Quicknation    Germany Hesse

Images of Hesse: G Y AOL AV MSN News of Hesse: G Y Books of Hesse: B

Hesse

Situated in western-central Germany, Hessen borders on (from the north-west and clockwise) the German states of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lower Saxony, Thuringia, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. Its principal cities include Frankfurt am Main, Wiesbaden, Darmstadt, Kassel, Gießen, Marburg, Wetzlar, Offenbach and Fulda.

The main rivers in the northern part of Hessen are Fulda and Lahn. It is a hilly countryside, the main mountain chains being the Rhön, the Westerwald, the Taunus and the Spessart.

Most inhabitants live in the southernmost part of Hesse between the rivers Main and Rhine. The latter one borders Hessen on the southwest without running through the state. The mountain chain between Main and Rhine is called the Odenwald.

See also List of places in Hessen.

Hessen is divided into 21 districts and five independent cities:

In the early Middle Ages, Hesse was a part of Thuringia, but in the War of the Thuringian Succession (1247-64) Hesse gained its independence and became an earldom within the Holy Roman Empire. The state existed until the death of Philipp I of Hesse in 1567. Despite his earlier intentions, it was split up among his four sons from his first marriage (Philipp was a bigamist) into much smaller states: Hessen-Kassel, Hesse-Darmstadt, Hessen-Rheinfels and the also previously existing Hessen-Marburg. As the latter two lines died out quite soon (1583 and 1605, respectively), Hessen-Kassel ("Northern Hessen") and Hessen-Darmstadt ("Southern Hessen") were the two core states within the Hessian lands. Several collateral lines split off during the centuries, such as in 1622, when Hesse-Homburg split off from Hessen-Darmstadt.

Hessen-Kassel was called the Electorate of Hessen from 1803 on, although since the end of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, there was no more emperor to elect anymore. In 1866 it was annexed by Prussia, together with the Free City of Frankfurt, Hessen-Homburg and the duchy of Nassau, which established the province of Hessen-Nassau.

Hessen-Darmstadt was called the Grand Duchy of Hessen from 1806 on. It managed to defend its autonomy after the War of 1866, when it had backed the defeated Austrian side, because a greater part of the country was situated south of the Main river and Prussia did not dare to expand beyond the Main line as this might have provoked France. But the parts of Hessen-Darmstadt north of the Main river (the region around the town of Gießen, the socalled Oberhessen) were incorporated in the Norddeutscher Bund, a tight confederation of German states, established by Prussia in 1867 as a forerunner of the second Reich from 1871.

With the revolution of 1918 Hessen-Darmstadt became a republic, calling itself officially the "Volksstaat Hessen" (people's state Hessen). The parts of Hessen-Darmstadt on the left bank of the Rhine (province Rheinhessen) were occupied by french troops until 1930 under the terms of the Versailles peace treaty that officially ended WWI in 1919.

After WWII the Hessian territory left of the rhine again was occupied by France, whereas the rest of the country was part of the US occupation zone. The French separated their part of Hessen from the rest of the country and incorporated it in the newly founded state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz). The US on the other side already in 1945 formed the state of Groß-Hessen (Greater Hesse) out of Hessen-Darmstadt, the former Prussian province Hessen-Nassau und the city of Frankfurt! On the 4th of December 1946 Groß-Hessen was officially renamed Hessen.

After World War II in 1945, the state of Hessen was established within the United States occupation zone. It combined the former state of Hessen(-Darmstadt) and the Prussian province of Hessentory along the lower Lahn River, which became a part of Rhineland-Palatinate).

See also Rulers of Hessen.

in English; the English name for the state was taken from French. An inhabitant of the state is a i

The death penalty is still mentioned under the constitution of Hesse, as the Hessian constitution was passed in 1946, when the death penalty still was part of the German penal code (and carried out as well). Because the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949 provides the abolition of the death penalty and because of the supremacy of the Basic Law, the constitutional articles still mentioning the death penalty are of course obsolete in Hesse as well and no more than just a relic of overcome law without a trace of practical significance.