What Can the City of Karlsruhe Do to Address Demographic Change? A Legal Analysis

Our October installment of the interactive discussion series „Let’s Talk About Law“ is part of the symposium „Fewer—Older—More Diverse. Opportunities and Challenges for Our Society“ at the ZKM in Karlsruhe. In this session, we’ll examine demographic change from a perspective that is often overlooked: What legal options do cities and municipalities have to respond to an aging and increasingly diverse society?

In the interactive discussion series „Let’s Talk About Law“ says the host Alena Lagmöller with Prof. Dr. Winfried Kluth, Professor of Public Law at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and former judge at the Constitutional Court of Saxony-Anhalt and Heike Dederer-Schöberl, Head of the City Planning Department in Karlsruhe, about the legal possibilities and challenges for Karlsruhe.

We are already seeing rapid demographic change, which will continue in the coming years: While the population is shrinking in some regions, other municipalities—such as Karlsruhe—continue to grow—and are becoming more diverse at the same time. This raises specific questions for urban development: How can housing, care services, mobility, schools, and other infrastructure be designed to be sustainable for the future? What responsibilities fall to local governments, where do state and federal governments come into play—and what legal tools are available to a city like Karlsruhe to actively shape its development? The audience is cordially invited to join the discussion and contribute their own questions to the conversation.

About the Symposium

The city of Karlsruhe has particular expertise in the fields of technical sciences, law, and culture. The „Forum for Culture, Law, and Technology e.V.“ has set itself the goal of advancing public discourse on the future of our society in these areas. Held annually for the past 20 years, the symposium brings together representatives from academia, professional practice, culture, business, and the legal field to discuss current challenges and future issues from an interdisciplinary perspective. This year, the Forum Recht Foundation is a co-organizer for the first time. The event serves as the interactive conclusion to the symposium.

To the Final program and information about the symposium. 

About the Event Series

Since 2025, the Forum Recht Foundation has been regularly hosting the „Let’s Talk About Recht“ discussion series at its venues in Karlsruhe and Leipzig. The guests are prominent figures from various fields of law who discuss their day-to-day work and share their perspectives on current legal topics—ranging from labor law and tenancy law to freedom of speech. The discussions are recorded and subsequently released as a live-on-tape podcast.

Learn more about the event series here.

You can listen to the conversation on the "Live-on-Tape" podcast here, two weeks after the event. All previous episodes are already available online.

Service

Admission is free. No registration is required. For information on the venue’s accessibility, please contact the ZKM.

Location: ZKM, Center for Art and Media, Media Theater, Lorenzstraße 19, 76135 Karlsruhe

Share your experiences and questions! Join the discussion now on current legal topics from the series at the Participation platform of the Forum Recht Foundation.

Partners: Symposium organized by the Karlsruhe Forum for Culture, Law, and Technology (e.V.) in cooperation with the Forum Recht Foundation, the ZKM Karlsruhe, and the KIT Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis