From the Idea to the Foundation

The establishment of the Forum Recht Foundation is the result of years of development that was shaped and supported by numerous stakeholders. The origins go back to Karlsruhe's application to be the European Capital of Culture in 2010. One of the flagship projects within the application was a “European House of Justice.” At the same time a special initiative group was established to further pursue this idea, the construction of a building for holding discussions and disseminating information located on the grounds of the Federal Court of Justice (Bundesgerichtshof) was under consideration. 

As a first important step, the German Bundestag (German federal parliament) approved funds in 2016 for the preparation of a feasibility study, which was followed by two specialist symposia in 2018 to examine the content and structural requirements in more detail. The results of all preliminary studies ultimately formed the basis for the adoption of the Foundation Act on May 13, 2019, by the German Bundestag, which calls for the establishment of an additional site in Leipzig in addition to the one in Karlsruhe. 

In 2018, the original initiative group in Karlsruhe gave rise to the Förderverein Forum Recht e.V. (Friends of the Forum Recht), which supports the development at both locations. You can find more information about the Förderverein Forum Recht e.V. here (in German).