Erlangen, located in Franconia only 20km north of Nuremberg, is one out of ten German cities called „Huguenot cities“. The Huguenot refugees from France arrived in Erlangen in 1686 and founded a new baroque city beside the old town of Erlangen. Although not everything was easy in the beginning, however, over the years Erlangen had a huge benefit from the settlement of the French protestants. This is why the city‘s motto has been for more than 40 years: „Open minded by tradition“.

In 1742, the Friedrich-Alexander-University was founded in Erlangen. Today, with almost 40.000 students, the university is among the ten biggest universities in Germany and has a major influence on today‘s city life.

After World War II, the Siemens company took an offer of the local administration and made Erlangen one of the companie‘s headquaters. Today, more than 40.000 employees work for Siemens in Erlangen.

So all these things added up led to a young, vital and international city with 114.000 inhabitants from over 140 nations. Erlangen stands for a clear commitment in favor of immigration, integration and against any kind of discrimination or racism. Therefore the city council established an office for equal opportunityies and diversity in 2015.