FKK Flamingo Island Ettlingen/Karlsruhe (D)

Ettlingen

Name origin

Ediningom (place name) --> civitas Ettenigen

First documented mention

788 AD

Population

39,000

Area

56.74 km²

Federal state

Baden-Württemberg

Administrative region

Karlsruhe

District

Karlsruhe

Vehicle registration

KA

River

Alb

The club FKK Flamingo Island is located in Ettlingen, west of the town centre.

In the early Middle Ages, Ettlingen belonged to the Duchy of Franconia; at the latest by 973 the Weißenburg monastery was granted market rights for the settlement. It was subsequently raised to town status, presumably in 1192 by Emperor Heinrich VI., and even at that time fell under the jurisdiction of the Margraves of Baden. In the mid-13th century a first castle complex was built; in the 16th century it was converted into a Renaissance palace. During the War of the Palatine Succession, the palace was almost completely burned down by troops of the French King Ludwig XIV; from 1727 Margravine Augusta Sibylla had the present-day Baroque palace built as her widow's residence. Today, with its famous Asamsaal, it is the main sight to see in Ettlingen. Its Baroque inner courtyard also hosts the Schlossfestspiele Ettlingen every year from July to August, an open-air theatre festival held by the town of Ettlingen with more than 100 events.

In its present form, Ettlingen has consisted since the early 1970s of the core town and the districts of Bruchhausen, Ettlingenweier, Oberweier, Schluttenbach, Schöllbronn and Spessart. To the north, the town borders directly on Karlsruhe, the former Baroque residential town of the Margraviate of Baden, and lies at the transition from the Rhine plain into the northern Black Forest, forming part of the Albtal.

In the past, Ettlingen was known for its paper mills. Today, following its takeover of the Ettlingen firm Schneidersöhne, the Swedish paper group Papyrus has its headquarters in Ettlingen and is the town's largest employer. Other well-known companies in Ettlingen include the textile leasing company Bardusch, the information technology company IDS GmbH, Abbott Medical Optics Germany GmbH and the walter TeleMedien Group. Ettlingen was also home to FlowTex Technologie GmbH & Co. KG, a company that fraudulently traded in horizontal drilling machines used for laying underground pipelines and, between 1994 and 1999, was responsible for what was up to then the most serious case of economic crime in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany.