Pforzheim

Pforzheim is a town of 115,000 inhabitants in the state of Baden-W?rttemberg, south-west Germany at the gate to the Black Forest. It has an area of 98 km? and lies between the cities of Stuttgart and Karlsruhe at the confluence of three rivers (Enz, Nagold and W?rm) and marks the frontier between Baden and Schwaben.

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Pforzheim is the district (Kreis) capital of Enzkreis, despite being of no district itself, and is known for its jewelery and watchmaking industry.

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During World War II, ten days after the Bombing of Dresden in World War II, Pforzheim was bombed by the RAF at 7.30 pm local time. After the air raid, 83% of the town's buildings had been destroyed. Within 20 minutes of the start of the raid, a quarter of the town's population, 20,000 people, had been killed. The Allies' reasoning for the raid was the suspicion that the town contained armament factories. But the factories had been evacuated in 1944.

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After the war, the rubble from the destruction was heaped into a large pile on the outskirts of the town, as was done by other cities such as Stuttgart and Munich. A building called the "Wallberg" was erected as a concrete "cap" on the mountain of rubble, long since covered with earth and vegetation.

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Karlsruhe: Karlsruhe (population 282,595 in December 2003) is a city of Germany, in the Bundesland Baden-W?rttemberg, located near the French-German border....

Baden: There are several places in Europe called Baden:...

Schwaben: REDIRECT Swabia...