe’s smartest cultural tourism in the “Cultural Heritage and Creativity“ category of the “Capital of Smart Tourism 2020” competition. Furthermore, Karlsruhe was the only city in Germany to be selected by the World Economic Forum as a Pioneer City of the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance. The core idea of this alliance is to reconcile sustainability and growth in the world’s major cities through smart solutions.

And that is exactly what Karlsruhe does. To this end, the city is pursuing a number of holistic development concepts in order to make the region more efficient, more technologically advanced and greener. It starts with topics such as smart traffic control and parking space organization. In addition, Karlsruhe’s citizens have access to the services of the city administration at the self-service terminals of the digital citizens’ office – easily, quickly and with the highest level of data security. And those who visit the fan-shaped city can use the digital tourist information to virtually explore cultural attraction and excursion destinations.

Fast, public internet access isn’t an issue in large parts of the city because the public Wi-Fi KA-WLAN can be used free of charge, unlimited and encrypted after a one-time registration. In addition, Karlsruhe is constantly expanding the broadband and fiber optic network in the region in order to meet the rapidly increasing demand for data bandwidth.

Another milestone on the way to becoming a Smart City is the multifunctional Karlsruhe.App for citizens. It combines municipal citizen services and services from commercial providers – for example from the mobility sector – in a single, customizable application.