The composers and educators Eugen Werner Velte and Wolfgang Rihm as well as alumni whose music is presented here demonstrate the characteristics of a school. The main function of an institution such as the University of Music Karlsruhe is first and foremost as a site for studies and second, a place for individual composition and pedagogic work. The Karlsruhe School is in no way a forced stylistic unit stubbornly passed along simultaneously as a solidified traditional framework. For 50 years, the University of Music Karlsruhe has radiated as a living, recreative phenomenon of this artistic freedom, extending far into a shared future. In the music of alumni taught by Wolfgang Rihm, ideals of musical freedom and openness continue to resound in concrete form. Jörg Widmann, Rebecca Saunders and Markus Hechtle, among others, contribute to the further development of the unique Karlsruhe School at their professional homes.