Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen is a municipality of almost 17,000 inhabitants located in the federal state of

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg ( ; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a states of Germany, German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million i ...

in the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen constituent states have a total population of over 84 ...

. It lies about 12 km north of

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( ; ; ; South Franconian German, South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, third-largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, after its capital Stuttgart a ...

and is the site of the northern campus of the research centre

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; ) is both a German public research university in Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, and a research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 when the University of Karlsruhe (), founde ...

(with the former Forschungsreaktor 2 (FR2). In the west, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen borders on the

Rhine River The Rhine ( ) is one of the major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Swiss-Austrian border. From Lake Cons ...

and in the east it is connected with the

Bundesstraße 36 ''Bundesstraße'' (, ), abbreviated ''B'', is the denotation for German and Austrian national highways. Germany Germany's ''Bundesstraßen'' network has a total length of about 40,000 km. German ''Bundesstraßen'' are labelled with rec ...

. The two villages that make up the incorporated municipality evolved from medieval villages specializing in freshwater fishing and farming. Today,

gravel Gravel () is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally on Earth as a result of sedimentation, sedimentary and erosion, erosive geological processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone. Gr ...

extraction for construction purposes is important to the local economy, as is the cultivation of white asparagus (

Spargel Asparagus (''Asparagus officinalis'') is a perennial flowering plant species in the genus ''Asparagus'' native to Eurasia. Widely cultivated as a vegetable crop, its young shoots are used as a spring vegetable. Description Asparagus is an h ...

). Because of its location in the Rhine valley, hot humid summers are the norm for Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen. Numerous public beaches exist on the shores of artificial lakes that have been formed by extensive gravel extraction. Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen has numerous active community associations and sports clubs such as most notably TG Eggenstein 1894 e.V.. Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen is also home to the Sportpark Fassbender, a noted

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

school and training facility.

Economy and Infrastructure

The most important economic factor for Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen is the

(KIT), which was formerly founded there in 1956 under the name Kernforschungszentrum Karlsruhe. This is why the municipality is currently the most important destination for commuters for people living in the nearby city of

. In addition, the municipality has had a balanced municipal budget for years and remains one of the region's plenty debt-free communities. Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen as part of

Karlsruhe (district) Karlsruhe is a ''Landkreis'' (district) in the northwest of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from north clockwise) Rhein-Neckar, Heilbronn, Enz, Calw, Rastatt, Germersheim, Rhein-Pfalz-Kreis and the district-free cit ...

has one of the lowest unemployment rates in all of

with an unemployment rate of approximately around 2.6%. An automobile and pedestrian ferry crossing across the Rhine River runs from Leopoldshafen to

Leimersheim Leimersheim is a municipality in the district of Germersheim, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. History In the early 18th century, there were two Jewish families living in Leimersheim, and by the early 19th century, there were ten families. By 1 ...

. The town is served by routes S1 and S11 of the

Karlsruhe Stadtbahn The Karlsruhe Stadtbahn is a German tram-train system combining Karlsruhe trams, tram lines in the city of Karlsruhe with railway lines in the surrounding countryside, serving the entire region of the middle upper Rhine valley and creating connec ...

, which is operated by the

Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft ''Albtal-Verkehrs-Gesellschaft'' ('Alb Valley Transport Company', AVG) is a railway company owned by the city of Karlsruhe that operates rail and bus services in the Karlsruhe area, southwest Germany. It is both a train operating company, as well ...

over the '' Hardtbahn''. Seven stops are served, at ''Eggenstein Süd'', ''Eggenstein Station'', ''Eggenstein Spöcker Weg'', ''Eggenstein Schweriner Strasse'', ''Leopoldshafen Viermorgen'', ''Leopoldshafen Leopoldstrasse'' and ''Leopoldshafen Frankfurter Strasse''.

References

External links

Official website

Leimersheim - Leopoldshafen ferry across Rhine RiverTG Eggenstein 1894 e.V.
Karlsruhe (district) {{Karlsruhedistrict-geo-stub