Its collections range from prehistory and early history to the Middle Ages and the 21st century.

Here they were open to the public as the Grand Ducal Collection of Antiquities and Ethnology in Karlsruhe.

After the Abdication of the Grand Duke of Baden Frederick II., the Karlsruhe Palace, located in the center of the baroque city complex, was taken over by the Baden state in 1918 and designated as the seat of a newly founded cultural history museum.

The exterior was faithfully reconstructed, while the interior was designed to meet the requirements of a modern museum.

The Baden State Museum was reopened in 1959 and the castle café opened in 1965.

From 1992, under the direction of Harald Siebenmorgen, all fifteen departments of the Baden State Museum were successively completely refurnished according to a concept based on contextualization and staging of the objects, most recently the "World Culture" department in 2013.

A high-calibre and closely timed special exhibition program, which was partly based on the newly concluded cooperation agreements with Tunisia, Algeria and other Mediterranean countries, attracted international attention.

At the end of April 2017, a diadem of Grand Duchess Hilda of Baden made of gold and platinum by the Baden court jeweler Schmidt-Staub around 1907 and set with 367 diamonds was stolen from a display case in the throne room on the second floor of the museum.

From 2027, the museum in Karlsruhe Palace will be closed for several years due to a general refurbishment.

To mark the 100th anniversary of its founding, the latest exhibition of the collection, Archaeology in Baden - Expothek¹, was opened in July 2019.

Here, registered users can have original objects presented to them by trained staff by prior appointment.